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The Age of Innocence is Edith Wharton's twelfth novel, initially serialized in four parts in the Pictorial Review magazine in 1920, and later released by D. Appleton and Company as a book in New York and in London.
It won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making Wharton the first woman to win the prize. Though the committee initially agreed to award the prize to Sinclair Lewis, the judges rejected his Main Street on political grounds and "established Wharton as the American 'First Lady of Letters'", the irony being that the committee had awarded The Age of Innocence the prize on grounds that negated Wharton's own blatant and subtle ironies, which constitute and make the book so worthy of attention. The story is set in upper-class New York City in the 1870s, during the Gilded Age. Wharton wrote the book in her 50s, after she had established herself as a strong author with publishers clamoring for her work.
Did you read any books in 2025 that are widely considered classics? If so, which ones and why?
The Mother's Recompense/ Edith Wharton, Night/ Elie Wiesel, Age of Innocence/ Wharton, Lolita/ Nabokov, Nineteen Eighty Four/ Orwell, the last two for bookclubs. I read a few books by Octavia Butler and a few by Joan Didion but not sure if they would be considered classics. When I retired in 2015...
-Paula_Walters
What are you reading this week? (7/17/2025)
I started three books that I could not get interested in now, but maybe later. Decided to read The Age of Innocence, as I always seem to get into Edith Wharton's books :books: . But must admit it also is going a little slow. I will not give up. I have a lot on my mind right now, and also thinking...
-Paula_Walters
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This information about The Age of Innocence was first featured
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Edith Wharton emerged as one of America's most insightful novelists, deftly exposing the tensions between societal expectation and personal desire through her vivid portrayals of upper-class life. Drawing from her deep familiarity with New York's privileged "aristocracy," she offered readers a keenly observed and piercingly honest vision of Gilded Age society.
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