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The Age of Innocence

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The Age of Innocence

By: Edith Wharton
Narrated by: Laural Merlington
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About this listen

 The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton's most famous novel, is a love story, written immediately after the end of the First World War. Its brilliant anatomization of the snobbery and hypocrisy of the wealthy elite of New York society in the 1870s made it an instant classic, and it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1921.

Newland Archer, Wharton's protagonist, is charming, tactful, enlightened - a thorough product of this society. He accepts its standards and abides by its rules, but he also recognizes its limitations. His engagement to the impeccable May Welland assures him of a safe and conventional future, until the arrival of May's cousin Ellen Olenska.

Independent, free-thinking, and scandalously separated from her husband, Ellen forces Archer to question the values and assumptions of his narrow world. As their love for each other grows, Archer has to decide where his ultimate loyalty lies.

Public Domain (P)2008 Tantor Classics
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This is a wonderful novel, and Laurel Merlington handles Edith Wharton's long, sardonic sentences with sympathy and elegance. There is nothing forced in this reading -- it matches the novel perfectly. You have to listen carefully to this story, but it's worth every minute. Please enjoy.

A complex and compelling story

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