The Green Bay Tree
Published on 9. October 2025
236 pages
978-1-5154-6826-4 (ISBN)
Description
A powerful story of privilege, passion, and the price of escape from society's expectations.
Set amid the glittering excess of the Jazz Age, The Green Bay Tree explores the hidden corruption beneath wealth and respectability. In the elegant drawing rooms and manicured estates of 1920s America, young Julian Shane lives under the suffocating control of his domineering father-a man determined to mold him into a perfect reflection of ambition and status. But when Julian begins to question the empty world of appearances, he faces a dangerous choice: obedience or freedom.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Louis Bromfield exposes the emotional costs of class, money, and moral hypocrisy in this timeless novel of love, loss, and self-discovery. Written with the same psychological depth and social insight that made Early Autumn an American classic, The Green Bay Tree stands as the first volume in Bromfield's celebrated "Escape" series-a sweeping portrait of a generation caught between tradition and change.
Rediscover one of the most brilliant voices of twentieth-century literature-a writer praised alongside F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, and Edith Wharton. The Green Bay Tree is both an intimate family saga and a sharp critique of Gilded Age morality, perfect for readers who love literary fiction with emotional depth, classic romantic drama, and historical novels of manners and rebellion.
More details
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Louis Bromfield (1896-1956) was one of the most acclaimed American novelists of the early twentieth century, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, and a leading voice in modern American literature. Celebrated for his vivid storytelling, psychological insight, and unflinching portraits of society, class, and moral conflict, Bromfield captured the transformation of American life from the Gilded Age through the Jazz Age.
Before achieving international fame, Bromfield served as an ambulance driver in World War I, an experience that deeply shaped his understanding of human struggle and resilience. His breakthrough novel, Early Autumn, earned the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and his other works-including The Green Bay Tree, Possession, and A Good Woman-cemented his reputation as a master of the social novel.
Today, Louis Bromfield's novels are being rediscovered by a new generation of readers drawn to his rich character studies, bold critiques of privilege and conformity, and his belief in freedom, individuality, and renewal. His writing remains essential reading for fans of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, and Sinclair Lewis-and for anyone who loves classic American fiction that still feels timeless and alive.
