Edith Wharton's Pullitzer prize-winning novel The Age of Innocence (1920) is a portrayal of New York's upper class society during the 1870s. Newland Archer is a wealthy socialite who's poised to marry May Welland, a perfectly pure and faultlessly suitable mate. When Archer meets May's scandalous cousin, Countess Olenska, whose unconventional views and shady past make her unique, his good intentions waver. The Countess by comparison casts May as a dull and manufactured product of New York's stifled upper-class. What results is a subtle and well-wrought drama that has been read and loved for ne |