Edith Warton

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Complementing the complete text of Wharton s landmark novel, this extensive volume also includes a wealth of contextual material. "Background Readings" explores the culture of 1870s New York, as depicted in the novel, as well as views on marriage and divorce at that time. In "Other Writings by Edith Wharton, " the author discusses fiction writing, old New York, women, and her winning of the Pulitzer Prize. The "Critical Readings" section features essays on the novel from a wide variety of perspectives.

The Age of Innocence

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Kentucky

Edith Wharton's masterpiece brings to life the grandeur and hypocrisy of a gilded age. Set among the very rich in 1870s New York, it tells the story of Newland Archer, a young lawyer engaged to marry virginal socialite May Welland, when he meets her cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska, a woman unbound by convention and surrounded by scandal. As all three are drawn into a love triangle filled with sensuality, subtlety, and betrayal, Archer faces a harrowing choice between happiness and the social code that has ruled his life. The resulting tale of thwarted love is filled with irony and surprise, struggle and acceptance. Recipient of the first Pulitzer Prize for fiction ever awarded to a woman, this great novel paints a timeless portrait of "society" still unmatched in American literature--an arbitrary, capricious social elite that professes inviolable standards but readily abandons them for greed and desire.

Deeply moving study of the tyrannical and rigid requirements of New York high society in the late 19th century and the effect of those strictures on the lives of three people. Vividly characterized drama of affection thwarted by a man’s sense of honor, family, and societal pressures. A long-time favorite with readers and critics alike.

Category - Fiction / Classics

Format - Paperback

Condition - Good

Listed - 4 months ago

Views - 5

Est. Publication Date - Aug 1993