The Valley of Decision
by Edith Wharton
These two chapters of the novel depict Odo Valsecca's rise to power during the intellectual and political turmoil that preceded the French Revolution. During childhood and early childhood, Odo was in close contact with all the main factions of the peasantry, clergy, liberal free thinkers, and nobility, who had a vital role in maintaining or weakening an outdated power structure based on rigid class differences and superstitious religious traditions.
