The Age of Innocence (Barnes & Noble Classics)
Edith Wharton's 1920 novel sets Newland Archer between two women: May Welland, the acceptable fiancée, and Ellen Olenska, the countess whose divorce makes her socially radioactive. The book is a study of restraint, class, and the cost of choosing the wrong kind of happiness. It is also funnier than people remember, in a cold, observant way.The Barnes & Noble Classics edition includes the usual apparatus—introduction, notes, chronology—and presents the novel in a sturdy paperback format. Wharton is not interested in heroes, only in the small, decisive betrayals that politeness makes possible. The novel is for readers who understand that the most violent decisions are sometimes made by doing exactly what is expected, and who can laugh at a dinner party while recognizing it as a battlefield.
