Wharton miraculously finds it possible to satirize the very rich while simultaneously showing compassion and even grudging admiration for some of her victims. Every character she introduces is vividly depicted, no matter how minor. Yet for all the clarity of these depictions, the lives these people live, though busy, are empty and meaningless. The novel is a brilliant description of evasion and inauthenticity. - Summary by T. A. Copeland