The Age Of Innocence

Nov 10, 2025 11:34 AM

Author:Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton's novel reworks the eternal triangle of two women and a man in a strikingly original manner. When about to marry the beautiful and conventional May Welland, Newland Archer falls in love with her very unconventional cousin, the Countess Olenska. The consequent drama, set in New York during the 1870s, reveals terrifying chasms under the polished surface of upper-class society as the increasingly fraught Archer struggles with conflicting obligations and desires. The first woman to do so, Edith Wharton won the Pulitzer Prize for this dark comedy of manners which was immediately recognized as one of her greatest achievements.

Reviews

'A very funny book...A brilliant and exceedingly well written series'

—— Colin Munro , Interzone

Manning writes always with a poet's care for words and it is her usual distinction of style and construction that lifts the novel- far, far above the average run

—— Observer

The most considerable of our women novelists

—— Anthony Burgess

Books like this one succeed...in drawing our emotions into politics. What will remain is the plain bravery of his characters...their struggle has found an honest chronicler

—— Daily Telegraph

Andre Brink's writing is built on conviction...A Dry White Season describes the triumph of tyranny

—— The Times

Exuberant... for those who like their wines full-bodied and their meals rich and zesty... earthly secrets of strength, suffering, passion and cooking in a humorous and well-drawn portrait of a woman who loves as well as she cooks

—— Washington Post

Subverts macho morality with refreshingly unexpected narrative twists magical realism... pacing that rivals Romancing the Stone

—— Maureen Freely

An enchanting book, an open-eyed fairy story

—— Barbara Trapido

Wonderful... hard to put down... it is rare to come across a book so unusual

—— Steve Vines , South China Morning Post

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