The Age of Innocence

For other uses, see The Age of Innocence (disambiguation).
The Age of Innocence
1920 first edition dust jacket
AuthorEdith Wharton
LanguageEnglish
PublisherD. Appleton & Company
Publication date
1920
Publication placeUnited States
Awards1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

The Age of Innocence is a 1920 novel by American author Edith Wharton. It was her eighth novel, and was initially serialized in 1920 in four parts, in the magazine Pictorial Review. Later that year, it was released as a book by D. Appleton & Company. It won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making Wharton the first woman to win the prize.[1] Though the committee had initially agreed to give the award to Sinclair Lewis for Main Street, the judges, in rejecting his book on political grounds, "established Wharton as the American 'First Lady of Letters'".[2] The story is set in the 1870s, in upper-class, "Gilded Age" New York City. Wharton wrote the book in her 50s, after she was already established as a major author in high demand by publishers.

The Age of Innocence, a character study by the Englishman Joshua Reynolds completed in either 1785 or 1788, is believed to have been the inspiration for the title of Wharton's novel.
  1. ^ Nelson, Randy F. The Almanac of American Letters. Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann, 1981: 9. ISBN 0-86576-008-X.
  2. ^ Killoran, Hellen (2001). The Critical Reception of Edith Wharton. Rochester: Camden House. p. 80.