"As Wharton tells [the] story, the sharp irony of both her prose and her characters bleeds into pools of true feeling." Kirkus Reviews

"There are only three or four American novelists who can be thought of as 'major' and Edith Wharton is one." Gore Vidal

Set in the 1920s, The Glimpses of the Moon details the romantic misadventures of Nick Lansing and Susy Branch, a couple with the right connections but not much in the way of funds.

They devise a shrewd bargain: they'll marry and spend a year or so sponging off their wealthy friends, honeymooning in their mansions and villas.

As Susy explains, "We should really, in a way, help more than we should hamper each other. We both know the ropes so well; what one of us didn't see the other mightin the way of opportunities, I mean.

And then we should be a novelty as married people. We're both rather unusually popular  why not be frank?and it's such a blessing for dinner-givers to be able to count on a couple of whom neither one is a blank."

The other part of the plan is that if either one of them meets someone who can advance them socially, they're each free to dissolve the marriage. How their plan unfolds is a comedy of Eros that will charm all fans of Wharton's work.