The Age Of Innocence
$22.92
- Paperback
336 pages
- Release Date
4 March 2008
Summary
Winner of the first Pulitzer Prize ever awarded to a book written by a woman, The Age of Innocence is a suspenseful, deeply moving, and brilliantly accomplished novel of the struggle between desire and destiny.
In the polished works of Edith Wharton, Old New York is a society at once infinitely sophisticated and ruthlessly primitive, in which adherence to ritual and loyalty to clan surpass all other values—and transgression is always punished.
The Age of Innocence…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780451530882 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 0451530888 |
| Author: | Edith Wharton |
| Publisher: | Penguin Putnam Inc |
| Imprint: | Signet Classics |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 336 |
| Release Date: | 4 March 2008 |
| Weight: | 244g |
| Dimensions: | 105mm x 172mm |
| Audience Age: | 14-18 |
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Critics Review
Praise for Edith Wharton and The Age of Innocence
“Is it—in this world—vulgar to ask for more? To entreat a little wildness, a dark place or two in the soul?”—Katherine Mansfield
“There is no woman in American literature as fascinating as the doomed Madame Olenska….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
“Will writers ever recover that peculiar blend of security and alertness which characterizes Mrs. Wharton and her tradition?”—E. M. Forster
Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton was born into the upper stratum of New York society in 1862. This environment provided her with abundant material as a novelist but did not encourage her artistic growth. Educated by tutors and governesses, her upbringing prepared her for only one career: marriage. Her marriage in 1885 to Edward Wharton proved to be an emotional disappointment, if not a disaster. In 1894, she experienced the first of a series of nervous breakdowns. Despite the strain of her marriage, or perhaps because of it, she began writing fiction, publishing her first story in 1889.
Her first published work was a guide to interior decorating, but this was followed by several novels and story collections. These were written while the Whartons resided in Newport and New York, traveled in Europe, and built their grand home, “The Mount,” in Lenox, Massachusetts. While in Europe, she met Henry James, who became a close friend, traveling companion, and the most critical, yet careful, reviewer of her fiction.
“The House of Mirth” (1905) was a resounding critical success and a bestseller, as was “Ethan Frome” (1911). In 1913, the Whartons divorced, and Edith took up permanent residence in France. However, her subject matter remained America, particularly the wealthy New York society of her youth. Her great satiric novel, “The Custom of the Country,” was published in 1913, and “The Age of Innocence” earned her the Pulitzer Prize in 1921. In her later years, she enjoyed the admiration of a new generation of writers, including Sinclair Lewis and F. Scott Fitzgerald. In total, she wrote approximately 30 books, including her autobiography, “A Backward Glance” (1934). She died at her villa near Paris in 1937.
Regina Barreira is a professor of English and feminist theory at the University of Connecticut. She has edited seven books, including “The Penguin Book of Women’s Humor,” and authored four others. She frequently writes for the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and Hartford Courant.
Judith P. Saunders is a writer known for “Reading Edith Wharton Through a Darwinian Lens: Evolutionary Biological Issues in Her Fiction,” “Lost Partners,” “The Age of Innocence,” and more. She is a professor of American Literature at Marist College in New York.
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