Edith Whartons Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Age of Innocence, is both a poignant story of frustrated love and an extraordinarily vivid, delightfully satirical record of a vanished world. It's this vanished world that inspired the lavish costume drama The Gilded Age, written by Julian Fellowes, the creator of Downton Abbey.Part of the Macmillan Collectors Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition features an introduction by award-winning novelist, Rachel Cusk.As the scion of one of New Yorks leading families, Newland Archer has been born into a life of sumptuous privilege and strict duty. But the arrival of the Countess Olenska, a free spirit who breathes clouds of European sophistication, makes him question the path on which his upbringing has set him. As his fascination with her grows, he discovers just how hard it is to escape the bonds of the society that has shaped him.
About the Author
Edith Wharton (1862-1937) is the author of more than forty books including timeless classics such as The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth. She was the first woman to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and is now widely recognised as one of the greatest writers in the English language. Jonas Dovydenas' photographs have appeared in Time, American Photographer, National Geographic Adventure, Soldier of Fortune, and others. He has been a Trustee of Edith Wharton Restoration, Inc. for many years.Rachel Cusk was born in Canada in 1967 and spent much of her childhood in Los Angeles before finishing her education at St Mary's Convent, Cambridge. She read English at New College, Oxford, and has travelled extensively in Spain and Central America. She is the author of six novels. The first, Saving Agnes (1993), won the Whitbread First Novel Award. A Life's Work: On Becoming a Mother (2001) is a personal exploration of motherhood. In The Lucky Ones (2003) she uses a series of five narratives, loosely linked by the experience of parenthood, to write of life's transformations, of what separates us from those we love and what binds us to those we no longer understand. In 2003, Rachel Cusk was nominated by Granta magazine as one of 20 'Best of Young British Novelists'. Her latest novel is Outline (2014).