Black Oxen

This novel, a best-seller in the 1920s and the basis of a popular 1924 film, unites such unlikely topics as medical rejuvenation treatments, eugenics, American youth culture, and cross-generational relationships. The beautiful American widow of a Hungarian count, Mary Zattiany is fifty-eight years old; after receiving experimental "rejuvenation treatments" and returning to America, however, she is often mistaken for a woman in her twenties, and falls in love with a much younger man. Set in an era fixated on youth, beauty, and pleasure, but focusing on the experiences of an ageing woman, Black Oxen offers a fresh perspective on the Jazz Age. Black Oxen was written in a burst of mental energy after Gertrude Atherton herself received an experimental anti ageing treatment; the introduction and appendices to this edition explore the parallels and differences between Atherton and her protagonist, as well as providing selections from other contemporary writings on ageing, science, and the role of women in the 1920s. Stills and posters from the 1924 film adaptation are also included.