The Age of Innocence

(Paperback, Reissue)

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Description

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 Tibn for the novels 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.

Reviews

Praise for The Age of Innocence
"The first time I read [The Age of Innocence], when I was finished, I held it to my chest and thought, 'I want to write like this.' -- Roxane Gay * Entertainment Weekly *
"The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton, gets romance right. It gets love right and its grounded and its beautiful. Its deeply moving." -- Ta-Nehisi Coates * Interview *
"I generally try to avoid honorifics like 'best novel ever'or 'greatest American novel'and so on. But TheAge of Innocencereally is quite incredible, and, at the moment, I consider it the best novel I've ever read...it's a great book executed by a writer at the top of her game." -- Ta-Nehisi Coates * The Atlantic *
"It is one of the best novels of the twentieth century and...a permanent addition to literature." -- New York Times Book Review * October 17, 1920 *
Praise for Edith Wharton
"Edith Wharton is my favorite writer and her incisive indictments of the wealthy class she was a part of, are endlessly interesting to me. I also love her gorgeous descriptions." -- Roxane Gay * Medium *
"What I love about Whartonthe Wharton who wrote TheAge of Innocenceis her empathy and ambivalence." -- Ta-Nehisi Coates * The Atlantic *
"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
"Edith Wharton was there before all of us; disdainful, imperious, brilliant foremother." -- Francesca Segal * The Millions *
"Only a few works of fiction can reasonably be called 'perfect,'and [Wharton's Ethan Frome]is one of them. Theres a crystalline purity to the prose, and a wintry sadness in the story. It gets deep in your bones." -- Tom Perrotta * Vulture *
"There are only three or four American novelists who can be thought of as 'major,' and Edith Wharton is one." -- Gore Vidal

Author Bio

Edith Wharton(18621937) was an American novelistthe first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for her novelThe Age of Innocencein 1921as well as a short story writer, playwright, designer, reporter, and poet. Her otherworks includeEthan Frome, The House of Mirth,andRoman Fever and Other Stories.Born into one of New Yorks elite families, she drew upon her knowledge of upper-class aristocracy to realistically portray the lives and morals of the Gilded Age.

Colm Tibnis the author of eleven novels, includingLong Island, an Oprahs Book Club Pick;The Magician, winner of The Writers' Prize;The Master, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize;Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Book Award; andNora Webster,as well as two story collections and several books of criticism. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and was named the 20222024Laureate for Irish Fictionby the Arts Council of Ireland.He was shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize. He was also awarded the Bodley Medal, the Wrth Prizefor European Literature, and the Prix Femina spcial for his body of work.