The Age of Innocence vs To the Lighthouse: Which Should You Read?

Cover of The Age of Innocence The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton · 1920 ★★★★☆ 4.0 384 pages · ≈ 7 h 07 m · Challenging

Edith Wharton's most famous novel, written immediately after the end of the First World War, is a brilliantly realized anatomy of New York society in the 1870s, the world in which she grew up, and from which she spent…

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Cover of To the Lighthouse To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf · 1927 ★★★★☆ 3.8 221 pages · ≈ 4 h 06 m · Challenging

This novel is an extraordinarily poignant evocation of a lost happiness that lives on in the memory. For years now the Ramsays have spent every summer in their holiday home in Scotland, and they expect these summers…

The verdict

How to choose

Scores by source

The Age of InnocenceTo the Lighthouse
Goodreads 4.0 (203393) 3.8 (224640)
Hardcover 4.0 (198) 3.8 (334)
Google Books 4.0 (6) —
Apple Books 4.0 (9) 4.0 (123)

Reception

The Age of InnocenceTo the Lighthouse
Ratings 203393 224640
Editions 301 521
Citations — 53
Film adaptations 1 1
Want to read 300823 448
Pages 384 221

Side by side

The Age of InnocenceTo the LighthouseEnjoymentDifficultyInfluencePopularityClassic
MarriageMarried peopleSocial life and customsFiction