Edith Wharton’s French Riviera

Edith Wharton’s love affair with the French Riviera began in 1919, and continued to the end of her days. She found there a microcosm of the sort of society that had always fascinated her, that she described in her classic novels. Between the two world wars, the whole region was a playground for film stars, magnates, and her neighbors included Wallis Simpson, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Cole Porter, and Dorothy Parker. For Edith Wharton, the Riviera was at once a haven where she could write to her heart’s content, and a terrifyingly superficial world.

This fascinating book is a study of this world as it existed when Edith Wharton arrived, and how the region changed over the years. Richly illustrated with both contemporary and vintage photographs, it is a hugely evocative portrait of the Golden Age of the Riviera. Edith Wharton on the Riviera is a rare a taste of the fabulous lifestyle of the privileged classes that has now vanished forever.