The Vintage Classics edition of The Age of Innocence is published to tie-in with the publication of the Vintage paperback of Hermione Lee's celebrated biography of Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton was born on 24 January 1862 in New York. She was educated in both America and Europe. In 1885 she married Edward Robbins Wharton. In 1899 she published her first work, a collection of stories called The Greater Inclination. In 1900 she published her first novel, The Touchstone. She wrote many other works including travel writing, home decoration manuals, short stories and her famous novels The House of Mirth (1905), Ethan Frome (1911), The Custom of the Country (1913) and The Age of Innocence (1920). She lived in France from 1907. She was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1916 for her work helping refugees there during the war. Edith Wharton died on 11 August 1937.
America's greatest woman novelist
*Sunday Times*
I love virtually all of Edith Wharton, but this one's my
favourite... I admire her prose style, which is lucid, intelligent,
and artful rather than arty; she is eloquent but never fussy, and
always clear. She never seems to be writing well to show off. As
for The Age of Innocence, it's a poignant story that, typically for
Wharton, illustrates the bind women found themselves in when
trapped hazily between a demeaning if relaxing servitude and real
if frightening independence, and that both sexes find themselves in
when trapped between the demands of morality and the demands of the
heart. The novel is romantic but not sentimental, and I'm a sucker
for unhappy endings
There is no woman in American literature as fascinating as the
doomed Madame Olenska. . . Traditionally, Henry James has always
been placed slightly higher up the slope of Parnassus than Edith
Wharton. But now that the prejudice against the female writer is on
the wane, they look to be exactly what they are: giants, equals,
the tutelary and benign gods of our American literature
Will writers ever recover that peculiar blend of security and
alertness which characterizes Mrs. Wharton and her tradition?
Wharton's dazzling skills as a stylist, creator of character,
ironical observer and unveiler of passionate, thwarted emotions
have earned her a devoted following
*Sunday Times*
A handful of Wharton's standards get the "Everyman's Library" upgrade. These are more expensive than paperback alternatives but still reasonably priced, and the hardcover quality is worth the extra bucks if you can afford it. Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
America's greatest woman novelist * Sunday Times *
I love virtually all of Edith Wharton, but this one's my
favourite... I admire her prose style, which is lucid, intelligent,
and artful rather than arty; she is eloquent but never fussy, and
always clear. She never seems to be writing well to show off. As
for The Age of Innocence, it's a poignant story that,
typically for Wharton, illustrates the bind women found themselves
in when trapped hazily between a demeaning if relaxing servitude
and real if frightening independence, and that both sexes find
themselves in when trapped between the demands of morality and the
demands of the heart. The novel is romantic but not sentimental,
and I'm a sucker for unhappy endings
There is no woman in American literature as fascinating as the
doomed Madame Olenska. . . Traditionally, Henry James has always
been placed slightly higher up the slope of Parnassus than Edith
Wharton. But now that the prejudice against the female writer is on
the wane, they look to be exactly what they are: giants, equals,
the tutelary and benign gods of our American literature
Will writers ever recover that peculiar blend of security and
alertness which characterizes Mrs. Wharton and her tradition?
Wharton's dazzling skills as a stylist, creator of character,
ironical observer and unveiler of passionate, thwarted emotions
have earned her a devoted following * Sunday Times *
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