The Age of Innocence

The age of the innocent, by Edith Wharton, a book published in 1920, tells the story of Newland Archer. Set in New York in 1870, the story tells of Archer and his marriage to May Welland. But there’s a spanner in the works, so to speak. The spanner being May’s cousin, the beautiful and tainted by scandal, Countess Ellen Olenska. Archer falls in love with her, but romantic novels as they are, ends up getting married anyway anyway. The book continues, focusing on her marriage and her hidden love for Ellen. The age of innocence won the Pulitzer Prize of 1921.