In Bunner Sisters, Edith Wharton gives us a vivid and insightful look at sisterly love and the dilemma of self-sacrifice. Ann Eliza and Evelina are spinster sisters eking out a quiet existence as shopkeepers in a crumbling corner of New York City. When Ann Eliza gives Evelina a clock for her birthday, their lives become entangled with the clockmaker Mr. Ramy, with devastating consequences for them both. Ann Eliza feels she has it in her power to ensure her sister's happiness at the expense of her own - but can she really envisage the effects of her actions? Written in 1892 but not published for almost twenty-five years, Bunner Sisters is a rare example of Wharton reaching outside her own social milieu, which she does with clarity and compassion.