Black Oxen

This tale of scientific rejuvenation was the number one best seller of 1923. The story centers on the relationship between thirty-four year old columnist Lee Clavering, and Mary Zattiany, a 58 year old woman who, through modern science, has regained her youth. The story takes place within New York’s high society and there is much criticism of both the older and younger generations in the 1920s. The older generation is argued to be unreasonably caught up in convention while the younger generation is shown as being too eager to flout their straying from those same conventions.