11 h 16 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the son you want to protect feels duty calling him toward the danger you fear most?
Paris, summer 1914. John Campton, an American portrait painter, believes he can keep his son George safe. But as war comes to France, George feels its pull. In Edith Wharton's A Son at the Front, a father's fierce love meets a young man's sense of duty.
George's mother, Julia Brant, shares Campton's fear. Her wealthy second husband, Anderson Brant, has money and connections that may help protect the boy. As their divided family draws together, Paris changes around them. Letters, lists and rumors shape the lives of those who wait, while Campton struggles with what he owes his country, his art and his son.
What you’ll discover
- A father's fierce love Stay close to Campton's thoughts as pride, tenderness and self-doubt complicate his wish to protect George.
- A family under pressure Meet former spouses drawn together by fear, despite the different worlds they now inhabit.
- Paris as war begins Watch a familiar city change through Wharton's close attention to life on the home front.
- The weight of waiting Feel how letters, lists and rumors bring a distant war into the lives of families.
- Duty beyond the self Discover George's sense of duty and Adele Anthony's quiet example through her wartime relief work.
Who will love it
For readers who love quiet, observant fiction about families under pressure, and anyone curious about Paris during the First World War. Lovers of character studies will find a father’s love, pride and sense of duty at the heart of the story.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A painter and his son in Paris
- A divorced family and a rich stepfather
- Paris changes as the war begins
- A father tries to keep his son safe
- What the war does to those left behind
- A war novel told from the home front
Who’s who
- John CamptonAn American portrait painter in Paris, proud and moody, who loves his son above all and tries to keep him from danger.
- George CamptonCampton's young son, easygoing and liked by all, who has his own sense of duty as war comes to France.
- Julia BrantGeorge's mother and Campton's former wife, who has remarried and shares his fear for the boy while living in a very different world.
- Anderson BrantJulia's second husband, a rich and correct banker whose money and connections matter when the family looks for ways to protect George.
- Adele AnthonyA spirited friend of Campton's who gives herself to wartime relief work and quietly shows him what service looks like.
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Un fils au front
by Edith Wharton · 1923
As war comes to Paris, painter John Campton tries to protect his son George while facing his own pride and duty.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
A painter and his son in Paris
The story opens in Paris in the summer of 1914. John Campton is an American painter who has worked in France for many years. He has a name as a portraitist, though he feels his best work is still ahead of him. He is touchy, self-absorbed and easily stung, yet nothing in his life matters to him as much as his son.
That son is George, a young man who is easygoing and well liked. Campton is divorced, and George has grown up between two worlds. One is his father's untidy studio life. The other is the comfortable household of his mother. Campton has never quite made peace with that split, and he treasures every hour he gets with the boy.
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What is A Son at the Front about?
It follows John Campton, an American painter in Paris, as the First World War begins. He tries to protect his son George from the fighting, and the novel shows how the war presses on the families left at home.
When was A Son at the Front written?
Edith Wharton published it in 1923, a few years after the war ended. She had lived in Paris through the war years and worked for refugees, so she wrote from close observation of the city.
Is A Son at the Front a true story?
No, the characters and plot are invented. The setting is real, though, since Wharton drew on her own wartime life in Paris and on what she saw of how the war changed the city and its people.
The author
Edith Wharton
1862–1937 · American novelist
Edith Wharton (1862–1937) was an American writer and designer born in New York City. She later lived in France, where she died. Her books include The House of Mirth (1905), Ethan Frome (1911), and The Age of Innocence (1920). She co-wrote The Decoration of Houses with Ogden Codman Jr. in 1897.
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