We will look at Edith Wharton’s life as a reflection of the Gilded Age, the opulent period of American excess and wealth that stretched from 1870 to 1914. She described both the excesses and ironies of a rigid Old New York society facing onslaught by Invaders like Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, and Carnegie who trumped lineage with wealth: “The daughters of the Invaders bought their husbands as they bought an opera box. It ought all to have been transacted on the stock exchange.” Wharton would turn her back on that society to witness WWI from her balcony in Paris, a mere 40 miles from the guns at the front.

Debbie Huff enjoys sharing her love of the nuances literature gives to understand periods in our country's history in times long past.

Note:  1 Session Lecture - OLLI RIT