The Age of Innocence

The Age of Innocence is a novel that takes place in the last breath of high society in New York. Members of this society gathered at the opera house and remained loyal to accepted canons of behavior. This period of high society was characterized by strict rules regarding home decor, attire, and marriage. Characters in this age of innocence were subjected to such rules and were expected to live by them. This novel shows the harsh realities of these expectations.

May Welland

In this melancholic survey of a bygone age, May Welland's novel The Age of Innocence engrosses its readers in a heightened state of imagination, and the novel has a lot in common with modernist fiction. While it presents a nostalgic return to a past age, the novel also challenges readers to re-imagine the present with new ideas. The novel is an important contribution to the waning tradition of big novels.

Edith Wharton

Age of Innocence is a novel written by American author Edith Wharton in 1920. It first appeared in serial form in the Pictorial Review magazine and was published in book form by D. Appleton & Company. It won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, becoming the first novel by a woman to win the prize. The Pulitzer Prize committee had originally intended to award it to Sinclair Lewis's Main Street, but judges rejected it. This book explores the lives of upper-class people in Gilded Age New York.

Newland Archer

The Age of Innocence is a novel by Edith Wharton about the struggle between individual and group. Newland Archer is raised in a society where manners and moral codes are firmly enforced, and he must sacrifice his own personal opinions to uphold the established order. This order is most often represented in the family, and Archer tries to do his best to foster the solidarity of his own family.

Henry James

The title of the novel is a reference to a portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds of a little girl. While the portrait depicts a happy and innocent child, there are several possible interpretations. Perhaps the novel's title refers to a society in 1872 New York that is unwilling to discuss the unpleasant facts of life and insists upon the innocence of young women. Another interpretation would be that the novel focuses on the social life of the upper classes, and is a portrait of how the rich lived.

Edith Wharton's style

The author's Age of Innocence is a novel about a young woman who becomes trapped in the social hierarchy of late nineteenth-century New York. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1921 and became a bestseller. Although it was satirical, Wharton's style was not overtly critical. It was more crafted, with an overall sense of humor.