The Age Of Innocence

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, The Age of Innocence is Edith Wharton’s elegant and incisive portrait of passion restrained by social convention. Set in the upper-class circles of 1870s New York, the novel follows Newland Archer, a well-bred young lawyer engaged to the beautiful and proper May Welland. His ordered world begins to unravel with the return of Countess Ellen Olenska—May’s unconventional cousin—who has fled a scandalous marriage in Europe. Ellen’s independence, intelligence, and disregard for societal norms challenge everything Newland thought he desired. Torn between duty and desire, he finds himself at a crossroads where every choice comes at a cost. With sharp wit and emotional depth, Wharton explores the quiet devastations of lives lived within rigid expectations. A timeless study of love, sacrifice, and lost possibilities, The Age of Innocence captures both the elegance and the suffocating constraints of a world governed by appearances.

Author Description:
Edith Wharton (1862–1937) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist, renowned for her incisive portrayals of upper-class society in the Gilded Age. She was also a talented designer. Born into a wealthy New York family, she used her insider perspective to critically examine the social conventions, moral rigidity, and gender expectations of her time. Her most celebrated works, including The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Age of Innocence, showcase her elegant prose, psychological depth, and keen social observation. She was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Format: Paperback