The Age of Innocence

Wharton, Edith; Edith Wharton (Author)

ISBN 10: 002026478X / ISBN 13: 9780020264781

Published by Collier Books/ Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 1986

About this Item

366 pp. Solidly bound copy with moderate use. Water warpage on top of few pages, not affecting text. Creased spine. Small stain on top edge.

Seller Inventory # 6iBc0027

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Age of Innocence
• Publisher: Collier Books/ Macmillan Publishing Company, New York
• Publication Date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 002026478X
• ISBN 13: 9780020264781
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Illustrator: Denise Palma (Cover Design)
• Edition: Reprint 1986
• Condition: Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • English & British Studies, Literature, History
  • Fiction-Fictional Novel, Literary Fiction & Novel
  • Literature: World Famous & Intl. Literature

About this title

Synopsis

As Newland Archer prepares to marry docile May Welland, the return of the mysterious Countess Olenska turns his life upside down. By the author of Ethan Frome. Reprint. Movie tie-in. 350,000 first printing.

Review

Somewhere in this book, Wharton observes that clever liars always come up with good stories to back up their fabrications, but that really clever liars don't bother to explain anything at all. This is the kind of insight that makes The Age of Innocence so indispensable. Wharton's story of the upper classes of Old New York, and Newland Archer's impossible love for the disgraced Countess Olenska, is a perfectly wrought book about an era when upper-class culture in this country was still a mixture of American and European extracts, and when "society" had rules as rigid as any in history.