The Old Maid

Book excerpt: A young woman is caught between two mothers in 1850s Manhattan in this novella by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Age of Innocence. Tina is a girl torn between two women. There is her adoptive mother, Delia Ralston, a member of one of Manhattan’s ruling families, and then there is Charlotte Lovell, the woman who gave her up so that she could have a chance at a better life. As Tina grows up, the tensions between Delia and Charlotte begin to fester as the two worry about what sort of woman Tina will become . . . Originally published in Edith Wharton’s Old New York in 1924, The Old Maid examines ideas of motherhood, class, gender, and society while detailing the complex relationships between women. The novella was adapted into a Pulitzer Prize–winning stage play by Zoe Akins, which was in turn adapted into a feature film starring Bette Davis.