"The Age of Innocence" is the twelfth book by American author Edith Wharton and is considered her most important novel as well as one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. The book was first published in four installments in Pictorial Review magazine, and when it was finally published in full, it earned its author the Pulitzer Prize in 1921 - it is worth noting that it was the first time the prize was awarded to a woman. As a member of high American society herself, Edith Wharton used her work to offer a stringent critique of its hypocritical morals. In The Age of Innocence, Wharton crafts a poignant love story between a young promising lawyer, Newland Archer, and a cultured and sensitive woman who returns from Europe to America escaping a difficult marriage, Countess Olenska. Wharton's heroine is authentic and unconventional, asserting her right to speak her mind freely and pursue her happiness. However, an independent woman outside of marriage is not easily accepted as she deviates from the usual norm. The love that blossoms will not come to fruition due to the suffocating social conventions in 1870s New York.

The book was loved by millions of readers, and in 1993 it was adapted into a film by Martin Scorsese, in the eponymous movie starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Winona Ryder.