The Fruit of the Tree

One of Edith Wharton’s few novels to deal directly with issues such as euthanasia, the problems of labor and industrial conditions, and professions for women, as well as Wharton’s more customary themes such as divorce. Published in 1907, it received positive by mixed reviews, and more recently critics have attempted to explain its uneven structure, which combines an industrial plot, an ethical plot, and the more conventional romance plot.