The Age of Innocence

by Edith Wharton

Colm Toibin (Introduction)

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Book cover for The Age of Innocence

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Winner of the 1921 Pulitzer Prize, The Age of Innocence is an elegant, masterful portrait of desire and betrayal in old New Yorknow with a new introduction from acclaimed author Colm Tóibín for the novel’s centennial.

With vivid power, Wharton evokes a time of gaslit streets, formal dances held in the ballrooms of stately brownstones, and society people "who dreaded scandal more than disease." This is Newland Archer's world as he prepares to many the docile May Welland. Then, suddenly, the mysterious, intensely nonconformist Countess Ellen Olenska returns to New York after a long absence, turning Archer's world upside down.

This classic Wharton tale of thwarted love is an exuberantly comic and profoundly moving look at the passions of the human heart, as well as a literary achievement of the highest order.
  • ISBN10 0684842378
  • ISBN13 9780684842370
  • Publish Date 23 January 2020 (first published 1 January 1920)
  • Publish Status Active
  • Out of Print 7 December 2010
  • Publish Country US
  • Publisher Simon & Schuster Ltd
  • Imprint Scribner
  • Edition Reissue
  • Format Paperback (US Trade)
  • Pages 384
  • Language English