A Son at the Front

The son at the front of the title is George, son of impoverished painter John Campton and stepson of the wealthy banker Anderson Brant. While the novel takes place during World War I, and the war is central to the story, it is perhaps most of all about the two fathers, two very different men who both love George.

This was the novel Wharton wanted to write instead of The Age of Innocence. However, with the end of World War I and disappointing sales of The Marne, a novella about the war, her publisher told her to wait. She did, dedicating it to Ronald Simmons, a young man she knew who died during the war.

Published in September 1923