Twilight Sleep

By: Edith Wharton

Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie

Edith Wharton’s superb satirical novel of the Jazz Age, a critically praised bestseller when it was first published in 1927

Whether it is sex, drugs, or infatuation with the occult, Mrs. Manford and her extended family of socialites are determined to escape the pain, boredom, and emptiness of life through whatever form of “twilight sleep” they can devise or procure.

Far ahead of its time, this Wharton classic employed modernist techniques such as an ever changing narration among the novel’s characters and a close examination of the characters’ self-identities and relationships with one another to tell a tale rich with irony and wit about the upper crust’s own undoing.

Public Domain (P)2023 Blackstone Publishing

Wharton all the way through

The story of an extended family and the lies that are necessary to keep up the appearance of a happy family. The various characters develop throughout the story. Still, an unexpected character is the savior of all the secrets, and allows the glittering family to continue their pampered lives unvarnished of scandal.

Use of the N word

Disappointing. I don’t believe in censorship but to select this book for recording that incudes language that is so intentionally offensive and hurtful to people, it’s just so stupid. Sorry I purchased it.