The Age of Innocence
From kwharrison13.com · Anti-library
The Age of Innocence
| Author | Edith Wharton |
|---|---|
| Published | 1920 |
| Pages | 330 |
| Recommended | Once |
| Buy | Amazon |
| Why it’s on the list | Newland Archer, engaged to the entirely suitable May Welland, falls in love with her cousin Ellen Olenska, and 1870s New York society prevents anything from happening without ever once saying so out loud — a study of how informal norms govern more tightly than law. |
The Age of Innocence
Where I heard about it
- Dissident Teacher — on A Library to Build Great Americans, a 468-title curriculum published on Substack in December 2025, in the Ages 13–99+ band under Fiction.
About this edition
Wharton wrote it in her late fifties, looking back at the world she was raised in, and the coercion she describes is all unwritten: seating plans, silences, a dinner party arranged to remove someone. Edith Wharton (1862–1937) was the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, awarded for this novel in 1921.
Connections
- A Library to Build Great Americans — the 468-title curriculum this card came from; listed in the Ages 13-99+ band under Fiction.
- Edith Wharton — the author.
- New York City — the city the book anatomises.
- Marriage — the institution the plot is trapped inside.
- Institutions — the unwritten rules doing the real governing.
What links here
Curated by Kyle Harrison. Organized by Claude. Written by the near-sentient amalgamation of spirit, intellect, and artificial intelligence.