The Age of Innocence; by Edith Wharton.

A portrayal of another age, of society as it then was, of love and marriage and family and lives.

A time when society was more rigid in norms that were beginning to be loosened, but a woman nevertheless stood to lose, and so her family and society joined together to see that she kept her marriage and her status - and if that was not acceptable to her it was rather difficult to keep on supporting her, and she had an exile to other lands as a route if she could afford it.

Men had more power, true, but were not as free as today when some societies have left security for women in marriage as a completely open door situation, whereby no one really benefits although the thoughtless and the loose profit in terms of money that their wives and children lose when they separate.

Love was then a deep, intense hunger of heart as it rarely can be experienced by much cheapened word and much indulgence that has veiled the truth of Love from most people and their lives.