Elizabeth Appleton

First edition (publ. Random House)

Elizabeth Appleton is a novel by John O'Hara first published in 1963. It is about a rich New York woman born in 1910 who, at the age of 21, marries beneath her. She follows her husband to his hometown in Pennsylvania, where he enjoys a modest academic career as a history professor. There Elizabeth Appleton, the eponymous heroine, leads an inconspicuous life as a housewife and mother of two. Almost ten years into her marriage, she falls in love with a rich loafer and embarks on a passionate but secret love affair with him.

As in earlier novels, O'Hara minutely chronicles smalltown life in America in the first half of the 20th century, especially its social and sexual mores.

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