The Younger Set

Robert W. Chambers' The Younger Set is a society novel of ambition, reputation, and romantic entanglement, following a fashionable younger generation whose pleasures conceal deeper moral and emotional unrest. At its center is Philip Selwyn, a man of quiet honor and damaged standing, whose ruined marriage, resignation from public life, and devotion to others reveal the cost of sacrifice in a world ruled by gossip and status. Around him move Gerald Erroll, vain and dangerously adrift; Nina, whose home offers fragile refuge; and Rosamund Fane and Mrs. Ruthven, whose wit, flirtation, and bitterness expose the traps of desire and social performance. As Selwyn struggles to rescue Gerald from gambling and dissipation, he is pulled back into the wreckage of his own past through letters that reopen old wounds with Alixe, his erratic former wife. Their exchange—shadowed by divorce, inherited instability, and suspicions of scandal—deepens the novel's tension between duty and despair. Yet amid the turmoil, a tender correspondence with Eileen offers warmth, intimacy, and the possibility of renewal. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.