The Age of Innocence is the twelfth book by American author Edith Wharton and is considered her most significant novel as well as one of the greatest novels of the 20th century.

The book was first published in four installments in the magazine Pictorial Review, and when it was later published in book form, it earned the author the Pulitzer Prize in 1921 – it is worth mentioning that it was the first time the award was given to a woman.

As a member of high American society, Edith Wharton exercised strict criticism of its hypocritical morals through her work. In The Age of Innocence, Wharton constructs a poignant love story between a promising young lawyer, Newland Archer, and a cultivated and sensitive woman who returns from Europe to America, escaping a difficult marriage, Countess Ellen Olenska.

The heroine of Wharton is authentic and unconventional, claiming her right to freely express her opinion and pursue her happiness. However, an independent woman, outside of marriage, is not easily accepted as she deviates from the conventional standard.

The love that will arise will not flourish due to the oppressive social conventions in New York in the 1870s. The book has been loved by millions of readers, and in 1993 it was adapted into a film by Martin Scorsese, under the same title, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Winona Ryder.