They say that behind every great man is a great woman. Behind Edith Wharton, there was Anna Bahlmann--her governess turned literary secretary and confidante. At the age of forty-five, despite her growing fame, Edith remains unfulfilled in a lonely, sexless marriage....

They say that behind every great man is a great woman. Behind Edith Wharton, there was Anna Bahlmann--her governess turned literary secretary and confidante. At the age of forty-five, despite her growing fame, Edith remains unfulfilled in a lonely, sexless marriage. Against all the rules of Gilded Age society, she falls in love with Morton Fullerton, a dashing young journalist. But their scandalous affair threatens everything in Edith's life--especially her abiding ties to Anna.

At a moment of regained popularity for Wharton, Jennie Fields brilliantly interweaves Wharton's real letters and diary entries with her fascinating, untold love story. Told through the points of view of both Edith and Anna, The Age of Desire transports readers to the golden days of Wharton's turn-of-the century world and--like the recent bestseller The Chaperone--effortlessly re-creates the life of an unforgettable woman.