Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence (1920)
In the aristocratic society of early twentieth century New York, in which social customs carry more weight than the law, Newland Archer prepares to marry May Welland, a beautiful, gentle, and socially unimpeachable young lady. When May's cousin Ellen Olenska returns to New York in the wake of a disastrous foreign marriage, however, Newland finds himself falling passionately in love with her.

Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife (2003)
Henry DeTamble and Clare Abshire fall in love and try to achieve a relationship of mutual trust and endurance after childhoods characterized by difficult family relationships. Their love is complicated by Henry's involuntary moving back and forth through time.

John Fowles, The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1969)
Walking with his fiancée on the Cobb in Lyme, Charles Smithson meets the mysterious Sarah Woodruff, rumored by society to have been seduced and abandoned by a French naval officer. As Charles comes to know Sarah, he develops a passionate regard for her, while meanwhile beginning to question his engagement to his shallow fiancée and the overall direction that his life has taken.

Henry James, The Wings of the Dove (1902)
In London in the early twentieth century, Kate Croy and Merton Denscher have fallen in love, but because Denscher lacks money, they cannot marry. In a desperate attempt to remedy their situation, they contemplate the betrayal of a dying friend.

NoveList Book Discussion Guide