The Age of Innocence

The Age of Innocence is Edith Wharton's 12th novel. It won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The story is set in upper-class New York City in the 1870s. This is Newland Archer’s world as he prepares to marry the beautiful but conventional May Welland. But when the mysterious Countess Ellen Olenska returns to New York after a disastrous marriage, Archer falls deeply in love with her. Torn between duty and passion, Archer struggles to make a decision that will either courageously define his life—or mercilessly destroy it.