Bunner Sisters (Annotated)

This edition includes the following editor's introduction: Edith Wharton, the feminism of a Pulitzer Prize winner

Originally published in 1916, “Bunner Sisters” is a novella by American author Edith Wharton. Inexplicably, this work has had a long history of being overlooked. Rejected twice by Scribner’s because of its length and its ‘being unsuitable to serial publication’, it was eventually published in the collection “Xingu and Other Stories” and is now considered an essential work of American literature.

"Bunner Sisters" takes place in a shabby neighbourhood in New York City. The two Bunner sisters, Ann Eliza the elder, and Evelina the younger, keep a small shop selling artificial flowers and small handsewn articles to Stuyvesant Square's female population.

Ann Eliza gives Evelina a clock for her birthday. The purchase introduces them to the clockmaker, Mr. Ramy, and sets them on a course that will change their lives forever.