9 h 27 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 9 h 27 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if your marriage comes with a promise to step aside when someone richer appears?
Susy and Nick Lansing have charm, rich friends, and almost no money. In Edith Wharton's The Glimpses of the Moon, they marry on a clever bargain: either may leave if a wealthier match offers a better life. For now, borrowed houses and generous hosts give them a honeymoon they cannot afford on their own.
But a villa in Italy cannot answer the question waiting beyond the honeymoon: how will they live? As real feeling meets temptation, comfort begins to carry a price. Wharton follows Susy and Nick through a world of invitations, favors, and obligations, where private choices bend under the pressure of money and a practical promise puts love at risk.
What you’ll discover
- A bargain under pressure Watch a seemingly sensible agreement become harder to keep as affection deepens.
- Beauty on borrowed terms Enter Italian gardens and grand houses where every welcome depends on someone else's generosity.
- Two divided hearts Follow charming Susy and thoughtful Nick as their need for comfort tests their marriage.
- The cost of favors See how wealthy friends offer help that brings obligations along with its pleasures.
- Irony with a half smile Enjoy Wharton's clear view of human faults without losing sight of the feelings beneath.
Who will love it
For readers who enjoy social comedy, stories of marriage under pressure, and Wharton's cool eye for wealth and manners.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Two charming people with no money
- A marriage with an exit clause
- Honeymoon in other people's houses
- Money begins to pull them apart
- What the story says about love and price
- How Wharton tells it
Who’s who
- Susy Branch LansingA quick, charming young woman who has lived on the generosity of rich friends and now hopes to build a marriage on very little.
- Nick LansingSusy's husband, a thoughtful man with literary ambitions who dislikes the world of money yet depends on it.
- Ellie VanderlynA wealthy woman in the couple's social circle whose friendship and favors bring both help and obligation.
- Fred GillowA rich man in Susy's world whose money makes him a tempting, if unromantic, possibility.
- Coral HicksA wealthy young woman in the circle around Nick, standing for the comfortable future he could choose.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
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- Audiobook
- 9 h 27 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 7 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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The Glimpses of the Moon
by Edith Wharton · 1922
Susy and Nick marry with almost no money and a bargain that lets either leave for a richer match.
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In short
The Glimpses of the Moon is a novel by Edith Wharton, published in 1922. It follows Susy and Nick Lansing, a young couple with good manners, good friends and almost no money.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Two charming people with no money
Susy Branch and Nick Lansing meet in a world that runs on invitations. Both are well born or well connected enough to be welcome in grand houses, yet neither has an income to match. Susy has lived by her wits and her charm, moving between the homes of richer friends who find her useful and amusing. Nick has a gentler, more thoughtful nature and a serious wish to write a book.
This position is the key to the whole story. They are guests everywhere and owners of nothing. Their friends pay for the trains, the dinners and the holidays, and in return expect lively company. Wharton shows how such a life makes people skilled at pleasing and careful about what they say.
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What is The Glimpses of the Moon about?
It is about Susy and Nick Lansing, a penniless but well-connected couple who marry with an agreement to part if either finds a richer match. The novel follows how money and temptation test their love.
What does the title The Glimpses of the Moon mean?
The phrase comes from Shakespeare's Hamlet. It suggests a faint, passing light seen at night, and it fits the couple's brief, borrowed happiness in other people's houses.
When was The Glimpses of the Moon written?
Edith Wharton published it in 1922, soon after the First World War. It is a work of fiction, though it draws on the real habits and social world of the wealthy of that time.
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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