The Valley of Decision by Edith Wharton, Fiction, Literary, Fantasy, Classics in Bloomington, MN

The Valley of Decision is set in eighteenth-century Italy.
Here Wharton pits folks inspired by the antireligious thoughts of Rousseau and Voltaire against the orthodox leaders of the day. Soon enough Wharton's night-constant theme comes through: this, like most other violations of personal convention, will come at a terrible cost.