| Elizabeth Appleton | |
| Author: | John O'Hara |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Publisher: | Random House |
| Pub Date: | 1963 (first edition) |
| Media Type: | |
| Pages: | 310 p. |
| Oclc: | 5663586 |
Elizabeth Appleton is a novel by John O'Hara written in 1960 and first published in 1963.[1] The story is set mostly in Pennsylvania, and the time of the narrative stretches from the early 1930s to 1950. As in earlier novels, O'Hara minutely chronicles small-town life in America in the first half of the 20th century, especially its social and sexual mores.
The title character is a woman from a wealthy New York family who, at a young age, marries a scholar of modest means. They move to his hometown in Pennsylvania, where he becomes a history professor and later a college dean. Several years into the marriage, after having two children, she embarks on a passionate but extremely secret love affair with a wealthy and affable local man.
The novel appeared in Publishers Weekly's list of the top ten best-selling fiction works in the United States in the year 1963. [2]