‘The Age of Innocence’ is considered by many critics to be author Edith Wharton’s masterpiece. When it was published in 1920, it was received with rapturous reviews and earned Wharton the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making her the first woman in history to receive this honor.
Set amid the aristocracy of New York City in the early part of the 20th century – a world with which Wharton was deeply familiar – the book relates the story of Newland Archer, a rich New York bachelor who has become engaged to fellow socialite May Welland. When Ms. Welland’s exotic cousin the Countess Ellen Olenska arrives in the city, rumors begin to swirl that she has left her husband – a European Count – and is seeking a divorce, a scandalous development for the time. Archer becomes obsessed with the Countess and his fascination with her sets up a love triangle between Archer and the two ladies, between whom he is helplessly torn.
An enormously popular and critically acclaimed novel when it first appeared, ‘The Age of Innocence’ has gone on to become and American classic and it has been adapted several times for the stage and screen, most notably the Academy Award-winning 1993 from Martin Scorsese featuring Michelle Pfeiffer as the Countess, Winona Ryder as May and Daniel Day-Lewis as Newland Archer.
Mengenai Pengarang
Edith Wharton was an American writer, poet and designer. Born into the aristocracy of New York City in the late 1800’s, Wharton used her knowledge of the upper reaches of society to create some of the most enlightening and entertaining novels of the early 20th century. Born Edith Newbold Jones in 1862 to an wealthy family (the expression ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ is said to refer to her father’s clan), Edith was raised with all the trappings of wealth. Drawn to writing at an early age, she often made up stories and poems, even translating and publishing a German poem when she was fifteen. At sixteen, her father arranged for the publication of a book of her poems – Verses – in 1878. In 1885, she married Edward Wharton and then set about decorating their new home, a passion she would follow through her life. In 1902, she would design ‘The Mount, ‘ the couple’s huge estate in Massachusetts, which is now a National Historic Landmark. Wharton expanded her writing into short stories and then novels, publishing ‘The House of Mirth’ in 1905. After World War I broke out, Wharton – living in France at the time – threw herself into the war effort, helping to find work for displaced women and setting up a fund to care for refugee children. France would award her the Legion of Honour for her war service. Wharton published The Age of Innocence in 1921 and subsequently became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (she would be nominated three more times for this award). During her career, Wharton would produce an astonishing number of works: fifteen novels, seven novellas, dozens of short stories and poems, as well as books on travel, design, culture and even a memoir. Edith Wharton suffered a heart attack in June of 1937 while in France and died later that summer from a stroke. Because of her tireless work for the French during World War I, Wharton was buried in the Cimetière des Gonards in Versailles, with ‘all the honors owed a war hero.’
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