Description:
Awarded the 1921 Pulitzer Prize, the first Pulitzer to be presented to a woman, Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence is a powerful depiction of love and desire in New York's glamorous Gilded Age.
When Newland Archer, happily engaged to May Welland, meets his fiancé's cousin Ellen, his entire future is cast into doubt: strong-willed, witty, and entirely unpretentious, Ellen is unlike any woman he has ever met. He is torn between his infatuation for her and his duty to marry May. In subtle and elegant language, Wharton delivers a critical look at the social mores of the time.
Brief description:
Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was born in New York and is best known for her stories of life among the upper-class society into which she was born. She was educated privately at home and in Europe. In 1894 she began writing fiction, and her novel The House of Mirth established her as a leading writer. Her novels The Age of Innocence and Old New York were each awarded the Pulitzer Prize. She was the first woman to receive that honor. In 1929 she was awarded the American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Fiction.
Review Quotes:
"Narrator Laurel Lefkow brings a calm and dignified tone to Edith Wharton's high-society classic...Lefkow contributes a fitting sense of intelligent restraint without sacrificing the warmth and versatility necessary to keep the listener engaged and entertained. Wharton's strongest asset is her sparkling wit, which proves consistently ironic and fatalistic, and Lefkow seldom misses a beat, ensuring that a character's twinkling eye or raised eyebrow is available to the attentive listener...Lefkow's sensitivity to character gives a constant lift to an insightful classic."
-- "AudioFile"