Del Norte Public Library

Twenty-five-year-old Katey Kontent, having met banker Tinker Grey while hanging out at a Greenwich Village jazz bar, finds her way into the upper echelons of New York society, and, as she makes new friends and waits for circumstances to bring Tinker back into her life, she begins to realize she regrets some of the choices she has made.

Set among the elegant brownstones of New York City and opulent country houses like gracious Bellomont on the Hudson, the novel creates a satiric portrayal of what Wharton herself called "a society of irresponsible pleasure-seekers" with a precision comparable to that of Proust. And her brilliant and complex characterization of the doomed Lily Bart, whose stunning beauty and dependence on marriage for economic survival reduce her to a decorative object,...

"Highly acclaimed at its publication in 1913, The Custom of the Country is a cutting commentary on America's nouveaux riches, their upward-yearning aspirations and their eventual downfalls. Through her heroine, the beautiful and ruthless Undine Spragg, a spoiled heiress who looks to her next materialistic triumph as her latest conquest throws himself at her feet, Edith Wharton presents a startling, satiric vision of social behavior in all its greedy...

From one of America's greatest men of letters, our sublime master of manners, comes his novel, Her Infinite Variety. Louis Auchincloss has been called "our most astute observer of moral paradox among the affluent" (Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.), and his fiction described as that which "has always examined what makes life worth living" (Washington Post Book World). Now he brings us the rollicking tale of an unforgettable woman of mid-twentieth century America:...

Paul Ross accepts a job working on the legal team for his billionaire father-in-law's hedge fund and must determine where his loyalties lie when a scandal and a regulatory investigation threaten the family business.

"El gran Gatsby es un retarto de la Jazz Age que captura el espírtu de la generaciÃçn de Scott Fitzgerald y le concede un trono permanente en el Olimpo de la literature norteamericana. El millonario hecho a sí mismo., Jay Gatsby, personaliza una de las obsesiones del autor y de la sociedad de su país: la combinaciÃçn de dinero, ambiciÃçn y lujuria como promesa de nuevos comienzos. Una extraordinaria fábula--y como tal, no exenta...

"New York, 1898. The only thing more shocking than Arthur Stanhope III's unexpected death is the revelation that his will bestows his company -- and most of the vast fortune that goes with it -- to the nearest male heir, leaving his mother, wife, and daughter nearly impoverished. His widow, Sylvia, quickly realizes she must set aside her grief to ensure their daughter, Adelaide, is launched into society as soon as the appropriate mourning period passes....

After bidding good-bye to New York's brightest star, Elizabeth Holland, rumors continue to fly about her untimely demise. All eyes are on those closest to the dearly departed: her mischievous sister, Diana, now the family's only hope for redemption; New York's most notorious cad, Henry Schoon-maker, the flame Elizabeth never extinguished; the seductive Penelope Hayes, poised to claim all that her best friend left behind, including Henry; even Elizabeth's...

In Manhattan in 1899, five teens of different social classes lead dangerously scandalous lives, despite the strict rules of society and the best-laid plans of parents and others.

Two months after Elizabeth Holland's dramatic return to Manhattan she still hasn't reunited with her sister Diana, the newlyweds Henry and Penelope Schoonmaker are the toast of the town but privately despise each other, and the social-climbing heiress Carolina Broad finds both her fortune and her position in danger.