Edith Wharton
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"Launched into society at a glorious and very expensive debutante ball, Lily sees a world of unlimited possibility before her. But her fathers announcement that he is financially ruined, followed quickly by his death, leave Lily and her mother with only one "asset"Lilys extraordinary beauty and charm. At the age of 29, now orphaned, Lily lives with an aunt who offers minimum, often grudging, hospitality and financial support. A wealthy husband could...
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The first Pulitzer Prize for literature awarded to a woman was for The age of innocence, Edith Wharton's elegant portrait of desire and betrayal in Old New York. In the highest circle of New York social life during the 1870s, Newland Archer, a young lawyer, prepares to marry the docile May Welland. But before their engagement is announced, he meets the mysterious, nonconformist Countess Ellen Olenska, May's cousin, who has returned to New York after...