Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence is a devastating portrait of New York's Gilded Age aristocracy, following Newland Archer as he navigates the suffocating conventions of high society while falling in love with his fiancée's unconventional cousin. Wharton exposes the cruelty beneath polished manners, revealing how social codes destroy individual happiness in the name of propriety. The novel becomes a meditation on the price of conformity and the tragedy of choosing safety over passion.

WHY WE PICKED IT: Because Wharton understood that the most brutal prisons are the ones we build from good manners and social expectations. This novel shows us that sometimes the greatest violence is the quiet kind, the slow suffocation of a life unlived.

DETAILS: • Author: Edith Wharton • Publisher: Penguin Classics • Format: Paperback • Publication Date: March 1, 1996 • ISBN: 9780140189704 • Ships direct from distributor in 3–7 business days