The Age of Innocence
Edith Wharton (1920)
“The most devastating love story ever written about a man who does exactly what society tells him — and spends the rest of his life wondering what he lost.”
At a Glance
New York lawyer Newland Archer is engaged to the impeccably correct May Welland when her cousin, the scandalous Countess Ellen Olenska, returns from Europe fleeing a bad marriage. Newland falls in love with Ellen — a woman who represents freedom, authenticity, and everything Old New York forbids. He helps society close ranks against Ellen, urges her not to divorce, then marries May anyway. Ellen leaves for Paris. Twenty-six years later, Newland finally reaches Paris but turns back at Ellen's door, unable to cross the threshold into the life he never chose.
Read full summary →Why This Book Matters
The first novel by a woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1921). Established Wharton's reputation alongside Henry James as the foremost chronicler of American upper-class social life. Revived repeatedly as both literary fiction and as a lens on contemporary social conformity.
Diction Profile
High formal — elaborate subordinate clauses, Latinate vocabulary, the intricate grammar of social implication. Wharton's sentences enact the world they describe.
High but controlled