The Age of Innocence

The Age of Innocence is a novel by American author Edith Wharton, first published in 1920. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1921, making Wharton the first woman to receive the award.

Set in the 1870s, the novel follows Newland Archer, a wealthy New York lawyer engaged to the conventional May Welland. When May’s cousin, the Countess Ellen Olenska, returns from Europe after leaving her disastrous marriage, Archer finds himself drawn to her intellect and independence. Caught between duty and desire, he must navigate the rigid social codes of Gilded Age New York.

A sharp and elegant portrait of a vanished society, The Age of Innocence examines the conflict between individual freedom and the crushing force of social conformity, themes that remain as relevant today as when Wharton first set them down.