"The Old Maid" by Edith Wharton is a Pulitzer Prize–winning novella set in nineteenth-century New York. It follows spinster Charlotte Lovell, who secretly bears a daughter, Tina, fathered by Clem Spender—once the fiancé of her wealthy cousin Delia Ralston. Passing Tina off as an orphan, Charlotte raises the girl while running a foundling home. When Tina becomes engaged to Delia's son, Charlotte, fearing for her daughter's future, reveals the truth to Delia, who guards the secret for decades. Exploring sacrifice, hidden motherhood, repressed passion, and the rigid conventions of old New York society, the story portrays women trapped by duty and deception.
