A sometimes cynical account of high society New York in the late 19th century where money and prestige were more esteemed than honesty and moral standing. Edith Wharton thinks out loud with Newland Archer, and sometimes in an unflattering way.
Sure, her characters are constantly "blushing" but she hits the nail on the head with the fight against tradition verses freedom and desire. Whose life are these people living for? It seemed a constant game of pleasing others. Take for example this excerpt on Newland Archer's impending marriage to a girl, who, in comparison with her livelier cousin, was as dull as a doorknob and he recognized it:

"That terrifying product of the social system he belonged to and believed in, the young girl who knew nothing and expected everything, looked back at him like a stranger through May Welland's familiar features; and once more it was borne in on him that marriage was not the safe anchorage he had been taught to think, but a voyage on uncharted seas."

Great book with a thoughtful ending.