A Favourite of the Gods and a Compass Error (Nyrb Classics)

"A Favourite of the Gods: A Theme explored by James and Wharton- that of the New World, naive, upright, puritanical, confronting the Old, steeped in sophisticated irony, by a European witness to two world wars. Her heroine is Constanza, a beautiful Italian pagan born to privilege, health, and intelligence. Like her mother, the straitlaced New England heiress Anna Howland, she thinks she is happy, until, in her maturity, she realizes what she lacks- a purpose, and a part"--