[ Wharton / Age of Innocence ]
Edith Wharton (1862 - 1937) was an American novelist whose works were frequently set in the world of New York's upper class. She was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction. This, her most well-known work, has been filmed and staged several times.
In Chapter 22 occurs the novel's only mention of Newfoundlands:
Archer leaned for a while against the gate. No one was in sight, and not a sound came from the open windows of the house: a grizzled Newfoundland dozing before the door seemed as ineffectual a guardian as the arrowless Cupid.
(No Newfie owner can quibble with such a characterization, of course ;) We don't love these dogs because of their protection instincts.)