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Edith Wharton: The Age of Innocence (Paperback, 1974, Penguin) 4 stars

Edith Wharton's most famous novel, written immediately after the end of the First World War, …

Sharp, cloying and bitter sweet

4 stars

In a world of stuffy convention, privilege and ennui, Wharton traces a life that repeatedly declines to take the 'road not travelled'.

Anyone who's made a compromise with life (and who hasn't) will find some resonance here. And while the oppulent and convention-bound world can be a stifling read, that's part of the point, and Wharton's sharp irony carries you through