The Age of Innocence

One of the magic tricks Succession pulls off is the way it makes the Roy family simultaneously repulsive and relatable. These awful people are so rich that they don’t even need coats; the only time they go outside is when they’re moving from their chauffeured cars to their private jets. Yet, somehow, we start to love them almost as much as we hate them. Edith Wharton does the same in The Age of Innocence. Her gilded denizens of late 19th-century high society – all carriages and opera and country mansions – seem like petty, privileged monsters. Yet they are also achingly, passionately, beautifully human. It’s a powerful spell.

Sam Jordison