The age of innocence
By: Edith Wharton ; edited with an introduction by Cynthia Griffin Wolff and notes by Laura Dluzynski Quinn.
Contributors: Wolff, Cynthia Griffin.
Series: Penguin twentieth-century classics
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 1996
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 330
Subjects: Triangles (Interpersonal relations) -- Fiction; Separated people -- Fiction; Upper class -- Fiction; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction
Genres: Fiction.
Description: When the Countess Ellen Olenska returns from Europe, fleeing her brutish husband, her rebellious independence and passionate awareness of life stir the educated sensitivity of Newland Archer, already engaged to be married to her cousin May Welland, "that terrifying product of the social system he belonged to and believed in, the young girl who knew nothing and expected everything." As the consequent drama unfolds, Edith Wharton's sharp ironic wit and Jamesian mastery of form create a disturbingly accurate picture of men and women caught in a society that denies humanity while desperately defending "civilization."
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 299-330).