‘The Age of Innocence’ is a 1920 novel by Edith Wharton, and the winner of the 1921 Pulitzer Prize. The title is an ironic comment on the smooth outward manners of New York society in comparison to its inner workings. The narrative revolves around the impending marriage of an upper-class couple, Newland Archer and the beautiful May Welland, which is disrupted by the appearance of the mysterious Countess Ellen Olenska who shocks the New York aristocracy with her unconventional manners and revealing clothes. The novel’s underlying theme is the loss of the pre-war world which was destroyed by World War I. The writing is rich in detail, and impressive in its descriptions of the golden age of New York in the 19th century.
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Edith Wharton (1862–1937) is the author of the novels The Age of Innocence and Old New York, both of which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. She was the first woman to receive that honor. In 1929 she was awarded the American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Fiction. She was born in New York and is best known for her stories of life among the upper-class society into which she was born. She was educated privately at home and in Europe. In 1894 she began writing fiction, and her novel The House of Mirth established her as a leading writer.