Brought to you by Shopify, start selling today. 5 Edith Wharton books to read after watching the Gilded Age. By Katie Lang. Fabulous displays of wealth, high society scandals and power struggles at all levels fuel the opulence drama of HBO's the Gilded Age, which premiered on Monday. The show which comes by way of Julian fellows, the creator behind the 2001 film gosford park, and the critically acclaimed historical series Downton Abbey is a lavish period drama set in the 1880s, an era of rapid growth and change known as the Gilded Age. The series centers on the introduction of a group of newcomers to New York City's rigid high society, ranging from wide eyed country ingenue, Marion Brooke, played by Louisa Jacobson, who moves in with her aunts, Christine baranski and Cynthia Nixon, who belong to one of New York's oldest and most wealthy families to the nouveau riche Russell family headed up by George, a ruthless railroad tycoon patriarch played by Morgan Specter, and has even more ambitious wife Bertha, played by Kerry coon, whose determined to climb to the top of the social ladder. Fellows, who has made a career of parsing out the tensions that lie between upstairs and downstairs life, honing in on the maladies and melodrama of the ostentatiously wealthy, follows in the legacy of Edith Wharton. The American novelist known for conjuring stories of high octane drama in the insular world of high society is one of the foremost authors associated with the Gilded Age. Fellows himself has cited Wharton's work, the house of mirth and the custom of the country as influences on his own work. For Wharton, who was the first woman to win a Pulitzer and literature for her 1920 novel, the age of innocence, the social mores and hyper specific accounts of luxury and scandal came from firsthand experience, born Edith Jones to a wealthy, old money family, Wharton's paternal family is related to the Astor family and are rumored to be the Joneses in the idiom keeping up with the Joneses, Wharton, like many of her heroines faced challenges in living life on her own terms as a woman in a society ruled by rigid rules and morals. This, however, provided rich fodder for her as a writer, helping her to create books that were filled with emotion, longing, and plenty of drama. With that in mind, here are 5 Wharton novels to read to get your Gilded Age fix after watching the new HBO series. The age of innocence in the age of innocence published in 1920, social mores and familial responsibility keep two star crossed lovers apart over the course of three decades. Newland archer, a wealthy lawyer, and one of New York's most eligible bachelors is set to marry may welland, an innocent girl from one of society's top families. However, there soon to be marital bliss is disrupted by the arrival of mace gorgeous and exotic cousin. Countess Ellen alinsky, who has left her cruel husband who is a Polish count, inevitably, Nuland falls in love with Ellen, leading to a wistful love triangle filled with longing and unfulfilled desire. Custom of the country neither low social standing or hapless partners can deter undine sprag and ambitious young woman from the Midwest from climbing New York City's social ladder in Morton's the custom of the country, released in 1913. In the novel sprag navigates the rigid rules of high society, learning that her family's newfound wealth doesn't quite stack up to an old blue blood social pedigree, while she cycles through husbands, affairs, and dean soon discovers that an old flame who's just as ambitious and unconnected as her may be her best match in the end. The house of mirth Wharton's sharpest critique of how hostile high society could be to a woman, in spite of her social standing or wealth, is her 1905 novel, the house of mirth. Centering on the tragic tale of lily Bart, a winsome and well born but financially struggling young woman who was wrecked by the stringent social mores and cruel slights of New York City's high society as lily grows older and prospects of marriage to a wealthy and well connected man began to wane, she survives on wit, and the hope of a life with more freedom, but in the end, the world as she knows it grows smaller and smaller until she runs out of options for a viable future. The reef. The reef published in 1912, centers on a love affair, rekindled between Anna leith, a wealthy widow, and her former flame, George Darrow, an American diplomat, the affair is complicated when Darrow begins a secret liaison with a young woman named Sophie, who he later finds out is not only Anna's daughter's governess, but is also engaged to be married to Anna's stepson Owen. Summer. In summer, published 1917, charity royal, a young woman of low birth is smitten when New York City architect lucius harney visits her small New England town for the summer. Lucius moves into the home of charities guardian lawyer royal, a widower who lusts for charity. After lucius and charity begin an affair, she hopes for a marriage to him that will bring her love and a ticket out of town, but lucius's fickle affection and a life altering event will change the course of clarity's future.