[1] Though the committee had initially agreed to give the award to Sinclair Lewis for Main Street, the judges, in rejecting his book on political grounds, "established Wharton as the American 'First Lady of Letters'".

In her autobiography, Wharton wrote that The Age of Innocence had allowed her to find "a momentary escape in going back to my childish memories of a long-vanished America... it was growing more and more evident that the world I had grown up in and been formed by had been destroyed in 1914.

"[3] Scholars and readers alike agree that The Age of Innocence is fundamentally a story which struggles to reconcile the old with the new.

She had spent her middle years, including the whole of World War I, in Europe, where the devastation of a new kind of mechanized warfare was felt most deeply.

As explained by Millicent Bell in the Cambridge companion to Wharton, "The Age of Innocence was composed and first read in the aftermath of [Theodore] Roosevelt's death and in the immediate wake of World War I.

"[5] The Age of Innocence centers on an upper-class couple's impending marriage, and the introduction of the bride's cousin, plagued by scandal, whose presence threatens their happiness.

The novel is noted for Wharton's attention to detail and its accurate portrayal of how the 19th-century East Coast American upper class lived, as well as for the social tragedy of its plot.

Newland Archer, gentleman lawyer and heir of one of New York City's most illustrious families, happily anticipates his highly desirable marriage to the sheltered and beautiful May Welland.

But he finds reason to doubt his choice of bride after the appearance of Countess Ellen Olenska, May's exotic and fascinating cousin.

As Newland's admiration for her grows, so do his doubts about marrying May, a perfect product of Old New York society; the match no longer seems the ideal fate he had imagined.

Ellen's decision to divorce Count Olenski causes a social crisis for the other members of her family, who are terrified of scandal and disgrace.

Afraid of falling in love with Ellen, Newland begs May to elope and accelerate their wedding date, but she refuses.

Then Ellen is recalled to New York City to care for her sick grandmother, who accepts her decision to remain separated and agrees to reinstate her allowance.

Back in New York and under renewed pressure from Newland, Ellen relents and agrees to meet with him in secret to consummate their relationship.

She interrupts him to tell him that she learned that morning that she is pregnant; she reveals that she had told Ellen of her pregnancy two weeks earlier, despite not being sure of it at the time.

Hopelessly trapped, Newland decides to remain with May and not to follow Ellen, surrendering his love for his child's sake.

"[7] The story's protagonist is a young, popular, and successful lawyer living with his mother and sister in an elegant New York City house.

At the story's start, he is proud and content to dream about a traditional marriage in which he will be the husband-teacher and she the wife-student.

He sees the sexual inequality of New York society and the shallowness of its customs, and struggles to balance social commitment to May with love for Ellen.

When the story begins, Ellen has fled her unhappy marriage, lived in Venice with her husband's secretary, and has returned to her family in New York City.

She attends parties with disreputable people such as Julius Beaufort and Mrs. Lemuel Struthers, and she invites Newland, the fiancé of her cousin May, to visit her.

After a few years of marriage, Newland Archer foresees in May the attributes of his mother-in-law — a woman who is stolid, unimaginative, and dull.

Originally perceived as having done the right thing by talking about her pregnancy in order to save her marriage, May Welland can also be seen as manipulative rather than sympathetically desperate.

[13] Rather than focusing on the lavish lifestyle which Newland Archer has not had to work for, some modern readers identify with his grim outlook.