Edith Wharton's twelfth novel, "The Age of Innocence", won the Pulitzer Prize in 1921. Set in the high society circles of late nineteenth century New York, Wharton beautifully contrasts the intensity of true passion against the complacency of a loveless but proper marriage; delicately questioning the expected behavior of the upper social class. Through Wharton's exquisite, detailed portrayal of the affluent class, she invites the reader to experience the charmed life of the "Gilded Age"... a life that would change dramatically by the end of World War I.