The Age of Innocence is a beautifully written novel that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1921. Set in the last years of the 19th Century and mainly in New York it tells the story of Newland Archer, a wealthy young man who feels trapped by the stuffy conventions of the upper class circle in which he lives and moves and has his being. He is due to marry a society beauty May Welland and although she is sweet, innocent and ready to enter into the expected subservient role of wife and society hostess, Newland is looking for something more. Enter Countess Ellen Olenska, a cousin of May who has just returned to New York after escaping from a loveless marriage to a Polish Count. Edith Wharton's sharp wit and elegant prose take the reader into the salons of the rich and powerful, where the matriarchs set the rules in which a game of high society chess is played out with each person on their alloted square, and where May is at home and Ellen is not. The interplay of this love triangle is skilfully plotted right through to the very last sentence. Highly recommended if you love great writing but not if you are looking for a thumping yarn.
