{"product_id":"2026200011081-secondhand-the-reef","title":"The Reef","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003eCondition: Good to fair. Paperback. Page Condition: Good - possible tanning. Markings: possible previous owner inscription.   \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFirst published in 1912, The Reef stands as one of Edith Wharton's most psychologically intricate novels, set against the refined backdrop of Edwardian Europe. The narrative chronicles the tangled emotional lives of George Darrow, an American diplomat, and Anna Leath, a widow he hopes to marry, whose plans are irrevocably disrupted when a chance encounter with a young woman named Sophy Viner sets a chain of devastating consequences into motion. Wharton constructs her story with the precision of a tragedian, dissecting the rigid social codes and unspoken moral hypocrisies that governed upper-class society on both sides of the Atlantic. Written under the acknowledged influence of Henry James, the novel presents a tightly wound drama of desire, betrayal, and self-deception told with Wharton's signature cool authority and piercing social intelligence. The Reef remains a compelling meditation on the cost of dishonesty and the impossible standards to which women of the era were held.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48956219785435,"sku":"2026200011081-SECONDHAND","price":10.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/e954d989-266f-4c0a-8ccd-8a94791190e1.png?v=1783499121","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026200011081-secondhand-the-reef","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}