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Ratings: ★★★★★ (4.8/5)
Genre: Classic Literature / Romance / Social Satire / Historical Fiction / American Literature

Book Review:
Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence (1920) won the Pulitzer Prize — the first awarded to a woman. Set in the glittering but repressive world of 1870s New York high society, it tells the story of Newland Archer, a young lawyer engaged to the innocent May Welland. When May’s cousin, the scandalous, independent Countess Ellen Olenska, returns from Europe, Newland is drawn to her sophistication and sadness. Trapped between duty (May) and passion (Ellen), he faces an impossible choice. Wharton’s novel is a razor-sharp satire of Gilded Age hypocrisy — where reputation matters more than happiness. The title is deeply ironic: there is nothing innocent about this age. A masterpiece of American literature. This Penguin Popular Classics edition is complete and unabridged