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by Edith Wharton (Author)
The Age of Innocence is a 1920 novel by Edith Wharton which won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize. The novel takes place among New York City's upper class during the 1870s, before the advent of electric lights, telephones or motor vehicles; when there was a small cluster of aristocratic "old revolutionary stock" families that ruled New York's social life; when "being things" was better than "doing things" - one's occupation or abilities were secondary to heredity and family connections, when reputation and outward appearances came at the exclusion of everything and everyone else, and when 5th Avenue was so deserted by nightfall that it was possible to follow the comings and goings of society by watching who went to which household. First published in four parts during July to October 1920 in the Pictorial Review and then in the same year by D. Appleton and Company in New York and in London Summer is a novel by Edith Wharton published in 1917 by Charles Scribner's Sons. The story is one of only two novels by Wharton to be set in New England, who was best known for her portrayals of upper class New York society. The novel details the sexual awakening of its protagonist, Charity Royall, and shares many plot similarities with Wharton's better known novel, Ethan Frome. Only moderately well-received when originally published, Summer has had a resurgence in critical popularity since the 1960's
