The Age of Innocence (Identities and Issues in Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: Edith Wharton
- First Published: 1920
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism, Fiction of manners
- Subjects: Values, New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Love or romance, Nineteenth century, New York City, Social issues, Marriage, Social life, Obsession, Upper classes, Adultery, Divorce, Duty, Lawyers, Bohemianism, Gossip, Scandal, Peer pressure
- Locales: New York, NY, Newport, RI
The Work
Set in the last decades of the nineteenth century, The Age of Innocence narrates the love story of Newland Archer and Ellen Olenska. When the novel opens, Archer is engaged to May Welland, a young woman from one of New York’s oldest society families, and Ellen Olenska is married to a Polish count, who has abused her in unspoken ways. Ellen, May’s cousin, returns to New York from Europe because she wants to obtain a divorce in the United States. Her family welcomes her back into the fold, but they want to make it clear that divorce is not accepted in their...
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