Folly

An upper-class Boston woman struggles through a life constrained by duty in this "dazzling" historical novel by a prize-winning author (Chicago Tribune).

Born into an affluent New England family at the turn of the twentieth century, Lillian Eliot engages in the coming-of-age rituals traditional of her social status. But when she meets Walter Vail, a charming and spontaneous New Yorker, her world is opened to new possibilities. As the Great War erupts, Walter leaves for Europe and marries another woman, and Lillian marries Gilbert Finch, an innocuous bachelor within her social circle. As the years pass, Lillian acquiesces to a life devoid of passion until, one day, Walter returns.

In the tradition of Edith Wharton and E.M. Forster, Susan Minot brings to vivid life the world of the early twentieth century and the story of a woman searching for love despite society's constraints.