Edith Newbold Jones was born January 24, 1862.That date is particularly important for readers of The Age of Innocence because the novel is set in New York City during the time of the author's childhood and adolescence. In the elite society that Edith Wharton describes, that period was an age of opulence--of attention to every eleganI detail possible, of being socially correct regardless of cost. Edith Jones' family (her mother, Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander, was as well born as Edith's father) was a part of the most exclusive society in New York, and she grew up hearing the values of that society explained, and discussed, daily. It was not what a person owned, because anyone with money could buy whatever merchandise existed. It was how a person used money, how a person showed taste, that mattered.

Edith Newbold Jones was born January 24, 1862.That date is particularly important for readers of The Age of Innocence because the novel is set in New York City during the time of the author"s childhood and adolescence. In the elite society that Edith Wharton describes, that period was an age of opulence--of attention to every eleganI detail possible, of being socially correct regardless of cost. Edith Jones" family (her mother, Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander, was as well born as Edith"s father) was a part of the most exclusive society in New York, and she grew up hearing the values of that society explained, and discussed, daily. It was not what a person owned, because anyone with money could buy whatever merchandise existed. It was how a person used money, how a person showed taste, that mattered. Money was a necessary evil, no one questioned that; but not everyone with money was a part of the elite "400" in which the Joneses moved. Often, people with only money were not accepted at all.

   Introduction 

  The Age of Innocence 

Edith Wharton on The Age of Innocence 

  Critical Excerpts   

Suggestions for Further Reading 

A Note on the Text