Book description
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY LIONEL SHRIVER
Newland Archer and May Welland are the perfect couple. He is a
wealthy young lawyer and she is a lovely and sweet-natured girl. All
seems set for success until the arrival of May's unconventional cousin
Ellen Olenska, who returns from Europe without her husband and
proceeds to shake up polite New York society. To Newland, she is a
breath of fresh air and a free spirit, but the bond that develops
between them throws his values into confusion and threatens his
relationship with May.
The Vintage Classics edition of The Age of Innocence is
published to tie-in with the publication of the Vintage paperback of
Hermione Lee's celebrated biography of Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton was born on 24 January 1862 in New York. She was
educated in both America and Europe. In 1885 she married Edward Robbins
Wharton. In 1899 she published her first work, a collection of stories
called
The Greater Inclination
. In 1900 she published her first novel,
The Touchstone
. She wrote many other works including travel writing, home decoration
manuals, short stories and her famous novels
The House of Mirth
(1905),
Ethan Frome
(1911),
The Custom of the Country
(1913) and
The Age of Innocence
(1920). She lived in France from 1907. She was made a Chevalier of the
Legion of Honor in 1916 for her work helping refugees there during the
war. Edith Wharton died on 11 August 1937.
