The Age of Innocence
Old New York enforces its rules so politely that nobody has to say what is being taken away.
Newland Archer is engaged to the entirely suitable May Welland when her cousin Ellen Olenska returns from Europe trailing a scandalous marriage, and the society Wharton grew up in closes ranks so gently that no one ever names what is being done. Published in 1920 and looking back at the 1870s, it made her the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The cruelty is all in the manners.
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Laurence Leamer
The Age of Innocence is a savage portrait of the elite world that was her home, and is no less savage for being written in such a subtle manner.
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