This Norton Critical Edition includes: • The 1905 book edition of the novel, complete with A.B. Wenzell’s eight original illustrations. • A preface and explanatory footnotes by Elizabeth Ammons. • An abundant selection of contextual material, including excerpts from Wharton’s letters, contemporary reviews, six drawings by Charles Dana Gibson, Thorstein Veblen on conspicuous consumption, Charlotte Perkins Gilman on women and economics, and various others writing about women’s place in society at the turn of the century. • Six modern critical views, considering issues of economics, race, materialism, body image, nature and feminism within the novel. • A Chronology and a Selected Bibliography.