In 1893, Edith Wharton and her husband bought an oceanfront home in the fashionable summer destination of Newport, R.I. It was from this perch that the young writer viewed, with increasing disdain, the superficial culture brought by a rush of megarich to the area—a culture she would later describe in some of her best-known novels. In “The Age of Innocence,” protagonist Newland Archer bemoans the superficiality of Newport summers, and tries to convince his wife, May, to spend the summer on a remote island off Maine instead,...

Source: Wall Street Journal May 20, 2019 14:15 UTC