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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
You will enjoy this if you like novels about families under pressure, wartime Paris, painters and their work, and quiet moral drama about fathers, sons and duty.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A father wants his son back
- War breaks into private plans
- A red book changes everything
- Neutrality cannot settle every choice
- Other families make grief real
- Protection begins to feel like shame
- Pleasure returns beside the war
- A painter sees fear in objects
- Love grows beyond one household
Who’s who
- John CamptonAn American portrait painter, lame and nearly sixty, who wants his only son to himself and cannot see why the war should touch them.
- GeorgeCampton's young son, raised mostly by his mother and stepfather, cheerful, bookish and calm about a war he is bound to by French law.
- Julia BrantCampton's former wife and George's mother, a worldly, anxious woman who wants to keep her boy safe by any influence she can find.
- Anderson BrantJulia's husband, a shy and very rich banker who loves his stepson deeply and cannot say so.
- Adele AnthonyA blunt, faithful American friend in Paris who loves George like a son and turns to relief work for refugees.
- BoylstonA kind young American painter in Paris who listens to everyone, runs the charity office and longs for America to join the war.
- Harvey MayhewCampton's pompous cousin from Utica, a peace delegate turned crusader against German atrocities, whose vanity grows with his fame.
- Madge TalkettA pretty, restless American nurse and hostess who follows every fashion of thought and admires the painter.
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A Son at the Front
by Edith Wharton · 1923
A Paris painter plans a summer trip to Sicily with his son, until war and mobilization overturn their plans.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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“No article on Mrs. Wharton would be complete unless mention was made of her passion for gardening and her art in developing beautiful gardens, both at her home in Hyères and at St. Brice, near Paris.”
In short
It is the end of July 1914, and John Campton cannot wait for tomorrow. The American portrait painter has torn a page from his studio calendar to bring the day closer.
A Son at the Front at a glance
- Reading time
- About 6 h 35 min5 h 15 min fast, 7 h 50 min slow
- Length
- 94,100 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1923by Edith Wharton
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A father's summer plans meet the news of war
John Campton is nearly sixty, lame, and famous late in life thanks to a portrait of his son George. His studio in Montmartre is crowded with rich sitters who pay well and bore him. He wants the money for one reason. He wants to make George independent of the banker who raised him. On July 30, 1914, he thinks of nothing but the trip to Sicily and Africa.
His sitters, however, are frightened. The banker Jorgenstein loses his round red color. Even the great doctor Fortin-Lescluze forgets to dye his mustache. Campton watches them with the cool pleasure of a painter and tells himself that war is a worry for other people.
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Details
- First published
- 1923
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 7 h 15 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Wharton, Edith. A Son at the Front. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-son-at-the-front.
Wharton, E. (2026). A son at the front. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-son-at-the-front (Original work published 1923)
Wharton, Edith. A Son at the Front. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-son-at-the-front.
@book{wharton2026son,
author = {Wharton, Edith},
title = {A Son at the Front},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-son-at-the-front},
note = {First published 1923}
}
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What is A Son at the Front about?
It follows an American painter in Paris, his divorced wife, her banker husband and the son they all love, from the outbreak of war in 1914 through the following years of fear, charity and loss.
Is A Son at the Front a true story?
It is a novel, not a memoir. Edith Wharton drew on what she saw in wartime Paris, including refugee work, hospitals, charity committees and social life, but the characters and plot are invented.
Why is George counted as a French soldier?
George is American by family but was born in Paris, so French law treats him as a French citizen of military age. That legal accident drives his parents' fear and the central conflict of the story.
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.
“I want to be in this.”
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