The Valley of Decision

The Valley of Decision was written by Edith Wharton and first published in 1902. This two part romance chronicles the rise to power of Odo Valsecca during the intellectual and political tumult which preceded the French Revolution. During his childhood and early manhood, Odo comes in close contact with all the major factions the peasantry, the clergy, the liberal freethinkers, and the nobility which have a vital stake in maintaining or subverting the antiquated power structure based on rigid class distinctions and superstitious religious traditions.