Edith Wharton’s Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, The Age of Innocence is a social satire, a bitter-sweet romance, bringing to life the grandeur and hypocrisy of the stuffy upper crust of 1870s New York. Rich, intriguing and beautifully written, the novel relates the mesmerizing story of a man caught between the opposite pulls of his conscience and his longing for freedom. Newland Archer is about to achieve every young man’s dream, as he is engaged to virginal socialite May Welland but soon finds himself utterly captivated by Ellen’s independence and her willingness to risk all, socially, by flouting convention. Faced with the harrowing choice—either to challenge or yield to social dictates that has ruled his entire life, Newland is in dilemma, should he marry the highly cultured May and repent in leisure and yearn ever after for the lost chance of love and fulfillment with Ellen.
A tale of thwarted love full of irony and surprise, struggle and acceptance, and filled with acute social observations and wonderful love scenes of terrible, inarticulate passion, this twentieth century classic gives enduring delight to the readers and remains unsurpassed in technical excellence.