Age of Innocence

"e;The Age of Innocence"e; is Edith Wharton's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, which depicts the bygone era of 1870s New York upper class society. The novel is the story of Newland Archer, a lawyer and heir to one of New York's most prominent families. Newland is planning to marry the young, beautiful and sheltered May Welland, however when May's exotic thirty-year-old cousin, the Countess Ellen Olenska, appears on the scene he begins to question these plans. A classic and romantic story, "e;The Age of Innocence"e; depicts the demands of upper class society to maintain outward appearances and the reputation of the family, sometimes with tragic consequences.