Ceremony of the Innocent

Description

***New York Times Bestseller: The quest for the American Dream*** soars to new heights in this coming-of-age story of a young woman and her country. Living with her aunt in poor, rural Preston, Pennsylvania, ***thirteen-year-old Ellen Watson loves books and music and is completely oblivious to her own beauty.*** But her extraordinary looks arouse envy and malice in the female townspeople--and lust in the males. Hired as a housemaid in the palatial home of the village mayor, **Ellen soon catches the attention of his son, Jeremy Porter, who captures her heart in turn. He offers to send her to school, and four years later he proposes marriage.** As the years pass, Ellen's life parallels the hopes, dreams, and fears of a no-longer innocent nation. As America's enemies gather, Ellen must face her own demons. The wife of the scion of a powerful political family, ***she has everything she could ever desire: security, children, and a successful, adoring husband. But when tragedy rips her life apart, Ellen will be forced to confront some terrible truths about her marriage, her family, and herself.*** Played out against the backdrop of early twentieth-century America, Ceremony of the Innocent intertwines Ellen's personal journey with America's emergence from the devastation of World War I. **It raises vital questions, such as: Are we as good as we believe we are? And is faith enough to keep us moving forward even in the face of unimaginable loss? Some explicit descriptions of sex**--LibraryThing***

Description

From the foreword: ''While this book is not my autobiography, and Ellen Porter's background is not mine, nor her appearance - and I was born many years later than she was born - her thoughts have been my thoughts and her experiences mine also. I have encountered many of the people in the book and have endured from them what Ellen Porter had endured, though they are a composite picture here and so cannot be identified. Many of them, too, are now dead. So in many ways though this is a bitter book it is a true one. There is an old saying, "Only a man can hurt himself. But only a man can hurt a woman." TAYLOR CALDWELL

Subjects

Other Editions

• Ceremony of the InnocentHardcoverDoubleday & Company, Inc.1976-01-01
• Ceremony of the innocentCollins1977-01-01
• Ceremony of the innocentFontana1978-01-01
• Ceremony of the InnocentFawcett1984-04-12
• Ceremonyof the innocentFontana1986-01-01
• Ceremonia de los inocentesEdiciones Grijalbo1987-01-01