The Age of Innocence - Softcover

Wharton, Edith

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1420954164 ISBN 13: 9781420954166

Publisher: Digireads.com, 2016

Synopsis

First serialized in 1920 in the “Pictorial Review” magazine, “The Age of Innocence” is Edith Wharton’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, which depicts the bygone era of 1870s New York upper class society. It is the story of Newland Archer, a lawyer and heir to one of New York’s most prominent families. Newland is planning to marry the young, beautiful, and sheltered May Welland, a match, which because of May’s social position, he views as highly desirable. However, when May’s exotic thirty-year-old cousin, the Countess Ellen Olenska, appears on the scene, he begins to question these plans. Newland is intrigued by Ellen’s exotic worldliness and begins to fall in love with her. Noted for Wharton’s attention to the details of late 19th century America, “The Age of Innocence” is an incredibly accurate portrayal of how the upper class lived on the East coast during that time. A classic and romantic story, the novel brilliantly depicts the demands of society to maintain outward appearances and the reputation of the family versus the demands of the heart to pursue true love. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

About this title

Review

"Is it--in this world--vulgar to ask for more? To entreat a little wildness, a dark place or two in the soul?"--Katherine Mansfield

"There is no woman in American literature as fascinating as the doomed Madame Olenska. . . . Traditionally, Henry James has always been placed slightly higher up the slope of Parnassus than Edith Wharton. But now that the prejudice against the female writer is on the wane, they look to be exactly what they are: giants, equals, the tutelary and benign gods of our American literature."--Gore Vidal

"Will writers ever recover that peculiar blend of security and alertness which characterizes Mrs. Wharton and her tradition?"--E. M. Forster

From the Publisher

A Norton Critical Edition. The editor, Candace Waid is an Associate Professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Edition details

• Publisher: Digireads.com
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1420954164
• ISBN 13: 9781420954166
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 218