# Age of Innocence

> The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton is a sophisticated classic about desire, marriage, social performance, and the hidden costs of respectability in Gilded Age New York.

Price: 8.50 USD · in stock

## About
A sophisticated novel of desire, convention, and social performanceThe Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton is one of the great novels of American high society, but its reputation rests on far more than period elegance. Set in upper-class New York during the Gilded Age, the book examines how codes of marriage, reputation, and public decorum shape private feeling. Through the emotional conflict at the center of the novel, Wharton shows how people can become trapped by the very structures they help preserve, turning social refinement into a force of quiet coercion.Wharton's achievement lies in the precision of her irony and the depth of her psychological insight. The novel is richly attentive to ritual, status, and surfaces, yet it never loses sight of longing, compromise, and moral ambiguity. Readers encounter not only an exquisitely observed historical world, but also a timeless meditation on what it costs to choose safety over transformation. It is a love story, a social novel, and a subtle critique of privilege all at once.This DotBooks edition is ideal for readers of literary fiction, classic romance, American realism, and novels that pair emotional intelligence with sharp social observation.About this editionAuthor: Edith WhartonPublisher: DotBooks.storeYear: 1920Format: Digital editionLanguage: EnglishFurther contextWikipedia: The Age of Innocence