The Age of Desire

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For fans of _The Paris Wife_ , a sparkling glimpse into the life of Edith

Wharton and the scandalous love affair that threatened her closest friendship

They say behind every great man is a woman. Behind Edith Wharton, there was

Anna Bahlmann—her governess turned literary secretary, and her mothering,

nurturing friend.

When at the age of forty-five, Edith falls passionately in love with a dashing

younger journalist, Morton Fullerton, and is at last opened to the world of

the sensual, it threatens everything certain in her life but especially her

abiding friendship with Anna. As Edith’s marriage crumbles and Anna’s

disapproval threatens to shatter their lifelong bond, the women must face the

fragility at the heart of all friendships.

Told through the points of view of both women, _The Age of Desire_ takes us on

a vivid journey through Wharton’s early Gilded Age world: Paris with its

glamorous literary salons and dark secret cafés, the Whartons’ elegant house

in Lenox, Massachusetts, and Henry James’s manse in Rye, England.

Edith’s real letters and intimate diary entries are woven throughout the book.

_The Age of Desire_ brings to life one of literature’s most beloved writers,

whose own story was as complex and nuanced as that of any of the heroines she

created.