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毓氐乇 丕賱亘乇丕亍丞
賱丕 賳乇賶 賲賳 丕賱賲噩鬲賲毓丕鬲 丕賱兀乇爻鬲賯乇丕胤賷丞 爻賵賶 賯卮賵乇 賲賳 丕賱賲賱賱 賵丕賱乇賵鬲賷賳 賵丕賱毓丕丿丕鬲 丕賱亘丕賱賷丞.
睾賷乇 兀賳 丕賱鬲毓賲賯 賮賷 賴匕賴 丕賱賲噩鬲賲毓丕鬲 賷馗賴乇 賱賳丕 兀卮賷丕亍賸 兀禺乇賶 賱丕 鬲鬲賵賯毓 兀賳 鬲乇丕賴丕 兀亘丿賸丕.
丕賱賯乇賵賳 丕賱兀賵賱賶 賱丕爻鬲賵胤丕賳 丕賱兀賵乇賵亘賷賷賳 賱兀賲乇賷賰丕 丕賱卮賲丕賱賷丞 賵丕賳卮丕卅賴賲 賱賲噩鬲賲毓丕鬲賴賲 賮賷 賴匕賴 丕賱亘賱丕丿 丕賱亘毓賷丿丞貙 賴匕賴 丕賱賯乇賵賳 鬲禺賮賶 兀賵 鬲賰丕丿 賲賳 毓丕賱賲 丕賱丕丿亘 賵賱丕 賳毓乇賮 賳丨賳 毓賳賴丕 廿賱丕 兀賯賱 丕賱賯賱賷賱.
賮鬲氐亘丨 賴匕賴 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 丕賱毓匕亘丞 丕賱賯丕丿賲丞 賲賳 賴匕丕 丕賱毓丕賱賲 亘賲孬丕亘丞 丕賱賲卮毓賱 丕賱匕賷 賷囟卅 丕賱馗賱丕賲 丕賱丨丕賱賰.
氐乇丕毓丕鬲 賳賮爻賷丞 賵丕噩鬲賲丕毓賷丞.. 毓丕丿丕鬲 賵鬲賯丕賱賷丿 鬲兀賰賱 丕賱賲卮丕毓乇 賵鬲鬲睾匕賶 毓賱賶 丕賱兀賱賲 賵丕賱賲毓丕賳丕丞.
睾賷乇 兀賳 丕賱鬲毓賲賯 賮賷 賴匕賴 丕賱賲噩鬲賲毓丕鬲 賷馗賴乇 賱賳丕 兀卮賷丕亍賸 兀禺乇賶 賱丕 鬲鬲賵賯毓 兀賳 鬲乇丕賴丕 兀亘丿賸丕.
丕賱賯乇賵賳 丕賱兀賵賱賶 賱丕爻鬲賵胤丕賳 丕賱兀賵乇賵亘賷賷賳 賱兀賲乇賷賰丕 丕賱卮賲丕賱賷丞 賵丕賳卮丕卅賴賲 賱賲噩鬲賲毓丕鬲賴賲 賮賷 賴匕賴 丕賱亘賱丕丿 丕賱亘毓賷丿丞貙 賴匕賴 丕賱賯乇賵賳 鬲禺賮賶 兀賵 鬲賰丕丿 賲賳 毓丕賱賲 丕賱丕丿亘 賵賱丕 賳毓乇賮 賳丨賳 毓賳賴丕 廿賱丕 兀賯賱 丕賱賯賱賷賱.
賮鬲氐亘丨 賴匕賴 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 丕賱毓匕亘丞 丕賱賯丕丿賲丞 賲賳 賴匕丕 丕賱毓丕賱賲 亘賲孬丕亘丞 丕賱賲卮毓賱 丕賱匕賷 賷囟卅 丕賱馗賱丕賲 丕賱丨丕賱賰.
氐乇丕毓丕鬲 賳賮爻賷丞 賵丕噩鬲賲丕毓賷丞.. 毓丕丿丕鬲 賵鬲賯丕賱賷丿 鬲兀賰賱 丕賱賲卮丕毓乇 賵鬲鬲睾匕賶 毓賱賶 丕賱兀賱賲 賵丕賱賲毓丕賳丕丞.
350 pages, Paperback
First published October 25, 1920
11834 people are currently reading
261439 people want to read
About the author
Edith Wharton
1,229听books4,930听followersEdith Wharton was an American writer and designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray, realistically, the lives and morals of the Gilded Age. In 1921, she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, for her novel, The Age of Innocence. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame, in 1996. Her other well-known works are The House of Mirth, the novella Ethan Frome, and several notable ghost stories.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 11,920 reviews
May 17, 2015
鈥淲e can't behave like people in novels, though, can we?鈥�
A few years ago, I read and thought it was okay. It has something of an Austen-esque feel - criticisms of middle/upper middle class society, paired with a subtle and clever humour and a love story (here deliciously scandalous). But it's taken me a few years to come back to this novel and appreciate the magic Wharton has brought to the table.
This little book is so clever. Everything about it from the damn title to nearly every piece of dialogue is perfectly-placed and often ironic. Things that didn't hit me fully the first time around became so much more important in this reread. Wharton knows 1870s New York City like the back of her hand; she knows its habits, its traditions, and its expectations of people. She creates a rich, twinkly picture of parties and social standards that is both delightful and ultimately ridiculous - then she throws a spanner in the works.
Never has a love triangle been so welcomed by me. This isn't the modern affair we're used to, where a girl must choose between hot guy #1 and hot guy #2. Nope, in this story, Newland Archer is torn between the stability, comfort and duty he can be offered by the socially-favoured match with May Welland... and his passionate, all-consuming love for the unconventional, rebellious and ostracized Ellen Olenska.
鈥淓ach time you happen to me all over again.鈥�
It's as important as it is beautifully written. Wharton casts an eye over this society, both disdainful and affectionate. Incorporating issues of female emancipation into the story, never has the idea of a woman enslaved by marriage and convention seemed so unattractive from a male perspective. Newland Archer is full of modernity and the call of new ideas, but finds that any freedom he poses to May she would receive only with the intention of pleasing him. Though, it should be said, I believe May is far more than she seems.
It's hard to read the ending of this book without feeling emotional, but the exact emotion may differ with your interpretation. Ambiguity reigns supreme as this novel finds its close and even the coldest of unromantics will surely have their hearts pulled along for this... ride. One of my favourite tragic love affairs.
鈥淥nly, I wonder 鈥� the thing one鈥檚 so certain of in advance: can it ever make one鈥檚 heart beat as wildly?鈥�
| | | |
A few years ago, I read and thought it was okay. It has something of an Austen-esque feel - criticisms of middle/upper middle class society, paired with a subtle and clever humour and a love story (here deliciously scandalous). But it's taken me a few years to come back to this novel and appreciate the magic Wharton has brought to the table.
This little book is so clever. Everything about it from the damn title to nearly every piece of dialogue is perfectly-placed and often ironic. Things that didn't hit me fully the first time around became so much more important in this reread. Wharton knows 1870s New York City like the back of her hand; she knows its habits, its traditions, and its expectations of people. She creates a rich, twinkly picture of parties and social standards that is both delightful and ultimately ridiculous - then she throws a spanner in the works.
Never has a love triangle been so welcomed by me. This isn't the modern affair we're used to, where a girl must choose between hot guy #1 and hot guy #2. Nope, in this story, Newland Archer is torn between the stability, comfort and duty he can be offered by the socially-favoured match with May Welland... and his passionate, all-consuming love for the unconventional, rebellious and ostracized Ellen Olenska.
鈥淓ach time you happen to me all over again.鈥�
It's as important as it is beautifully written. Wharton casts an eye over this society, both disdainful and affectionate. Incorporating issues of female emancipation into the story, never has the idea of a woman enslaved by marriage and convention seemed so unattractive from a male perspective. Newland Archer is full of modernity and the call of new ideas, but finds that any freedom he poses to May she would receive only with the intention of pleasing him. Though, it should be said, I believe May is far more than she seems.
It's hard to read the ending of this book without feeling emotional, but the exact emotion may differ with your interpretation. Ambiguity reigns supreme as this novel finds its close and even the coldest of unromantics will surely have their hearts pulled along for this... ride. One of my favourite tragic love affairs.
鈥淥nly, I wonder 鈥� the thing one鈥檚 so certain of in advance: can it ever make one鈥檚 heart beat as wildly?鈥�
| | | |
April 20, 2011
Part of why I love The Age of Innocence so much is for the very reason my students hate it--the subtlety of action in a society constrained by its own ridiculous rules and mores. In Old New York, conformity is key and the upper-crust go about a life of ritual that has no substance or meaning. Both men and women are victims in this world as both are denied economic, intellectual, and creative outlets. All the world's a stage in Wharton's New York and everyone wears a mask of society's creation. Such is the norm until Newland Archer.
Symbolically, Newland represents an America on the cusp of modernization, the awkward period of transition between the Victorian era and World War I. At first a devout member of New York aristocracy, Newland is awakened as one from a trance with the arrival of Countess Ellen Olenska. Ellen decides to separate from her abusive husband, Count Olenski, and is rumored to have escaped the Count by having an affair with his secretary--a scandalous circumstance that brings her back home to her native New York. Vibrant, intellectual, and free-spirited when compared with the dowdy and restrained women he's known, Ellen's predicament is a revelation to Newland. As he himself has just ended an affair with a married woman and knows the ease with which society forgave his indiscretion when contrasted with Ellen, Newland begins to acknowledge the inequality amongst the sexes. However, there's a serious roadblock to Newland ever being with the captivating Ellen: Ellen is the cousin of May Welland, Newland's fiancee.
Wharton writes with cutting wit about the hypocritical and ludicrous customs of blue blood society and cunningly plots events to work against Newland, the archer whose target is a "new land" in which he and Ellen can be together. The pity is that, ultimately, May proves to be the more cunning huntress who cleverly stalks and traps her quarry in the labyrinth of society.
Cross posted at
Symbolically, Newland represents an America on the cusp of modernization, the awkward period of transition between the Victorian era and World War I. At first a devout member of New York aristocracy, Newland is awakened as one from a trance with the arrival of Countess Ellen Olenska. Ellen decides to separate from her abusive husband, Count Olenski, and is rumored to have escaped the Count by having an affair with his secretary--a scandalous circumstance that brings her back home to her native New York. Vibrant, intellectual, and free-spirited when compared with the dowdy and restrained women he's known, Ellen's predicament is a revelation to Newland. As he himself has just ended an affair with a married woman and knows the ease with which society forgave his indiscretion when contrasted with Ellen, Newland begins to acknowledge the inequality amongst the sexes. However, there's a serious roadblock to Newland ever being with the captivating Ellen: Ellen is the cousin of May Welland, Newland's fiancee.
Wharton writes with cutting wit about the hypocritical and ludicrous customs of blue blood society and cunningly plots events to work against Newland, the archer whose target is a "new land" in which he and Ellen can be together. The pity is that, ultimately, May proves to be the more cunning huntress who cleverly stalks and traps her quarry in the labyrinth of society.
Cross posted at
August 19, 2022
(L'鈥橝mour Vainqueur - William Adolphe Bouguereau)
Suddenly, before an effulgent Titian, he found himself saying: 鈥淏ut I 鈥榤 only fifty-seven 鈥撯€� and then he turned away. For such summer dreams it was too late; but surely not for a quiet harvest of friendship, of comradeship, in the blessed hush of her nearness.
When deadening conformity to the discipline and traditions of a small society has almost become one鈥檚 second nature, even dreams can hardly breathe, suffocated in the airless vacuum of an oppressive and hypocrite environment in which the double standards on marriage, divorce and sexuality and the stifling expectations towards men and women strangle both sexes alike, no less caging the men than the women in a straightjacket of duty and propriety. Who would have expected such in the Land of the Free, making Wharton sneer that 鈥業t seems stupid to have discovered America only to make it into a copy of another country鈥�?
What a stunning masterpiece.
Honestly? Because all I can do for the moment is waxing poetic over Edith Wharton鈥檚 gorgeous and meticulous prose and stand awestruck and speechless at Wharton鈥檚 craft and perceptiveness, every word I could possibly jot down would feel shamefully trite and inadequate. So I will just humbly bow down and read this fabulous novel once more, perhaps next winter.
I was quite surprised to discover what a powerful imprint watching Martin Scorsese鈥檚 film back in 1994 must have made on me, sensing the verbal Newland Archer, Ellen Olenska and May Welland seamlessly converging with memories of the actors who played them, supplanting almost any other visualisation of them taking shape in my mind.
Forgive me for the ironic appliance of this sweet and innocent-looking painting professing that love conquers all. To refer to Vergil鈥檚 motto that Love conquers all, and so let us surrender ourselves to Love would be needlessly cruel and sarcastic in the context of this novel, but a little irony seems to fit it like a glove (I don鈥檛 think Edith Wharton would mind).
Frailty, is Thy Name Newland Archer? I don鈥檛 think so. You chose loyalty, a virtue implying sacrifice and betrayal of others and of yourself, a wry self-submission to inauthenticity. This reader imagines you torn like the man in Willem Elsschot鈥檚 鈥楾he Marriage鈥�, looking back on your life moodily though melancholic rather than embittered or cynic.
When he noticed how the fog of time
put out the embers in his wife鈥檚 eyes,
eroded her cheeks, cleaved her forehead,
then he looked away and was consumed by regret.
He cursed and ranted and pulled at his own beard
and met her with that gaze, but could no longer love,
he saw the greatest sin in the duty of the devil
and how she looked up at him like a dying horse.
But she did not die, even though his hellish mouth sucked
the marrow from her bones, that kept on carrying her.
She did not dare to speak, to ask or to complain,
and shivered where she stood, but lived and stayed healthy.
He thought: I will beat her to death and burn down the house.
I have to wash this mould from my rigid feet
and run through the fire and through the puddles
untill I reach another love in someother country.
But he did not kill her, because inbetween dream and act
there are hindering laws and practical issues,
and even melancholy, that no one can explain
and that comes at night, when we all go to sleep.
The years went by. The children grew up
and saw how the man, they called their father,
seated motionlessly and silently at the fire place,
gave them a godforsaken and grizly gaze.
(鈥楾he marriage鈥� by Willem Elsschot (1910))
November 11, 2021
The blurb on GR gives a good summary so I will start with that as the first paragraph:
Winner of the 1921 Pulitzer Prize, The Age of Innocence is Edith Wharton鈥檚 masterful portrait of desire and betrayal during the sumptuous Golden Age of Old New York, a time when society people 鈥渄readed scandal more than disease.鈥� This is Newland Archer鈥檚 world as he prepares to marry the beautiful but conventional May Welland. But when the mysterious Countess Ellen Olenska returns to New York after a disastrous marriage, Archer falls deeply in love with her. Torn between duty and passion, Archer struggles to make a decision that will either courageously define his life鈥攐r mercilessly destroy it.
Elite New York society says of the Countess, separated from her husband who remains in Europe, 鈥淎nd now it鈥檚 too late; her life is finished.鈥� For a time she considers going back to her husband. She shocks people by wearing the wrong things, hanging out with the wrong people or by engaging men in frank conversation. In elite New York society at that time a woman could not walk away from conversation with a man to engage in conversation with another man; she had to wait for him to come to her.
The Countess shocks people by referring occasionally to 鈥榤y husband鈥� when everyone expects her never to mention him. But she is somewhat protected by her family connections: she is Newland鈥檚 wife鈥檚 cousin. Even though people will say in conversation 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to hear about anything unpleasant in her history鈥� all of them already know all the dirt.
Those in New York society at the time thought themselves superior to their counterparts in Europe. They think know European customs because they all honeymoon and vacation there for months at a time. Their goal is to keep out the 鈥渘ew people.鈥� They spend fortunes on dresses from Paris but wait a year to wear them because it is not sheik to wear the 鈥榣atest fashions.鈥� A woman is dishonored by her husband鈥檚 shady financial dealings. While they claim to be well-read and to love art and music, they will not hang out with those types of people or invite them to their parties. In conversation people are so uptight blush and pale constantly.
Newland thinks of his wife May as a 鈥楽tepford wife.鈥� Seeing her brow glistening in the light 鈥溾€e said to himself with a secret dismay that he would always know the thoughts behind it, that never, in all the years to come , would she surprise him by an unexpected mood, by a new idea, a weakness, a cruelty or an emotion.鈥� May is 鈥淭hat terrifying product of the social system he belonged to and believed in, the young girl who knew nothing and expected everything鈥︹€�
Newland thinks of himself as enlightened. Among men he says 鈥淲omen should be free 鈥� as free as we are,鈥� knowing full well that 鈥淣ice women, however wronged, would never claim the kind of freedom he meant, and generous-minded men like himself were therefore 鈥� in the heat of the argument 鈥� the more chivalrously ready to concede it to them.鈥� But of May he thinks: 鈥淭here was no use trying to emancipate a wife who had not the dimmest notion that she was not free鈥︹€�
After Newland and the Countess fall in love they enter into a kind of limbo: 鈥淗er choice would be stay near him as long as he did not ask her to come nearer; and it depended on himself to keep her just there, safe but secluded.鈥� I鈥檓 reminded of another novel I read recently: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garc铆a M谩rquez. Can you really pine away with love for someone your entire life?
There is good writing. Just a couple of examples:
Said of an ancient matron: 鈥淪he always, indeed, struck Newland Archer as having been rather gruesomely preserved in the airless atmosphere of a perfectly irreproachable existence, as bodies caught in glaciers keep for years a rosy life-in-death.鈥�
The opera lets out: 鈥淎mericans want to get away from amusement even more quickly than they want to get to it.鈥�
There鈥檚 a lot of local color of New York鈥檚 Fifth Avenue district and of the mansions of Newport, Rhode Island.
A great read and I will add it to my favorites! Thanks to Tina, Tom, Jaidee, Joshie, Dan and Heather who encouraged me to read more of Edith Wharton, this book in particular.
(Edited 11/11/2021)
Top photo of a New York Fifth Avenue mansion from boweryboyshistory.com
Interior of a modern Fifth Avenue mansion from
A mansion in Newport RI (Chateau Sur Mer) from assets.simpleviewinc.com
The author from edithwharton.org
Winner of the 1921 Pulitzer Prize, The Age of Innocence is Edith Wharton鈥檚 masterful portrait of desire and betrayal during the sumptuous Golden Age of Old New York, a time when society people 鈥渄readed scandal more than disease.鈥� This is Newland Archer鈥檚 world as he prepares to marry the beautiful but conventional May Welland. But when the mysterious Countess Ellen Olenska returns to New York after a disastrous marriage, Archer falls deeply in love with her. Torn between duty and passion, Archer struggles to make a decision that will either courageously define his life鈥攐r mercilessly destroy it.
Elite New York society says of the Countess, separated from her husband who remains in Europe, 鈥淎nd now it鈥檚 too late; her life is finished.鈥� For a time she considers going back to her husband. She shocks people by wearing the wrong things, hanging out with the wrong people or by engaging men in frank conversation. In elite New York society at that time a woman could not walk away from conversation with a man to engage in conversation with another man; she had to wait for him to come to her.
The Countess shocks people by referring occasionally to 鈥榤y husband鈥� when everyone expects her never to mention him. But she is somewhat protected by her family connections: she is Newland鈥檚 wife鈥檚 cousin. Even though people will say in conversation 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to hear about anything unpleasant in her history鈥� all of them already know all the dirt.
Those in New York society at the time thought themselves superior to their counterparts in Europe. They think know European customs because they all honeymoon and vacation there for months at a time. Their goal is to keep out the 鈥渘ew people.鈥� They spend fortunes on dresses from Paris but wait a year to wear them because it is not sheik to wear the 鈥榣atest fashions.鈥� A woman is dishonored by her husband鈥檚 shady financial dealings. While they claim to be well-read and to love art and music, they will not hang out with those types of people or invite them to their parties. In conversation people are so uptight blush and pale constantly.
Newland thinks of his wife May as a 鈥楽tepford wife.鈥� Seeing her brow glistening in the light 鈥溾€e said to himself with a secret dismay that he would always know the thoughts behind it, that never, in all the years to come , would she surprise him by an unexpected mood, by a new idea, a weakness, a cruelty or an emotion.鈥� May is 鈥淭hat terrifying product of the social system he belonged to and believed in, the young girl who knew nothing and expected everything鈥︹€�
Newland thinks of himself as enlightened. Among men he says 鈥淲omen should be free 鈥� as free as we are,鈥� knowing full well that 鈥淣ice women, however wronged, would never claim the kind of freedom he meant, and generous-minded men like himself were therefore 鈥� in the heat of the argument 鈥� the more chivalrously ready to concede it to them.鈥� But of May he thinks: 鈥淭here was no use trying to emancipate a wife who had not the dimmest notion that she was not free鈥︹€�
After Newland and the Countess fall in love they enter into a kind of limbo: 鈥淗er choice would be stay near him as long as he did not ask her to come nearer; and it depended on himself to keep her just there, safe but secluded.鈥� I鈥檓 reminded of another novel I read recently: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garc铆a M谩rquez. Can you really pine away with love for someone your entire life?
There is good writing. Just a couple of examples:
Said of an ancient matron: 鈥淪he always, indeed, struck Newland Archer as having been rather gruesomely preserved in the airless atmosphere of a perfectly irreproachable existence, as bodies caught in glaciers keep for years a rosy life-in-death.鈥�
The opera lets out: 鈥淎mericans want to get away from amusement even more quickly than they want to get to it.鈥�
There鈥檚 a lot of local color of New York鈥檚 Fifth Avenue district and of the mansions of Newport, Rhode Island.
A great read and I will add it to my favorites! Thanks to Tina, Tom, Jaidee, Joshie, Dan and Heather who encouraged me to read more of Edith Wharton, this book in particular.
(Edited 11/11/2021)
Top photo of a New York Fifth Avenue mansion from boweryboyshistory.com
Interior of a modern Fifth Avenue mansion from
A mansion in Newport RI (Chateau Sur Mer) from assets.simpleviewinc.com
The author from edithwharton.org
July 27, 2020
The most perfect ending in literature - I'll never get over it.
June 30, 2023
鈥淲ith a shiver of foreboding he saw his marriage becoming what most of the other marriages about him were: a dull association of material and social interests held together by ignorance on the one side and hypocrisy on the other.鈥�
5 鈥榥ot so innocent鈥� stars for the 鈥楢ge of Innocence鈥�. A novel about love, duty, and freedom set, in New York, at a time when the existing social structures were giving way to penetrating modernism and changing values within and around familial structures and the society itself. A book that then cleverly personifies these cultural and social changes through the three central characters caught in a love triangle which plays out with such intensity, you can feel the moral dilemma, the battle between honour and passion and ultimately, the loss of innocence.
A book that is extravagant in its personal reflection but delicate in its expression and one that is beautifully crafted but written with such elegant prose. A story that is stripped back from exaggeration, convoluted themes, and complex characters, as we as spectators keenly observe how lust dominates and love can cloud the mind. And the sacrifice? - well innocence of course.
The Story
Newland Archer is heir to the fortune of one of New York鈥檚 wealthiest families who is promised to May Welland, from a noble family with an equally prominent status in New York society. However, Archer鈥檚 head is turned when May鈥檚 cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska, returns from Europe creating a scandal for leaving her husband and ending their marriage by refusing to return.
Initially encouraged to keep company with the lonely, exotic, and beautiful Ellen, Archer finds his interest and affections challenge his own views on his engagement to May. On the one hand he asks May to marry him sooner to prevent him straying and on the other hand, he continues to pursue and flirt dangerously with the women who is set to challenge his values and reputation as he finds himself conflicted between duty and honour and with love and opportunity.
Review and Comments
Changing society and Culture - The late 19th Century and early 20th Century is one of the most interesting historical periods, with its rigid and uncompromising social structures, the view of marriage and the survival of prominent families and their fortunes assured through well matched suitors, and the role of women, which created the perfect backdrop to tell this story.
"The untrained human nature was not frank and innocent; it was full of twists and defenses of an instinctive guile. And he felt himself oppressed by this creation of factitious purity so cunningly manufactured by a conspiracy of mothers, aunts and grandmothers"
New York itself a microcosm of Victorian England, changes through the story, and with it, the social machines, values, and beliefs as the era of genteel snobbery gives way to a ground swell of new ideas, new money, the spirit of enterprise, and a generation prepared to challenge the long-standing divisions and ideologies in society. Something the author seemed to have difficulty with as she looks back on this period in her own life as the loss of innocence through this social revolt, which is reflected in some of her comments, such as
鈥淭he difference is that these young people take it for granted that they're going to get whatever they want, and that we almost always took it for granted that we shouldn't.
Was it a feminist story? I don鈥檛 think so. Instead it was a story where the author took advantage as a writer of overlaying her own principles and frustrations at the repression of women when she says things like 鈥�..women ought to be free鈥�. However, also an author who valued the purist and principled attributes of a society she loathed to see changing.
The characterisation is outstanding, as most of these timeless classics are. May Welland symbolises innocence, and it is the changes in society, social structure and values that are played out so vividly in the character of May. Ellen symbolises the opposite, a worldly woman who is the antipathy of innocence meanwhile Archer cuts the most tragic of figures at times. A man whose life was predestined and the city he loved, and its culture was to become his most unforgiving adversary. His personal reflection on his reasons for marrying May, sums up all that was flawed in a society where people felt trapped and duty bound to follow custom
"He had married because he had met a perfectly charming girl.. and she represented peace, stability, comradeship and the steadying sense of an unescapable duty"
The clash between values, social and familial expectations, the vigorous spirit of modernism, the rising voice of women and the role of marriage and the ability to choose, provide a perfect historical backdrop for this gorgeous novel. A profound and powerful story of self-denial, love, honour, freedom, and commitment, but ultimately a loss of innocence!!! A book written with timeless elegance and purpose. An epic, a story for all generations.
鈥淎fter all there is good in the old ways鈥�.. but there was good in the new order too鈥�
_________________________________
2nd Read with a Book Club - 30th June 23
I have enjoyed rereading this as part of reading club / group in the last few weeks and I must say this was one of the best group reading experiences I鈥檝e ever had. So would highly recommend for reading clubs. There are so many threads that brought the group alive and despite offering some topics at the beginning of the discussion the group found a lot more. I thought this approach really worked to start the discussion but did not hinder the debate on anything. Fabulous.
Two points were heavily debated by the group but one all were in agreement on was the significance of the historical period, class structures, and attitudes of the time by both men and women. Opinion was however divided on the following
1. The individual versus the 鈥榞roup鈥� where the group was viewed as conformists and the 鈥榠ndividuals鈥� dared break free of the shackles from the past. Although it was the sacrifice that was to be made with such pursuits that focused our eye on the main characters. Some of whom enjoyed the indulgence of the higher social and wealth classes, so when that all important question is posed 鈥榃hat would you do for love?鈥� 鈥� they failed in my eyes!!!
2. May Welland strangely enough divided the group which for me was the most interesting discussion point. Some viewed her as highly manipulative. For me she represented the loss of innocence more so than anyone else and of course I don鈥檛 see that as contrived but rather a sad indictment of the times. Manipulative or a survivor 鈥� you decide, but a hardening of her heart for sure and the ultimate loss of innocence.
鈥淎h, good conversation 鈥� there's nothing like it, is there? The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing.鈥�
What a lovely quote to find in honour of this great reading experience.
I confess to missing the significance and symbolism of the 鈥榯orn wedding dress鈥� at the end of the book the first time I read it. Ironic and mocking as well as poignant and bitter, but affecting nontheless.
Perceptible, evocative, delicate, flagrant, immoral but still heartbreaking.
5 鈥榥ot so innocent鈥� stars for the 鈥楢ge of Innocence鈥�. A novel about love, duty, and freedom set, in New York, at a time when the existing social structures were giving way to penetrating modernism and changing values within and around familial structures and the society itself. A book that then cleverly personifies these cultural and social changes through the three central characters caught in a love triangle which plays out with such intensity, you can feel the moral dilemma, the battle between honour and passion and ultimately, the loss of innocence.
A book that is extravagant in its personal reflection but delicate in its expression and one that is beautifully crafted but written with such elegant prose. A story that is stripped back from exaggeration, convoluted themes, and complex characters, as we as spectators keenly observe how lust dominates and love can cloud the mind. And the sacrifice? - well innocence of course.
The Story
Newland Archer is heir to the fortune of one of New York鈥檚 wealthiest families who is promised to May Welland, from a noble family with an equally prominent status in New York society. However, Archer鈥檚 head is turned when May鈥檚 cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska, returns from Europe creating a scandal for leaving her husband and ending their marriage by refusing to return.
Initially encouraged to keep company with the lonely, exotic, and beautiful Ellen, Archer finds his interest and affections challenge his own views on his engagement to May. On the one hand he asks May to marry him sooner to prevent him straying and on the other hand, he continues to pursue and flirt dangerously with the women who is set to challenge his values and reputation as he finds himself conflicted between duty and honour and with love and opportunity.
Review and Comments
Changing society and Culture - The late 19th Century and early 20th Century is one of the most interesting historical periods, with its rigid and uncompromising social structures, the view of marriage and the survival of prominent families and their fortunes assured through well matched suitors, and the role of women, which created the perfect backdrop to tell this story.
"The untrained human nature was not frank and innocent; it was full of twists and defenses of an instinctive guile. And he felt himself oppressed by this creation of factitious purity so cunningly manufactured by a conspiracy of mothers, aunts and grandmothers"
New York itself a microcosm of Victorian England, changes through the story, and with it, the social machines, values, and beliefs as the era of genteel snobbery gives way to a ground swell of new ideas, new money, the spirit of enterprise, and a generation prepared to challenge the long-standing divisions and ideologies in society. Something the author seemed to have difficulty with as she looks back on this period in her own life as the loss of innocence through this social revolt, which is reflected in some of her comments, such as
鈥淭he difference is that these young people take it for granted that they're going to get whatever they want, and that we almost always took it for granted that we shouldn't.
Was it a feminist story? I don鈥檛 think so. Instead it was a story where the author took advantage as a writer of overlaying her own principles and frustrations at the repression of women when she says things like 鈥�..women ought to be free鈥�. However, also an author who valued the purist and principled attributes of a society she loathed to see changing.
The characterisation is outstanding, as most of these timeless classics are. May Welland symbolises innocence, and it is the changes in society, social structure and values that are played out so vividly in the character of May. Ellen symbolises the opposite, a worldly woman who is the antipathy of innocence meanwhile Archer cuts the most tragic of figures at times. A man whose life was predestined and the city he loved, and its culture was to become his most unforgiving adversary. His personal reflection on his reasons for marrying May, sums up all that was flawed in a society where people felt trapped and duty bound to follow custom
"He had married because he had met a perfectly charming girl.. and she represented peace, stability, comradeship and the steadying sense of an unescapable duty"
The clash between values, social and familial expectations, the vigorous spirit of modernism, the rising voice of women and the role of marriage and the ability to choose, provide a perfect historical backdrop for this gorgeous novel. A profound and powerful story of self-denial, love, honour, freedom, and commitment, but ultimately a loss of innocence!!! A book written with timeless elegance and purpose. An epic, a story for all generations.
鈥淎fter all there is good in the old ways鈥�.. but there was good in the new order too鈥�
_________________________________
2nd Read with a Book Club - 30th June 23
I have enjoyed rereading this as part of reading club / group in the last few weeks and I must say this was one of the best group reading experiences I鈥檝e ever had. So would highly recommend for reading clubs. There are so many threads that brought the group alive and despite offering some topics at the beginning of the discussion the group found a lot more. I thought this approach really worked to start the discussion but did not hinder the debate on anything. Fabulous.
Two points were heavily debated by the group but one all were in agreement on was the significance of the historical period, class structures, and attitudes of the time by both men and women. Opinion was however divided on the following
1. The individual versus the 鈥榞roup鈥� where the group was viewed as conformists and the 鈥榠ndividuals鈥� dared break free of the shackles from the past. Although it was the sacrifice that was to be made with such pursuits that focused our eye on the main characters. Some of whom enjoyed the indulgence of the higher social and wealth classes, so when that all important question is posed 鈥榃hat would you do for love?鈥� 鈥� they failed in my eyes!!!
2. May Welland strangely enough divided the group which for me was the most interesting discussion point. Some viewed her as highly manipulative. For me she represented the loss of innocence more so than anyone else and of course I don鈥檛 see that as contrived but rather a sad indictment of the times. Manipulative or a survivor 鈥� you decide, but a hardening of her heart for sure and the ultimate loss of innocence.
鈥淎h, good conversation 鈥� there's nothing like it, is there? The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing.鈥�
What a lovely quote to find in honour of this great reading experience.
I confess to missing the significance and symbolism of the 鈥榯orn wedding dress鈥� at the end of the book the first time I read it. Ironic and mocking as well as poignant and bitter, but affecting nontheless.
Perceptible, evocative, delicate, flagrant, immoral but still heartbreaking.
October 4, 2017
鈥楾he longing was with him day and night, an incessant undefinable craving, like the sudden whim of a sick man for food or drink once tasted and long since forgotten. He could not see beyond the craving, or picture what it might lead to, for he was not conscious of any wish to speak to Madame Olenska or to hear her voice. He simply felt that if he could carry away the vision of the spot of earth she walked on, and the way the sky and sea enclosed it, the rest of the world might seem less empty.鈥�
There was never getting away from their circumstances for Newland and Ellen, the protagonists of . As I weep for them and their unrequited love, I realized it was not meant to be. depicts masterfully New York鈥檚 traditions and judgmental airs, which were from the start against them. This elite group within which they existed had very rigid rules of behavior, social rituals, fashion, and clear censures for those that violated them. There is a clear hypocrisy in their life that existed behind their conservative moral exterior.
"In reality they all lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs."
As I started reading Edith Wharton鈥檚 crisp prose and witty dialogues, I got to know Newland Archer, May Welland and Ellen, Countess Olenska. What was inescapable from the outset is that they were a product of New York society of their time.
As Newland meets Countess Olenska, he is not prepared for her worldly persona. Thus it is that May and Newland make their engagement public right away, to ease the acceptance of Ellen into their social pack. May is considered the perfect model of what a young wife should be: young, beautiful, soft, obedient, pliant, conventional, and with no opinions on anything of importance. We would consider her boring, but those were different times.
Newland starts out pretty much the same; he's a young lawyer, used to his luxurious and idle style of living; all in accord with the strict rules of society. Yes, both are good persons with many amiable qualities, but they simply are not exceptional. They were clearly not in love, just following rituals that defined that a young man should marry a nice girl with a good family. 鈥橳here was no better match in New York than May Welland, look at the question from what point you choose. Of course such a marriage was only what Newland was entitled to鈥︹€�
Newland and Ellen鈥檚 love story is nevertheless magnificent because it is the changes and character growth of both lovers that make it endearing and wonderful. When we first meet Newland Archer he could not have been more in tune with New York society鈥檚 status quo:
But Newland Archer was too imaginative not to feel that, in his case and May's, the tie might gall for reasons far less gross and palpable. What could he and she really know of each other, since it was his duty, as a "decent" fellow, to conceal his past from her, and hers, as a marriageable girl, to have no past to conceal?
If Newland Archer seems indecisive and hesitant, it's in part because he is conflicted with his values and desires. He even starts defending new ideas, 鈥漌omen ought to be free 鈥� as free as we are鈥� Nevertheless, it is easy to note how typical Newland Archer was when we first meet him, how judgmental, how hypocritical:
There was nothing mean or ungenerous in the young man鈥檚 heart, and he was glad that his future wife should be restrained by false prudery from being kind (in private) to her unhappy cousin; but to receive Countess Olenska in the family circle was a different thing from producing her in public, at the Opera of all places, and in the very box with the young girl whose engagement to him, Newland Archer, was to be announced in a few weeks. No, he felt as old Sillerton Jackson felt; he did not think the Mingotts would have tried it on!
Could he have been more traditional? 鈥橦e hated to think of May Welland's being exposed to the influence of a young woman so careless of the dictates of Taste.鈥� Yes, in the beginning, he hated the idea of his innocent fianc茅 being contaminated by the worldly Countess.
Nevertheless, Newland's careful and predictable world is flipped completely upside down when he meets and really gets to know the intriguing and intrepid Countess Olenska. As the plot moves on, we discovered all is not as we first envisioned. Newland is changing as he falls deeper in love with Ellen. He soon starts to show signs of rebelling against his previous ideals, begins transforming himself. A conversation with Ellen鈥檚 grandmother and family matriarch is particularly revealing:
"Poor Ellen鈥攕he was always a wayward child. I wonder what her fate will be?"
"What we've all contrived to make it," he felt like answering. "If you'd all of you rather she should be Beaufort's mistress than some decent fellow's wife you've certainly gone the right way about it."
But his transformation is not fast or deep enough, he is not able to entirely free himself from the constraints imposed on him by society and his own upbringing. He is not courageous enough?, you might ask. 鈥楬is whole future seemed suddenly to be unrolled before him; and passing down its endless emptiness he saw the dwindling figure of a man to whom nothing was ever to happen.鈥� But there is much more at play here. He soon realizes how restrictive his marriage was, how loveless and lonely his life would be:
鈥橳here was no use in trying to emancipate a wife who had not the dimmest notion that she was not free; and he had long since discovered that May's only use of the liberty she supposed herself to possess would be to lay it on the altar of her wifely adoration.鈥�
And much more,
鈥橦e perceived with a flash of chilling insight that in the future many problems would be thus negatively solved for him; nut as he paid the hansom and followed his wife 鈥e took refuge in the comforting platitude that the first six months were always the most difficult in marriage. "After that I suppose we shall have pretty nearly finished rubbing off each other's angles," he reflected; but the worst of it was that May's pressure was already bearing on the very angles whose sharpness he most wanted to keep.鈥�
Even after understanding what his marriage would make of his life, he cannot escape.
"Outside it, in the scene of his actual life, he moved with a growing sense of unreality and insufficiency, blundering against familiar prejudices and traditional points of view as an absent-minded man goes on bumping into the furniture of his own room. Absent鈥攖hat was what he was: so absent from everything most densely real and near to those about him that it sometimes startled him to find they still imagined he was there."
He cannot break up from convention, although he dreams of going as far as Japan with Ellen:
"Archer had fancied that his path was clear before him. He had meant to have a word alone with Madame Olenska, and failing that, to learn from her grandmother on what day, and by which train, she was returning to Washington. In that train he intended to join her, and travel with her to Washington, or as much farther as she was willing to go. His own fancy inclined to Japan."
Even if the story is told through Newland鈥檚 point of view, we cannot forget how much Ellen suffered. Probably even more than him, since it seems she had no choice:
"Oh, I know鈥擨 know! But on condition that they don't hear anything unpleasant. Aunt Welland put it in those very words when I tried.... Does no one want to know the truth here, Mr. Archer? The real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only ask one to pretend!" She lifted her hands to her face, and he saw her thin shoulders shaken by a sob.
We also soon discover that May is not so innocent. Although all her fight seems to be enforced to defend her marriage, its survival, and in that she would never change. What she learned with her mother she would repeat in her marriage 'Now she was simply ripening into a copy of her mother, and mysteriously, by the very process, trying to turn him into a Mr. Welland'. No, she was never weak just limited.
"I told her I was afraid I hadn't been fair to her鈥攈adn't always understood how hard it must have been for her here, alone among so many people who were relations and yet strangers; who felt the right to criticise, and yet didn't always know the circumstances." She paused. "I knew you'd been the one friend she could always count on; and I wanted her to know that you and I were the same鈥攊n all our feelings."
But Newland was still dreaming of breaking away from everything, of being with Ellen. He tells May he needs to get away, but she was ahead of him. Not an innocent at all:
鈥滻 want to take a break鈥撯€�
鈥淎 break? To give up law?鈥�
鈥淭o go away, at any rate 鈥� at once. On a long trip, ever so far off 鈥� away from everything鈥撯€�
He paused, conscious that he had failed in his attempt to speak with the indifference of a man who longs for a change and is yet too weary to welcome it. Do what he would, the chord of eagerness vibrated. 鈥淎way from everything 鈥� 鈥渉e repeated.
鈥淓ver so far? Where, for instance?鈥� she asked.
鈥淥h, I don鈥檛 know. India 鈥� or Japan.鈥�
鈥淎s far as that? But I鈥檓 afraid you can鈥檛, dear 鈥� Not unless you take me with you. 鈥hat is, if the doctors let me go 鈥ut I鈥檓 afraid they won鈥檛. For you see, Newland, I鈥檝e been sure since this morning of something I鈥檝e been longing and hoping for鈥撯€�
鈥淗ave you told anyone else?鈥�
鈥淥nly Mama and your mother. 鈥hat is 鈥� and Ellen. You know I told you we鈥檇 had a long talk one afternoon 鈥� and how dear she was to me.鈥�
鈥淎h鈥撯€� said Archer, his heart stopping.
What I concluded is that Newland might be rebellious while May is until the end tradition itself. This pattern we witness endlessly, and when Newland ponders what their marriage and family life had been like it is all summed so clearly:
鈥楾his hard bright blindness had kept her immediate horizon apparently unaltered. Her incapacity to recognize change made her children conceal their views from her as Archer concealed his; there had been, from the first, a joint pretense of sameness, a kind of innocent family hypocrisy, in which father and children had unconsciously collaborated.鈥�
For one thing, his life as a man allowed him more freedom even to circumvent social customs for he was not as closely watched. Not that it was easier for him, for he struggles between social conformity and honesty to one's emotions. And not that May would want to change. She was set on her role without any uncertainty.
And often we see him contradict himself. Despite his transformation, we realize he will always be a 19th century man, as we witness him saying things such as 鈥淲hat could he and she really know of each other, since it was his duty, as a "decent" fellow, to conceal his past from her, and hers, as a marriageable girl, to have no past to conceal?鈥�, while later he will dream of running away with Ellen.
The essence of Edith Wharton鈥檚 novel is whether Newland and Ellen ever had a chance? Not at their time. And Ellen recognizes reality: 鈥滱h, my poor Newland 鈥� I suppose this had to be鈥� You鈥檙e engaged to May Welland; and I鈥檓 married鈥�. And Newland replied, 鈥淚t鈥檚 too late to do anything else鈥�. To apart mean a return to their old respective life patterns, but to be together would mean going against what they both loved the most in the other. I can't love you unless I give you up. Being together would mean breaking too many rules, hurting loved ones, and carrying a guilt that would ultimately separate them if not physically for certain emotionally.
"But you knew; you understood; you had felt the world outside tugging at one with all its golden hands鈥攁nd yet you hated the things it asks of one; you hated happiness bought by disloyalty and cruelty and indifference. That was what I'd never known before鈥攁nd it's better than anything I've known."
This great work is a bittersweet love story at the mercy of society鈥檚 morals and ethics, with conflicting values that prevents them from realizing their most ardent desire to be together. I'd say this is the strong and beautiful point of this classic.
The idea that he could ever, in his senses, have dreamed of marrying Countess Olenska had become almost unthinkable, and she remained in his memory simply as the most plaintive and poignant of a line of ghosts.
Even more heartfelt:
The long was with him day and night, an incessant undeniable craving, like the sudden whim of a sick man for food or drink once tasted and long since forgotten.
The characters are forced to adjust and readjust to their changing life, but that is still not enough. At least it was not in their lifetime. The changes they go through are not deep enough to allow them a happy ever after. How painful to live through this changing times; and how dreadful to accept their fate. I can just imagine and suffer for them, and weep for them. Here lies the greatness of The Age of Innocence.
Their fate was to be apart, and so nothing rests for them but to keep their memories intact. It's what we lost and our memories that stay with us. If he had gone up to meet her, it would be another story.
鈥�"It's more real to me here than if I went up," he suddenly heard himself say; and the fear lest that last shadow of reality should lose its edge kept him rooted to his seat as the minutes succeeded each other.鈥�
Oh, I have to repeat myself: there is nothing more heartbreaking than unrequited love. So I weep again for them.
---
My first impressions:
鈥淚 can't love you unless I give you up.鈥�Oh, Vessey, I just finished ! And I have to tell you that the last 10% conquered me. It made it me think that it had to be. They were set on their way before Ellen arrived and Newland and Amy made public their engagement. And I believe it had to end as it did. Suddenly, I discovered it deserved 5 full stars. It's what we lost and our memories that stay with us. If he had gone up to meet her, it would be another story.
I loved how it analyzed his marriage with May, the old costumes that are no more. That hypocritical society that held him down is finally fading. But too late for Ellen and Newland.
Well, it is all still too new to me, and the only thing I can say is that it touched me deeply. Maybe more because of my age, since I know enough of life and remember all that I lost and could never simply be revisited.
"It's more real to me here than if I went up," he suddenly heard himself say; and the fear lest that last shadow of reality should lose its edge kept him rooted to his seat as the minutes succeeded each other.
There is nothing more heartbreaking than unrequited love. So I weep for them.
____
September 22, 2024
The Age of Innocence is one of those books that have been teetering on my to-read pile for months while I attended to life鈥檚 copious demands. Once I started it, however, there seemed to be nothing else in the world worth reading鈥攐r doing. I was utterly absorbed.
The novel centers on the microcosm of 1870s New York鈥檚 elite society and uses it as a lens to scrutinize not only the nuanced spectacle of the leisured class, but also that of the human soul. In The Age of Innocence, Wharton casts a visceral spotlight on the messy and volatile instabilities permeating the seemingly stable narratives of privileged polite society. More specifically, the novel portrays the subtle choreography of mannered social etiquette as, in large part, a masquerade.
From childhood on, Newland Archer was taught the pantomimic language of this social performance, indoctrinated into Old New York鈥檚 cult of silence, which finds strength in legacy and reputation and uses its substantial power to impose a false, all-encompassing 鈥渁ll rightness鈥� in untenable circumstances in order to protect itself. As such, Newland is expected to marry the innocent, na茂ve, and 鈥渁rtless鈥� May Welland who, unencumbered by dreams of subversion, would make a 鈥渂lameless鈥� wife incapable of surprising him. Yet, Newland cannot bear thoughts of that future, stretching away in safe, dull years on the other side of the gulf separating him from the object of his truest desires: the untouchable Countess Oleska. May鈥檚 disgraced cousin.
I loved this book. Wharton explores, with both ingenuity and a poisonous bite, the angst of agency and individuality and its unsettling struggle for power in the act of attempting to escape the societal structures in which we are embedded. The novel鈥檚 subject, after all, is the journey of repositioning one鈥檚 self in relation to the tradition and culture we grew up in, and the difficulty of continuing to live in the complexity and clarity of that learned wisdom. Newland, for much of the novel, luxuriates in the seductive premise of living an unmoored life, outside the narrow parameters of his privileged slice of New York, which formed him but which he feels he has now completely outgrown. He is eager to go, to cast off the dreadful moorage that is his engagement to May Welland and seize what he can of the world for himself.
Newland, above all, wants Ellen. Seeing Ellen again, for so many years, has brought his world to a proper perspective, and their shared resistance to being taxonomized by the stale societal scripts they were born into brought them closer together. Newland throws himself at Ellen with the sort of carelessness and abandon that befits his youth and station. Despite the powerful tides tugging them apart, he is determined to weather the risks that love and desire necessitate. Yet, of course, the central irony here is that no matter how far Newland鈥檚 fall from grace would be, Ellen鈥檚 would still be from greater a height. Their clannish society鈥檚 customs dictate that such dissent (and descent) from the universal script of propriety must be severely punished. And as these scripts usually go, Ellen (who鈥檚 still reeling from her own marital scandal) is set to bear the cost.
While reading this book, the question of who is in the luxurious position of being able to transgress lied like a needle in the back of my mind. Newland鈥檚 battle for coherence and self-agency is predicated on the interdependent working of class, race, and gender. Newland flirts with the idea of surpassing the limitations of his social reality, but his desire struck me as yet another masquerade. It is subversive, certainly, but it cannot genuinely harm him鈥攍ike a defanged serpent. The potential loss and fracture of Newland鈥檚 bachelor dreams lead him to disillusionment, but not to any real rebuilding. At the end, Newland cannot truly escape the world that formed him because he is incapable of seeing it clearly in the first place. Newland therefore becomes the prisoner and eventually the victim鈥攊f he is a victim at all鈥攐f his own misperceptions.
Ultimately, what comes forcefully in The Age of Innocence is the cost of negating the reality of the world we live in and the people we love and are responsible for to uphold the incomplete fictions of our illusions. The ending twisted my heart into sadness and pity, but I can鈥檛 conceive of a more apt conclusion for this novel.
The novel centers on the microcosm of 1870s New York鈥檚 elite society and uses it as a lens to scrutinize not only the nuanced spectacle of the leisured class, but also that of the human soul. In The Age of Innocence, Wharton casts a visceral spotlight on the messy and volatile instabilities permeating the seemingly stable narratives of privileged polite society. More specifically, the novel portrays the subtle choreography of mannered social etiquette as, in large part, a masquerade.
From childhood on, Newland Archer was taught the pantomimic language of this social performance, indoctrinated into Old New York鈥檚 cult of silence, which finds strength in legacy and reputation and uses its substantial power to impose a false, all-encompassing 鈥渁ll rightness鈥� in untenable circumstances in order to protect itself. As such, Newland is expected to marry the innocent, na茂ve, and 鈥渁rtless鈥� May Welland who, unencumbered by dreams of subversion, would make a 鈥渂lameless鈥� wife incapable of surprising him. Yet, Newland cannot bear thoughts of that future, stretching away in safe, dull years on the other side of the gulf separating him from the object of his truest desires: the untouchable Countess Oleska. May鈥檚 disgraced cousin.
I loved this book. Wharton explores, with both ingenuity and a poisonous bite, the angst of agency and individuality and its unsettling struggle for power in the act of attempting to escape the societal structures in which we are embedded. The novel鈥檚 subject, after all, is the journey of repositioning one鈥檚 self in relation to the tradition and culture we grew up in, and the difficulty of continuing to live in the complexity and clarity of that learned wisdom. Newland, for much of the novel, luxuriates in the seductive premise of living an unmoored life, outside the narrow parameters of his privileged slice of New York, which formed him but which he feels he has now completely outgrown. He is eager to go, to cast off the dreadful moorage that is his engagement to May Welland and seize what he can of the world for himself.
Newland, above all, wants Ellen. Seeing Ellen again, for so many years, has brought his world to a proper perspective, and their shared resistance to being taxonomized by the stale societal scripts they were born into brought them closer together. Newland throws himself at Ellen with the sort of carelessness and abandon that befits his youth and station. Despite the powerful tides tugging them apart, he is determined to weather the risks that love and desire necessitate. Yet, of course, the central irony here is that no matter how far Newland鈥檚 fall from grace would be, Ellen鈥檚 would still be from greater a height. Their clannish society鈥檚 customs dictate that such dissent (and descent) from the universal script of propriety must be severely punished. And as these scripts usually go, Ellen (who鈥檚 still reeling from her own marital scandal) is set to bear the cost.
While reading this book, the question of who is in the luxurious position of being able to transgress lied like a needle in the back of my mind. Newland鈥檚 battle for coherence and self-agency is predicated on the interdependent working of class, race, and gender. Newland flirts with the idea of surpassing the limitations of his social reality, but his desire struck me as yet another masquerade. It is subversive, certainly, but it cannot genuinely harm him鈥攍ike a defanged serpent. The potential loss and fracture of Newland鈥檚 bachelor dreams lead him to disillusionment, but not to any real rebuilding. At the end, Newland cannot truly escape the world that formed him because he is incapable of seeing it clearly in the first place. Newland therefore becomes the prisoner and eventually the victim鈥攊f he is a victim at all鈥攐f his own misperceptions.
Ultimately, what comes forcefully in The Age of Innocence is the cost of negating the reality of the world we live in and the people we love and are responsible for to uphold the incomplete fictions of our illusions. The ending twisted my heart into sadness and pity, but I can鈥檛 conceive of a more apt conclusion for this novel.
October 29, 2021
(Book 726 from 1001 books) - The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
The Age of Innocence is a 1920 novel by the American author Edith Wharton. It won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making Wharton the first woman to win the prize.
The story is set in the 1870's, in upper-class, "Gilded-Age" New York City. Newland Archer, gentleman lawyer and heir to one of New York City's best families, is happily anticipating a highly desirable marriage to the sheltered and beautiful May Welland.
Yet he finds reason to doubt his choice of bride after the appearance of Countess Ellen Olenska, May's exotic and beautiful 30-year-old cousin. Ellen has returned to New York from Europe after scandalously separating herself (per rumor) from a bad marriage to a Polish count.
At first, Ellen's arrival and its potential taint on the reputation of his bride-to-be's family disturb Newland, but he becomes intrigued by the worldly Ellen, who flouts New York society's fastidious rules.
As Newland's admiration for the countess grows, so does his doubt about marrying May, a perfect product of Old New York society; his match with May no longer seems the ideal fate he had imagined. ...
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鬲丕乇蹖禺 亘賴賳诏丕賲 乇爻丕賳蹖 21/10/1399賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 06/08/1400賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 丕. 卮乇亘蹖丕賳蹖
The Age of Innocence is a 1920 novel by the American author Edith Wharton. It won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making Wharton the first woman to win the prize.
The story is set in the 1870's, in upper-class, "Gilded-Age" New York City. Newland Archer, gentleman lawyer and heir to one of New York City's best families, is happily anticipating a highly desirable marriage to the sheltered and beautiful May Welland.
Yet he finds reason to doubt his choice of bride after the appearance of Countess Ellen Olenska, May's exotic and beautiful 30-year-old cousin. Ellen has returned to New York from Europe after scandalously separating herself (per rumor) from a bad marriage to a Polish count.
At first, Ellen's arrival and its potential taint on the reputation of his bride-to-be's family disturb Newland, but he becomes intrigued by the worldly Ellen, who flouts New York society's fastidious rules.
As Newland's admiration for the countess grows, so does his doubt about marrying May, a perfect product of Old New York society; his match with May no longer seems the ideal fate he had imagined. ...
毓賳賵丕賳賴丕蹖 趩丕倬 卮丿賴 丿乇 丕蹖乇丕賳: 芦毓氐乇 亘蹖诏賳丕賴蹖禄貨 芦毓氐乇 賲毓氐賵賲蹖鬲禄貨 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴: 丕丿蹖鬲 賵丕乇鬲賵賳 貨 丕賳鬲卮丕乇丕鬲蹖賴丕 (噩丕乇貨 賮丕禺鬲賴貨 爻禺賳貙 賳卮乇 賳禺爻鬲蹖賳貙 賳賯丿 丕賮讴丕乇)貨 鬲丕乇蹖禺 賳禺爻鬲蹖賳 禺賵丕賳卮 乇賵夭 賴賮丿賴賲 賲丕賴 賳賵丕賲亘乇 爻丕賱1995賲蹖賱丕丿蹖
毓賳賵丕賳: 毓氐乇 亘蹖诏賳丕賴蹖貨 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴: 丕丿蹖鬲 賵丕乇鬲賵賳貨 賲鬲乇噩賲: 賲蹖賳賵 賲卮蹖乇蹖貨 鬲賴乇丕賳貙 賮丕禺鬲賴貙 爻丕賱1373貨 丿乇389氐貨 趩丕倬 趩賴丕乇賲 爻丕賱1378貨 卮丕亘讴9644304591貨 賲賵囟賵毓 丿丕爻鬲丕賳賴丕蹖 賳賵蹖爻賳丿诏丕賳 丕蹖丕賱丕鬲 賲鬲丨丿賴 丌賲乇蹖讴丕 - 爻丿賴 20賲
毓賳賵丕賳: 毓氐乇 亘蹖诏賳丕賴蹖貨 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴: 丕丿蹖鬲 賵丕乇鬲賵賳貨 賲鬲乇噩賲: 倬乇鬲賵 丕卮乇丕賯貨 鬲賴乇丕賳貙 噩丕乇貙 爻丕賱1373貨 丿乇319氐貨 趩丕倬 丿蹖诏乇 鬲賴乇丕賳貙 賳卮乇 賳禺爻鬲蹖賳貙 爻丕賱1378貨 丿乇4氐 賵319氐貨 卮丕亘讴9646716296貨 亘丕毓賳賵丕賳 毓氐乇 賲毓氐賵賲蹖鬲貨 鬲賴乇丕賳貙 賳賯丿 丕賮讴丕乇貙 爻丕賱1389貨 丿乇400氐貨 卮丕亘讴9789642280803貨
丕诏乇 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 乇丕 賳禺賵丕賳丿賴 丕蹖丿 卮丕蹖丿 丕蹖賳 賳賵卮鬲丕乇 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 乇丕 賱賵 賲蹖丿賴丿 賴卮丿丕乇 賲蹖丿賴賲
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鬲丕乇蹖禺 亘賴賳诏丕賲 乇爻丕賳蹖 21/10/1399賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 06/08/1400賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 丕. 卮乇亘蹖丕賳蹖
February 9, 2018
Myself and the Pulitzer prize have previously not always seen eye to eye, but Finally, I have read one worthy of giving top marks to. This golden oldie captures the wholesome atmosphere of American life and the highest standard of American manners and manhood from a bygone era, where modern ideas are resisted and tradition overcomes compassion. The inhabitants of this hothouse of New York society is built on wealth, life is lavished, easy and comfortably cushioned, but this world may just as well have been covered in a blanket of cobwebs, as the lives are so sedate and uneventfully dull, despite their opulent surroundings, they appear colourless and motionless. It is ultimately a tragic tale that Wharton weaves, and yes, as with a lot of classic fiction based around love, it's told with air of melancholy because this love is one that doesn't really get off the ground. For Newland Archer, the leading male character, there is an imagining of an alternative existence to the one that convention has pressed upon him, he has built within himself a kind of sanctuary for his secret thoughts and longings. Within these walls are his bride to be, May Welland and Countess Olenska, who would change his whole world.
"The real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only ask one to pretend"
Archer is a perfect product of Old New York, a member of one of the most prominent, historic families, he lives in the obligatory sumptuous brownstone on Fifth Avenue with his mild mannered mother and spinster sister, and languidly pursues the law as most gentlemen of his age and inherited wealth do. He is engaged to the young, beautiful, and equally impeccably bred May Welland, who is sweet sweet natured but naive. After twelve years away returns the Countess Ellen Olenska, May鈥檚 cousin, who through no fault of her own upsets the balance of Newland's life. She is beautiful, vivacious and intelligent, whose long period of living in more liberal European surroundings has made her innocent of the nonsensical, unspoken rules of the society she has reentered, and incapable of maintaining the shallow facade of her female relatives. Newland feels a life of quiet misery lies ahead, and despairs over Olenska as they grow closer and closer, because he is forced, by his own realisation, to know how Ellen will be treated if she dares to divorce her husband, and advises against it, even though he is devoured by love for her.
Wharton mesmerizes with the sheer depth of emotion, pain, and frustration bearing down on Newland's shoulders, he really is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Through thwarted dreams, despairing disillusionment, unbearable regrets and the innocence that seals the mind against imagination and the heart against experience, Newland and Ellen share a secret love that enables each of them to be the best people they can be, fulfilled intellectually, emotionally and socially, and the fact they can never be together in harmony is just as unbearable for the reader as it is for the characters, and this is where Wharton excels with people you truly believe in. For May, she is neither clever nor truthful, and only rarely shows a spirit that reveals a depth of feeling in the face of connvention and social expectations. In telling the story of how Archer and Olenska, against all the strictures and taboos of their society, fall in love, Wharton seems to be siding with the individual in this universal tug-of-war. But I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 ever that simple. Certainly, New York's upper society in the 1870s was one of grandeur, but it is described in Archer鈥檚 thoughts and Wharton鈥檚 observations as a prison of the mind, one where the cells are sprinkled with gold dust.
The finale, of many years later, moved me immensely, I thought of all that went before, a story that in terms of characterisation was searing on every page with the intensity of this doomed love affair. A stunning novel, impeccably told. And I think it's unfair to simply label this as old fashioned 'chick-lit' because it's about so much more than what appears on the surface. Her tone is sardonic and to some extent cynical of the social world into which the reader enters, and she portrays this society, its conventions and traditions, through the unforgettable vivid characters whose behaviour and thinking were moulded in time.
"The real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only ask one to pretend"
Archer is a perfect product of Old New York, a member of one of the most prominent, historic families, he lives in the obligatory sumptuous brownstone on Fifth Avenue with his mild mannered mother and spinster sister, and languidly pursues the law as most gentlemen of his age and inherited wealth do. He is engaged to the young, beautiful, and equally impeccably bred May Welland, who is sweet sweet natured but naive. After twelve years away returns the Countess Ellen Olenska, May鈥檚 cousin, who through no fault of her own upsets the balance of Newland's life. She is beautiful, vivacious and intelligent, whose long period of living in more liberal European surroundings has made her innocent of the nonsensical, unspoken rules of the society she has reentered, and incapable of maintaining the shallow facade of her female relatives. Newland feels a life of quiet misery lies ahead, and despairs over Olenska as they grow closer and closer, because he is forced, by his own realisation, to know how Ellen will be treated if she dares to divorce her husband, and advises against it, even though he is devoured by love for her.
Wharton mesmerizes with the sheer depth of emotion, pain, and frustration bearing down on Newland's shoulders, he really is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Through thwarted dreams, despairing disillusionment, unbearable regrets and the innocence that seals the mind against imagination and the heart against experience, Newland and Ellen share a secret love that enables each of them to be the best people they can be, fulfilled intellectually, emotionally and socially, and the fact they can never be together in harmony is just as unbearable for the reader as it is for the characters, and this is where Wharton excels with people you truly believe in. For May, she is neither clever nor truthful, and only rarely shows a spirit that reveals a depth of feeling in the face of connvention and social expectations. In telling the story of how Archer and Olenska, against all the strictures and taboos of their society, fall in love, Wharton seems to be siding with the individual in this universal tug-of-war. But I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 ever that simple. Certainly, New York's upper society in the 1870s was one of grandeur, but it is described in Archer鈥檚 thoughts and Wharton鈥檚 observations as a prison of the mind, one where the cells are sprinkled with gold dust.
The finale, of many years later, moved me immensely, I thought of all that went before, a story that in terms of characterisation was searing on every page with the intensity of this doomed love affair. A stunning novel, impeccably told. And I think it's unfair to simply label this as old fashioned 'chick-lit' because it's about so much more than what appears on the surface. Her tone is sardonic and to some extent cynical of the social world into which the reader enters, and she portrays this society, its conventions and traditions, through the unforgettable vivid characters whose behaviour and thinking were moulded in time.
March 20, 2024
Appearances can be deceiving as this superb classic novel reveals...Newland Archer has the perfect life rich young and good looking, a member in excellent standing of New York's High Society of 1871 during the Golden Age. These people feel not like prisoners, but brave members of a group keeping back the barbarians at the gate. Newland is engaged to a beautiful charming girl May Welland also in the exclusive association, who loves him. But then her mysterious cousin arrives from Europe, Countess Ellen Olenska married to a brute a Polish nobleman who repeatedly degrades her, showing contempt for their marriage by parading lowly women in front of the Countess. Not trying to hide his transgressions, letting the world know it. The fleeing woman is a childhood playmate of Mr. Archer, and he can still remember her as she, he. First seeing the fugitive again at the Opera, with his future bride and family in their box. May loves her cousin and Ellen, loves May... The Countess causes quite a stir with the audience, men look approvingly at the attractive lady, women more critical. Poor Ellen as the relatives call her, living with an unconventional grandmother Mrs. Manson Mingott so obese she needs help to get up, nevertheless the lady is the head of the family and people listen to, even though she has strange ways then again very rich but... stingy. There is an unstated powerful attraction between Archer and Ellen, still duty prevents anything unsavory from happening besides Newland, believes in the proper way of doing things. A self described dilettante who goes through the motions of being a lawyer, in an office where he has little to do. Archer lives with his widowed mother Mrs. Adeline Archer, she is forever saying that everything is changing for the worse in the city and spinster sister Janey, they look so alike the two could be sisters, both depend on each other for companionship. He's a secret fanatic a bookworm receiving the latest editions from London, staying in a room reading that's when the gentleman is happy. Mr. Archer has no close friends the only person he can feel comfortable with, be himself is Ned Winsett a penniless struggling journalist, but of the lower class with a sick wife. Newland wants his wedding to happen earlier than is the established custom, hoping temptations will end if he is married to May. Even traveling to St.Augustine, Florida, on a surprise visit, where May is vacationing with her family for that purpose, his boss is not elated. Mr. Archer is wrong , clearly the gentleman loves the Countess and she returns the sentiment. Boorish banker Julius Beaufort vastly wealthy, an uncouth foreigner ( married to an influential and quite proper lady a New
York society woman) with a propensity to break all the rules, is chasing the skittish Ellen she needs to get away. They meet clandestinely in Boston the Countess and Archer; away from the prying eyes of everyone, the two hope just to hold each other... At a family gathering in Newport, Rhode Island, Newland is told to fetch Ellen, he goes down to the beach sees her on the pier, passionately stares for a long time and retreats back to the house, it would not be proper he thinks. An elegy saturates the whole book, from the first page to the last.
York society woman) with a propensity to break all the rules, is chasing the skittish Ellen she needs to get away. They meet clandestinely in Boston the Countess and Archer; away from the prying eyes of everyone, the two hope just to hold each other... At a family gathering in Newport, Rhode Island, Newland is told to fetch Ellen, he goes down to the beach sees her on the pier, passionately stares for a long time and retreats back to the house, it would not be proper he thinks. An elegy saturates the whole book, from the first page to the last.
October 10, 2016
鈥淓ach time you happen to me all over again.鈥�
Imagine that person you love most in this world, right within your grasp, but somehow out of reach. An invisible thin wall keeping you apart. Apart but not away from each other. Together yet not with each other. This is the worst form of torture, a torture of invisible chains and soundless screams. Constantly seeing each other, constantly being reminded of what cannot be. Constantly falling in love yet constantly falling apart. The urge, the love, the longing constantly growing, engulfing you until you cannot bear to live. Every part of your body numb and unaware of the realities around you. Because for you, only the pain you feel is real. The only truth you know is that everything is a lie.
Edith Wharton paints a very delicate picture that resonates elegiac waves and enraptures its readers to the very bone. One can't help but succumb to this level of desire, of emotion and empathize because of the atmosphere that Wharton has created. Her prose is crisp, straight and true. One might say that her prose is a reflection of her New York socialite self. (Wharton was born with quite a few gazillion silver spoons stuck somewhere on her buttocks.) Aside from that, with such a dazzling foray of words, she evoked such emotion in me that I was afraid I might like her Facebook page at some point. So with that in mind, I vowed to refrain from using Facebook until I've finished reading this book. Well, it worked fine for me. On another note, I was really impressed with her depiction of the 1870s New York. Based on a little research I did, her canvas of the place was just spot on splendid.
"It was the spirit of it -- the spirit of the exquisite romantic pain. The idea that the mere touching of a woman's hand would suffice. The idea that seeing her across the room would keep him alive for another year."
That sort of a relationship, that unique communication between two people savagely drawn to the other like moth to a flame is of a different level than all the other types of communication. This communication between them is that of the deepest kind. A communication that needs not one of the five senses. This communication of feeling, of intense knowing, of mutual understanding, this unity of the mind, this shared consciousness is the effect of a love that knows no bounds, strengthened to an insane proportion by the fact that it was never meant to be.
鈥淭he real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only ask one to pretend!鈥�
"What's the use? You gave me my glimpse of a real life, and at the same moment you asked me to go on with a sham one."
But what really struck me the most was that irony that these two people enlightened to be different from the 鈥減retend people鈥�, who revile them and mockingly laugh at their trained innocence and hapless practices were to be subjected to a pretend relationship as well. 鈥淚n reality they all lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs.鈥� They that were above that 鈥淚nnocence鈥� were cruelly placed upon a circumstance in which they have to feign Innocence as well, as the only way to sustain their love for each other. 鈥淚 can't love you unless I give you up.鈥� This has led me to believe that such innocence can only be a result of circumstances beyond their powers. That altogether this Innocence is merely through the progression of unstoppable forces not necessarily known to the person it affects. Such is also the case with the New York Society. These people did not choose to succumb to this veiled innocence, it was mercilessly hurled at them. They were raised in these circumstances, in a society where conformity is the norm and to question this conformity would be self-abdication. Thus, these people will die by this code.
This Age of Innocence reflects a view in which Newland Archer is also an innocent victim. He thinks his wife too much of an 鈥渋nnocent being鈥� that he is surprised in the end and utterly moved when he finds out that she is not so innocent at all. And the lifting of this veil seemed a wake鈥搖p call to him at the very end, when he was about to meet the Countess Olenska with his son, that he realizes that he has lost this innocence. She had become the symbol of everything that could have been, all his hopes and dreams. She was the unreachable star. In the end, he was afraid that all that sustained his love was that invisible shackle, that sense of longing, that feigned innocence. And that the innocence was all that kept him to Ellen, and without it, he cannot bear to face her.
"And you'll sit beside me, and we'll look, not at visions, but at realities."
"I don't know what you mean by realities. The only reality to me is this."
The dream has become a reality and the reality a dream.
"'It's more real to me here than if I went up,' he suddenly heard himself say; and the fear lest that last shadow of reality should lose its edge kept him rooted to his seat as the minutes succeeded each other."
Imagine that person you love most in this world, right within your grasp, but somehow out of reach. An invisible thin wall keeping you apart. Apart but not away from each other. Together yet not with each other. This is the worst form of torture, a torture of invisible chains and soundless screams. Constantly seeing each other, constantly being reminded of what cannot be. Constantly falling in love yet constantly falling apart. The urge, the love, the longing constantly growing, engulfing you until you cannot bear to live. Every part of your body numb and unaware of the realities around you. Because for you, only the pain you feel is real. The only truth you know is that everything is a lie.
Edith Wharton paints a very delicate picture that resonates elegiac waves and enraptures its readers to the very bone. One can't help but succumb to this level of desire, of emotion and empathize because of the atmosphere that Wharton has created. Her prose is crisp, straight and true. One might say that her prose is a reflection of her New York socialite self. (Wharton was born with quite a few gazillion silver spoons stuck somewhere on her buttocks.) Aside from that, with such a dazzling foray of words, she evoked such emotion in me that I was afraid I might like her Facebook page at some point. So with that in mind, I vowed to refrain from using Facebook until I've finished reading this book. Well, it worked fine for me. On another note, I was really impressed with her depiction of the 1870s New York. Based on a little research I did, her canvas of the place was just spot on splendid.
"It was the spirit of it -- the spirit of the exquisite romantic pain. The idea that the mere touching of a woman's hand would suffice. The idea that seeing her across the room would keep him alive for another year."
That sort of a relationship, that unique communication between two people savagely drawn to the other like moth to a flame is of a different level than all the other types of communication. This communication between them is that of the deepest kind. A communication that needs not one of the five senses. This communication of feeling, of intense knowing, of mutual understanding, this unity of the mind, this shared consciousness is the effect of a love that knows no bounds, strengthened to an insane proportion by the fact that it was never meant to be.
鈥淭he real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only ask one to pretend!鈥�
"What's the use? You gave me my glimpse of a real life, and at the same moment you asked me to go on with a sham one."
But what really struck me the most was that irony that these two people enlightened to be different from the 鈥減retend people鈥�, who revile them and mockingly laugh at their trained innocence and hapless practices were to be subjected to a pretend relationship as well. 鈥淚n reality they all lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs.鈥� They that were above that 鈥淚nnocence鈥� were cruelly placed upon a circumstance in which they have to feign Innocence as well, as the only way to sustain their love for each other. 鈥淚 can't love you unless I give you up.鈥� This has led me to believe that such innocence can only be a result of circumstances beyond their powers. That altogether this Innocence is merely through the progression of unstoppable forces not necessarily known to the person it affects. Such is also the case with the New York Society. These people did not choose to succumb to this veiled innocence, it was mercilessly hurled at them. They were raised in these circumstances, in a society where conformity is the norm and to question this conformity would be self-abdication. Thus, these people will die by this code.
This Age of Innocence reflects a view in which Newland Archer is also an innocent victim. He thinks his wife too much of an 鈥渋nnocent being鈥� that he is surprised in the end and utterly moved when he finds out that she is not so innocent at all. And the lifting of this veil seemed a wake鈥搖p call to him at the very end, when he was about to meet the Countess Olenska with his son, that he realizes that he has lost this innocence. She had become the symbol of everything that could have been, all his hopes and dreams. She was the unreachable star. In the end, he was afraid that all that sustained his love was that invisible shackle, that sense of longing, that feigned innocence. And that the innocence was all that kept him to Ellen, and without it, he cannot bear to face her.
"And you'll sit beside me, and we'll look, not at visions, but at realities."
"I don't know what you mean by realities. The only reality to me is this."
The dream has become a reality and the reality a dream.
"'It's more real to me here than if I went up,' he suddenly heard himself say; and the fear lest that last shadow of reality should lose its edge kept him rooted to his seat as the minutes succeeded each other."
May 31, 2011
Yes indeedy, what could be more jejune than another early 20th century novelist choosing as her subject the problematic relations between the sexes amongst the idle rich? D H Lawrence and Henry James do the same, the first like a big dog gnawing at a bone and finding something it mistakes for God in the marrow, and the latter in his infinite cheeseparings putting the whole thing into the form of a three-dimensional chess game played by sardonic French subatomic particle physicists who you suspect own little dogs, the kind you want to step on and squish. And many other novelists great and small dance about on the same subject.
Well, Edith Wharton starts off like she is trying to get at something very interesting in The Age of Innocence. Here is the young man contemplating his future marriage:
What could he and she really know of each other, since it was his duty, as a 'decent' fellow, to conceal his past from her, and hers, as a marriageable girl, to have no past to conceal? ... He reviewed his friends' marriages - the supposedly happy ones - and saw none that answered, even remotely, to the passionate and tender comradeship which he pictured as his permanent relation with May Welland. He perceived that such a picture presupposed, on her part, the experience, the versatility, the freedom of judgement, which she had been carefully trained not to possess; and with a shiver of foreboding he saw his marriage becoming what most of the other marriages about him were : a dull association of material and social interests held together by ignorance on the one side and hypocrisy on the other.
Much later the young man sadly muses thus:
There was no use in trying to emancipate a wife who had not the dimmest notion that she was not free
- apart from making you think "how very rude!" this begs the question what liberty, exactly, did this proto-feminist man suppose could be accessed by upperclass females in the 1870s in New York? Edith Wharton's clear intelligence makes me think that ambiguity clouds these various musings only because she fears she's already been too bold. So this compelling theme gets lost when she subtly changes gear. Still, there are enough zingers to keep you reading and relishing - for instance -
What if 'niceness' [in a wife:] carried to that supreme degree were only a negation, the curtain dropped before an emptiness?
Hmm, what if indeed. Or, concerning the rigours of class in New York,
It seems stupid to have discovered America only to make it into a copy of another country - nice one, Edith.
There's no getting away from it, Edith is indeed Henry James in drag, and this novel is kissing cousins to the early HJs like Washington Square, The Bostonians and The Portrait of a Lady. These idle rich, they're dull buggers you know - indeed Edith goes on and on about just how boring their lives are as she describes the dining, the travelling, the frittering, the spending, the ladylike sports the ladylike ladies did (archery - no, not nude mud wrestling, what large sums would I not pay to read Edith Wharton describing such a scene), the families, the clans, their history, their posh houses, their posh horses - oh please spare us - half way through you really wish that the fabric of space and time should rend asunder and a scary bunch of Sendero Luminoso guerillas break into the great ballrooms and dining rooms and haul the whole pack of them off to the sweaty jungles of Colombia for some serious political indoctrination. Plot spoiler : this does not happen. Instead, this book is a study of circumscription and circumspection, of people (the hero, the heroine and the wife) not getting what they want. And as such, when we are able to skirt round the pages of orotund description (A winding drive led up between the iron stags and blue glass balls embedded in mounds of geraniums to a front door of highly varnished walnut under a striped verandah-roof; and behind it ran a narrow hall with a black and yellow star-patterned parquet floor upon which opened four small square rooms with heavy flock-papers under ceilings on which an Italian house-painter had lavished all the divinities of Olympus" - did you get all that Mr Set Designer?) the heart of this tale is sad and almost beautifully done. But really mimsy with it.
**
PS - I saw the movie too which was as elegant as all get-out, apart from the dodgy Enya-like song splodged in the middle. That Michelle Pfeiffer - cor, blimey. I wouldn't kick her out of bed. Still and all, the movie is a 100-minute argument as to why you should read the book instead, because what's missing is Edith Wharton's mind, which is a great place to dally in. You get voice-overs in the movie which only serve to remind you how literary adaptations, however spiffily dressed-up (and aren't they all?) are not the real deal, they're the unreal deal. These movies are like aides memoires on gorgeous notepaper written with a ten thousand dollar pen. The note says : read the book.
Well, Edith Wharton starts off like she is trying to get at something very interesting in The Age of Innocence. Here is the young man contemplating his future marriage:
What could he and she really know of each other, since it was his duty, as a 'decent' fellow, to conceal his past from her, and hers, as a marriageable girl, to have no past to conceal? ... He reviewed his friends' marriages - the supposedly happy ones - and saw none that answered, even remotely, to the passionate and tender comradeship which he pictured as his permanent relation with May Welland. He perceived that such a picture presupposed, on her part, the experience, the versatility, the freedom of judgement, which she had been carefully trained not to possess; and with a shiver of foreboding he saw his marriage becoming what most of the other marriages about him were : a dull association of material and social interests held together by ignorance on the one side and hypocrisy on the other.
Much later the young man sadly muses thus:
There was no use in trying to emancipate a wife who had not the dimmest notion that she was not free
- apart from making you think "how very rude!" this begs the question what liberty, exactly, did this proto-feminist man suppose could be accessed by upperclass females in the 1870s in New York? Edith Wharton's clear intelligence makes me think that ambiguity clouds these various musings only because she fears she's already been too bold. So this compelling theme gets lost when she subtly changes gear. Still, there are enough zingers to keep you reading and relishing - for instance -
What if 'niceness' [in a wife:] carried to that supreme degree were only a negation, the curtain dropped before an emptiness?
Hmm, what if indeed. Or, concerning the rigours of class in New York,
It seems stupid to have discovered America only to make it into a copy of another country - nice one, Edith.
There's no getting away from it, Edith is indeed Henry James in drag, and this novel is kissing cousins to the early HJs like Washington Square, The Bostonians and The Portrait of a Lady. These idle rich, they're dull buggers you know - indeed Edith goes on and on about just how boring their lives are as she describes the dining, the travelling, the frittering, the spending, the ladylike sports the ladylike ladies did (archery - no, not nude mud wrestling, what large sums would I not pay to read Edith Wharton describing such a scene), the families, the clans, their history, their posh houses, their posh horses - oh please spare us - half way through you really wish that the fabric of space and time should rend asunder and a scary bunch of Sendero Luminoso guerillas break into the great ballrooms and dining rooms and haul the whole pack of them off to the sweaty jungles of Colombia for some serious political indoctrination. Plot spoiler : this does not happen. Instead, this book is a study of circumscription and circumspection, of people (the hero, the heroine and the wife) not getting what they want. And as such, when we are able to skirt round the pages of orotund description (A winding drive led up between the iron stags and blue glass balls embedded in mounds of geraniums to a front door of highly varnished walnut under a striped verandah-roof; and behind it ran a narrow hall with a black and yellow star-patterned parquet floor upon which opened four small square rooms with heavy flock-papers under ceilings on which an Italian house-painter had lavished all the divinities of Olympus" - did you get all that Mr Set Designer?) the heart of this tale is sad and almost beautifully done. But really mimsy with it.
**
PS - I saw the movie too which was as elegant as all get-out, apart from the dodgy Enya-like song splodged in the middle. That Michelle Pfeiffer - cor, blimey. I wouldn't kick her out of bed. Still and all, the movie is a 100-minute argument as to why you should read the book instead, because what's missing is Edith Wharton's mind, which is a great place to dally in. You get voice-overs in the movie which only serve to remind you how literary adaptations, however spiffily dressed-up (and aren't they all?) are not the real deal, they're the unreal deal. These movies are like aides memoires on gorgeous notepaper written with a ten thousand dollar pen. The note says : read the book.
September 28, 2024
Some romances efficiently drive others from the mind! If we had to classify this book by Edith Wharton, it would be difficult not to stick to the romance label.
In the time of innocence, she shows how bourgeois New York society only functions on pre-established codes for which no one can remember the reasons (see specific passages on dress rules) but which nevertheless govern the whole鈥攔elationships between individuals, including at the most personal level. The happiness of individuals never seems to be the end goal and is even a variable to consider. The New World seeks to distance itself from the Old while copying it.
However, the romance aspect is not entirely obscured. On the contrary, it is in the foreground with a nuanced analysis of the feelings, thoughts, and renunciations that cross the two main characters, caught in this societal straitjacket and dreaming of breaking free from it. And where we touch, the masterpiece is all conveyed by small innuendo touches that leave the reader in suspense. Thus, you will understand what made The Time of Innocence a significant work, which justifies 2019 as a new translation closer to the original.
Wharton was almost 60 when the book was published, and her innocence was arguably gone. However, her words suggest that, like her characters, she would have liked to find time for a kiss.
In the time of innocence, she shows how bourgeois New York society only functions on pre-established codes for which no one can remember the reasons (see specific passages on dress rules) but which nevertheless govern the whole鈥攔elationships between individuals, including at the most personal level. The happiness of individuals never seems to be the end goal and is even a variable to consider. The New World seeks to distance itself from the Old while copying it.
However, the romance aspect is not entirely obscured. On the contrary, it is in the foreground with a nuanced analysis of the feelings, thoughts, and renunciations that cross the two main characters, caught in this societal straitjacket and dreaming of breaking free from it. And where we touch, the masterpiece is all conveyed by small innuendo touches that leave the reader in suspense. Thus, you will understand what made The Time of Innocence a significant work, which justifies 2019 as a new translation closer to the original.
Wharton was almost 60 when the book was published, and her innocence was arguably gone. However, her words suggest that, like her characters, she would have liked to find time for a kiss.
April 21, 2019
This book, which examines lives stifled by the social conventions of 1870s Manhattan, is a classic masterpiece precisely because it is anything but conventional. Ironically, it had me longing for the lovers to dip their toes in love-story convention (by finding a hotel room, at least once), especially with lines like this one:
鈥淓ach time you happen to me all over again.鈥�
Oh, Newland Archer! Oh, Ellen Olenska!
But no, the brilliant Edith Wharton doesn't allow it. She stays the course, showing the follies of Old New York society, the sometimes impossible and suffocating nature of marriage, and the changeability of social mores that seem so important in the moment but which are forgotten with the passing of a few years. She also shows how both noble and tragic it is to "do the right thing" rather than chasing happiness where it flies.
The poignancy of resignation and missed opportunities reminds me of similar themes addressed in The Remains of the Day. And though Wharton's Pulitzer Prize winning novel was written almost a hundred years ago, it still feels fresh and relevant.
This was my second reading of this book. The last time I read it was probably two decades ago, so it was almost like I was reading it for the first time. The only thing I can remember of my first reading was the feeling I had as I turned the last page. The overwhelming sense of I loved this, and must read it again. I had the same experience this time. I guess some things just don't change.
鈥淓ach time you happen to me all over again.鈥�
Oh, Newland Archer! Oh, Ellen Olenska!
But no, the brilliant Edith Wharton doesn't allow it. She stays the course, showing the follies of Old New York society, the sometimes impossible and suffocating nature of marriage, and the changeability of social mores that seem so important in the moment but which are forgotten with the passing of a few years. She also shows how both noble and tragic it is to "do the right thing" rather than chasing happiness where it flies.
The poignancy of resignation and missed opportunities reminds me of similar themes addressed in The Remains of the Day. And though Wharton's Pulitzer Prize winning novel was written almost a hundred years ago, it still feels fresh and relevant.
This was my second reading of this book. The last time I read it was probably two decades ago, so it was almost like I was reading it for the first time. The only thing I can remember of my first reading was the feeling I had as I turned the last page. The overwhelming sense of I loved this, and must read it again. I had the same experience this time. I guess some things just don't change.
January 24, 2025
The Age of Innocence is basically a love triangle. Newland Archer is a wealthy lawyer of upper-class New York society, who is engaged to be married to May, a member of the same society. Ruled by well-laid conventions, Newland believes him to be happy and content and eagerly awaits his impending marriage. The meet of Ellen, May's cousin, and his closer association with her that follows make him see the dull and empty life that he is forced to live which is tightly controlled by convention. Newland eventually falls in love with Ellen, but convention and duty require that he should surrender his love and freedom.
I didn't take to the character of Newland Archer initially. His cowardice and inaction really bothered me. Even when May offers him that he may break the engagement if there is "another woman" whom he desires to marry, he does not grab at the opportunity. Although he constantly lamented over his lost opportunity to love and live freely, it is his own inaction that brought him misery; and not only to him but to May and Ellen. But later, on reflecting on his character, I realized that I cannot judge his character by modern convictions. Given the time period in which the character is set, nothing was surprising in Newland's cause of action. The conventions by which they lived were a second religion to them from which it was almost impossible to deviate.
May was the representation of family, duty, and convention. She is described as pretty, socially perfect but one who lacks imagination and room for growth. But I felt that she was severely misunderstood, especially by Newland. While she puts a socially acceptable face outwards, underneath lives a strong, intelligent, and artful woman who goes to greater lengths to secure what is hers.
My sympathy was with Ellen who was an innocent victim of fate and convention. Her character represented the universal 鈥渦nconventional women". She was always portrayed in soft, kind, and truthful light with a mind of her own, and I believe, she is Ms. Wharton's heroine.
Through the main characters of Newland, May, and Ellen, and supported by several interesting supporting characters, the story is a true portrayal of the lives and way of living of New York upper-class society. Being herself part of that society, Ms. Wharton draws a truthful account of it, satirically portraying at the same time, their rigid conventional ways of living. The story concludes with the final chapter being set thirty years later, which shows how the people have slowly managed to unchain themselves from these strict bonds. This chapter was a breath of fresh air.
The writing is beautifully detailed, and the psychological portrayal of the characters is cleverly done that it was easy to connect with the story and its characters from the very beginning. Her writing is easy-going yet graceful making it both a quick and interesting read.
This is my second reading of Wharton's work and I loved it. To me, The Age of Innocence is a story of an "age of innocence" where people were kept within strict social rules where imaginative and passionate living is neither heard of nor sanctioned.
I didn't take to the character of Newland Archer initially. His cowardice and inaction really bothered me. Even when May offers him that he may break the engagement if there is "another woman" whom he desires to marry, he does not grab at the opportunity. Although he constantly lamented over his lost opportunity to love and live freely, it is his own inaction that brought him misery; and not only to him but to May and Ellen. But later, on reflecting on his character, I realized that I cannot judge his character by modern convictions. Given the time period in which the character is set, nothing was surprising in Newland's cause of action. The conventions by which they lived were a second religion to them from which it was almost impossible to deviate.
May was the representation of family, duty, and convention. She is described as pretty, socially perfect but one who lacks imagination and room for growth. But I felt that she was severely misunderstood, especially by Newland. While she puts a socially acceptable face outwards, underneath lives a strong, intelligent, and artful woman who goes to greater lengths to secure what is hers.
My sympathy was with Ellen who was an innocent victim of fate and convention. Her character represented the universal 鈥渦nconventional women". She was always portrayed in soft, kind, and truthful light with a mind of her own, and I believe, she is Ms. Wharton's heroine.
Through the main characters of Newland, May, and Ellen, and supported by several interesting supporting characters, the story is a true portrayal of the lives and way of living of New York upper-class society. Being herself part of that society, Ms. Wharton draws a truthful account of it, satirically portraying at the same time, their rigid conventional ways of living. The story concludes with the final chapter being set thirty years later, which shows how the people have slowly managed to unchain themselves from these strict bonds. This chapter was a breath of fresh air.
The writing is beautifully detailed, and the psychological portrayal of the characters is cleverly done that it was easy to connect with the story and its characters from the very beginning. Her writing is easy-going yet graceful making it both a quick and interesting read.
This is my second reading of Wharton's work and I loved it. To me, The Age of Innocence is a story of an "age of innocence" where people were kept within strict social rules where imaginative and passionate living is neither heard of nor sanctioned.
May 28, 2022
New York society at the end of the 19th century. An impossible love story.
I鈥檝e been so amazed by this novel that I don鈥檛 even know how to begin my comment on it. The book starts slowly, mentioning the (actually not so) many names and families composing New York society of the time: their intertwining and relationships are difficult to follow.
Then, around page 40-60, the story unfolds: it is a love story between two members of New York society. One (Archer), a conformist who cannot escape etiquette and is about to get married and the other (Countess Olenska), who fights every day against it, and left her Polish husband running away from Europe in the hope that she will be backed up by her family in New York.
But what I enjoyed most in this love story was Wharton's great ability to tell it without falling into pathetic tones and exaggerations (like, for instance, the Bront毛 sisters) and, above all, starting from the very subtle and, at times, ironic description of the characters鈥� thoughts (in particular, Newland Archer's).
Only through this expedient can we truly understand the New York society of the time, pity its non-conformist members, laugh at their bigotry and tribal organization.
And then comes the ending, one of the most beautiful endings ever: Archer's society, with all its rules and conventions has almost vanished in the following thirty years.
What is left is his regret that he didn鈥檛 act when and how he would have liked. Not having made the right decision at the right time, against all those changing social norms.
Beautifully delivered, although the second part was better than the first. But am I to deny the novel 5 stars just for this dense and a bit confusing beginning.
P.S. : Also, see the excellent by Scorsese (1993)!
I鈥檝e been so amazed by this novel that I don鈥檛 even know how to begin my comment on it. The book starts slowly, mentioning the (actually not so) many names and families composing New York society of the time: their intertwining and relationships are difficult to follow.
Then, around page 40-60, the story unfolds: it is a love story between two members of New York society. One (Archer), a conformist who cannot escape etiquette and is about to get married and the other (Countess Olenska), who fights every day against it, and left her Polish husband running away from Europe in the hope that she will be backed up by her family in New York.
But what I enjoyed most in this love story was Wharton's great ability to tell it without falling into pathetic tones and exaggerations (like, for instance, the Bront毛 sisters) and, above all, starting from the very subtle and, at times, ironic description of the characters鈥� thoughts (in particular, Newland Archer's).
Only through this expedient can we truly understand the New York society of the time, pity its non-conformist members, laugh at their bigotry and tribal organization.
And then comes the ending, one of the most beautiful endings ever: Archer's society, with all its rules and conventions has almost vanished in the following thirty years.
What is left is his regret that he didn鈥檛 act when and how he would have liked. Not having made the right decision at the right time, against all those changing social norms.
Beautifully delivered, although the second part was better than the first. But am I to deny the novel 5 stars just for this dense and a bit confusing beginning.
P.S. : Also, see the excellent by Scorsese (1993)!
March 15, 2014
Heading for a hospital stay I decided to treat myself to a pleasant historical novel with a dash of romance. BIG mistake, if this is romantic take me to the nunnery鈥�.Okay, the ugliness of the story is offset by the beauty of the writing, and it is gorgeous, I'd read this author again - but still. This isn鈥檛 so much a review as an attempt to purge this pile of hooey from my subconscious.
1st off the main protagonist Newland Archer is a celebration of hypocrisy. A man who makes a CLEAR choice to reap the benefits of marrying well 鈥淎fter all, marriage is marriage, and money's money鈥攂oth useful things in their way ...鈥� then wastes his life and the lives of the women who share it by spending it lamenting his decision. 鈥淗is whole future seemed suddenly to be unrolled before him; and passing down its endless emptiness he saw the dwindling figure of a man to whom nothing was ever to happen.鈥� Throw in the proverbial 鈥榲补辫颈诲鈥� ball and chain of a wife 鈥淭here was no use in trying to emancipate a wife who had not the dimmest notion that she was not free.鈥� Add to the mix unrequited looove, the lust for another woman. Goes without saying that in stark contrast to the wife she's intelligent and utterly fascinating. 鈥減oetry and art are the breath of life to her.鈥�
Pen the above in gorgeous prose, set in high society New York, shake & stir and voila! Pulitzer prize for fiction.
Cons: So predictable, and except for Newland鈥檚 the characters are shallow, undefined and stereotypical. How it took the Pulitzer is beyond me.
Meanderings: Huge sigh of relief when I FINALLY finished this. Needed a break from 鈥榚scapist鈥� fiction so followed it with Loved it (review to follow). Eels are slimy, ugly and refreshingly uncomplicated! So obviously I鈥檓 a bit weird. Just to be clear my dislike for this novel isn鈥檛 because I over-empathized with the wife. I鈥檝e never married and I don鈥檛 think I鈥檓 vapid:) No, I'm probably just pissed that I've been fooling myself for years, believing my like or dislike of a novels characters didn鈥檛 impact my appreciation for a book. Wrong...Newland Archer made me eat my words.
1st off the main protagonist Newland Archer is a celebration of hypocrisy. A man who makes a CLEAR choice to reap the benefits of marrying well 鈥淎fter all, marriage is marriage, and money's money鈥攂oth useful things in their way ...鈥� then wastes his life and the lives of the women who share it by spending it lamenting his decision. 鈥淗is whole future seemed suddenly to be unrolled before him; and passing down its endless emptiness he saw the dwindling figure of a man to whom nothing was ever to happen.鈥� Throw in the proverbial 鈥榲补辫颈诲鈥� ball and chain of a wife 鈥淭here was no use in trying to emancipate a wife who had not the dimmest notion that she was not free.鈥� Add to the mix unrequited looove, the lust for another woman. Goes without saying that in stark contrast to the wife she's intelligent and utterly fascinating. 鈥減oetry and art are the breath of life to her.鈥�
Pen the above in gorgeous prose, set in high society New York, shake & stir and voila! Pulitzer prize for fiction.
Cons: So predictable, and except for Newland鈥檚 the characters are shallow, undefined and stereotypical. How it took the Pulitzer is beyond me.
Meanderings: Huge sigh of relief when I FINALLY finished this. Needed a break from 鈥榚scapist鈥� fiction so followed it with Loved it (review to follow). Eels are slimy, ugly and refreshingly uncomplicated! So obviously I鈥檓 a bit weird. Just to be clear my dislike for this novel isn鈥檛 because I over-empathized with the wife. I鈥檝e never married and I don鈥檛 think I鈥檓 vapid:) No, I'm probably just pissed that I've been fooling myself for years, believing my like or dislike of a novels characters didn鈥檛 impact my appreciation for a book. Wrong...Newland Archer made me eat my words.
Want to read
July 18, 2024all the cool girls read wharton
July 8, 2020
The first thing that I must admit is that I liked this book much more than I expected to like it. I think I judged this book by its many sort of boring covers and the fact that it sounded like a dry classic in some descriptions I read. I know, 鈥淏AD MATTHEW!鈥� As a voracious reader I should not make assumptions and I should go in with an open mind. But, at least with my pre-conceived notions being disproved, I was pleasantly surprised.
While this book has many characters, the story is not complex. This is good because I could focus on keeping the characters straight instead of the story straight! It is basically a story of how late 1800s high society in New York handles behavior they feel unbecoming of their station. It is especially 鈥渟hocking鈥� when one of their own becomes involved and forgets his place. Scandalous indeed!
I enjoyed the characters and felt strongly 鈥� both positively a negatively 鈥� about many of them. I did a lot of head shaking. I did a lot of feeling sorry. I did a lot of not being able to believe how people viewed and treated each other. What we see as rather commonplace today in relationships was not to be tolerated back then. I suppose that is reflected in the title of the book 鈥� it was an age of innocence 鈥� even the smallest sins were too taboo for daily life and not to be accepted or discussed in public forum. I am interested to discuss this further with the book club I read this for and in comment discussion on this review. I am still trying to figure out what the commentary the author was trying to make. I almost feel like the author鈥檚 point could be interpreted as 鈥淭his is how it was 鈥� no subtext implied 鈥� you decide how you feel about these people and the way they treated each other.鈥�
I have no problem recommending this if you are looking for a classic to read. If you are a fan of historical fiction and/or scandalous gossip stories I don鈥檛 think you can go wrong here. After this, I look forward to trying even more Edith Wharton.
While this book has many characters, the story is not complex. This is good because I could focus on keeping the characters straight instead of the story straight! It is basically a story of how late 1800s high society in New York handles behavior they feel unbecoming of their station. It is especially 鈥渟hocking鈥� when one of their own becomes involved and forgets his place. Scandalous indeed!
I enjoyed the characters and felt strongly 鈥� both positively a negatively 鈥� about many of them. I did a lot of head shaking. I did a lot of feeling sorry. I did a lot of not being able to believe how people viewed and treated each other. What we see as rather commonplace today in relationships was not to be tolerated back then. I suppose that is reflected in the title of the book 鈥� it was an age of innocence 鈥� even the smallest sins were too taboo for daily life and not to be accepted or discussed in public forum. I am interested to discuss this further with the book club I read this for and in comment discussion on this review. I am still trying to figure out what the commentary the author was trying to make. I almost feel like the author鈥檚 point could be interpreted as 鈥淭his is how it was 鈥� no subtext implied 鈥� you decide how you feel about these people and the way they treated each other.鈥�
I have no problem recommending this if you are looking for a classic to read. If you are a fan of historical fiction and/or scandalous gossip stories I don鈥檛 think you can go wrong here. After this, I look forward to trying even more Edith Wharton.
February 14, 2016
The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing.
Just when I think a classic unlikely to give me pause, it surprises me with relatable themes. After reading Wharton's short story, "The Muse's Tragedy" (one of the supplemental reads I'll be teaching this Fall), I knew I had to visit one of her longer forms. So rewarding it was, to be wooed by elegant prose and positioning; a plot that moves in practiced laps; a story that could be yours, mine, theirs; a setting that will always be known for both its vibrance and austerity.
Wharton is a writer of words nestled in conscious rhythm, the director of a play that centers around societal distinctions like class and gender, yet still embodies universal themes of love, betrayal, and self-actualization. Wharton writing from a male's perspective reminds me of Cather, in : they do it so well, so authentically. She had Henry James as a mentor, and yet I prefer her books to his (although I see a resemblance to my favorite James book to-date: ).
His whole future seemed suddenly to be unrolled before him; and passing down its endless emptiness he saw the dwindling figure of a man to whom nothing was ever to happen.
Countess Olenska is not just a woman ostracized in 1920s New York Society: she is symbolic of New York on the verge of change, the cusp of a new era; she is love and beauty and complications; she is pain, consolation, a new life which uncovers an insipid way of living. The Countess represents fresh ideas, a new way of thinking, a society that doesn't place class and materialism before all else, a bohemian way of being. The Countess is hope.
I realize I"m taking an unorthodox stand, seeing as how the Countess also represents infidelity and betrayal, and the uproot of normalcy. Yet knowing Newland's choices when he meets Ellen, one knows that in the end, he'll make a decision forced upon him by his society. In the end, we see his gratitude for life, and the regrets from his choices, which once again, reminds us of the complications of life. Wharton leaves us with an ending rife with speculative contemplations, and as readers, we become just like her characters.
Something he knew he had missed: the flower of life. But he thought of it now as a thing so unattainable and improbable that to have repined would have been like despairing because one had not drawn the first prize in a lottery.
Conventional New York was not ready for the Countess. The city had not yet formed itself into the diverse structure it now is, with a roadway tunnel that traverses the Hudson river, and a train station that connects you with New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In fact, conventional New York City was also unprepared for The Harlem Renaissance, taking place only a few blocks away, in the same decade and the same world, yet separate and forgotten--like Ellen Olenska.
But then you come; and you're so much more than I remembered, and what I want of you is so much more than an hour or two every now and then, with wastes of thirsty waiting between, that I can sit perfectly still beside you, like this, with that other vision in my mind, just quietly trusting it to come true.
August 9, 2022
Oh, Edith Wharton. I wonder if she ever thought that her stories would still ring so true almost a hundred years later鈥� Not just because of the classic love-triangle situation, but also the concern with appearances and reputations and the grand show that people put on for others to watch and judge.
The character development in this book is simply amazing. One is tempted to judge and pigeonhole these people, but the more you read, the more they reveal themselves to be much more complicated and interesting than they appeared at first. I do confess to a small book-crush on Newland (not because of Daniel Day-Lewis鈥� interpretation, though that is totally worth checking out), who is tragically stuck between two ways of thinking: the old-school one that he was brought up in, and the more modern one, which is right around the corner but not quite acceptable yet for someone of his station. He doesn't want to ruffle any feathers, but he is noticing with increasing annoyance that some of the customs held up by his social circles simply don't make sense anymore. His struggle is so vividly depicted that you end up just as torn as he is and by the end of the book, you just want the guy to be happy.
The sharp, witty writing that jabs so cleverly at the shallowness of the lives of the New York upper crust is another very strong point of this novel. Edith Wharton shows us the gorgeous, highly polished surface of society and scratches at it mercilessly, but she somehow avoids being condescending. Her long descriptions of furniture and priceless china is not there to mock so much as it is there to show us what these people cared about, and how ultimately silly it. I admire her restraint and the complete absence of meanness in her prose.
Ellen Olenska is one of the most wonderfully drawn characters I have encountered in a long time. Her strength of character, her need for independence, her yearning for happiness: all these things stunted by the conventions of the society she returned to, looking for comfort and support. Her story is really tragic: the bad marriage, the straight-laced relatives who can鈥檛 understand why she wants a divorce, the man she knows she cannot have because she refuses to hurt her cousin or to be someone鈥檚 mistress. Ellen wants to be first fiddle and she will not settle for less, even if that means giving up the man she loves. I admired her, but I also felt incredible sorrow for her.
This is one of my favorite books, and I warmly recommend it to everyone. If you have already read it, give it another go: I find out new delightful details and meanings every time I pick it up.
The character development in this book is simply amazing. One is tempted to judge and pigeonhole these people, but the more you read, the more they reveal themselves to be much more complicated and interesting than they appeared at first. I do confess to a small book-crush on Newland (not because of Daniel Day-Lewis鈥� interpretation, though that is totally worth checking out), who is tragically stuck between two ways of thinking: the old-school one that he was brought up in, and the more modern one, which is right around the corner but not quite acceptable yet for someone of his station. He doesn't want to ruffle any feathers, but he is noticing with increasing annoyance that some of the customs held up by his social circles simply don't make sense anymore. His struggle is so vividly depicted that you end up just as torn as he is and by the end of the book, you just want the guy to be happy.
The sharp, witty writing that jabs so cleverly at the shallowness of the lives of the New York upper crust is another very strong point of this novel. Edith Wharton shows us the gorgeous, highly polished surface of society and scratches at it mercilessly, but she somehow avoids being condescending. Her long descriptions of furniture and priceless china is not there to mock so much as it is there to show us what these people cared about, and how ultimately silly it. I admire her restraint and the complete absence of meanness in her prose.
Ellen Olenska is one of the most wonderfully drawn characters I have encountered in a long time. Her strength of character, her need for independence, her yearning for happiness: all these things stunted by the conventions of the society she returned to, looking for comfort and support. Her story is really tragic: the bad marriage, the straight-laced relatives who can鈥檛 understand why she wants a divorce, the man she knows she cannot have because she refuses to hurt her cousin or to be someone鈥檚 mistress. Ellen wants to be first fiddle and she will not settle for less, even if that means giving up the man she loves. I admired her, but I also felt incredible sorrow for her.
This is one of my favorite books, and I warmly recommend it to everyone. If you have already read it, give it another go: I find out new delightful details and meanings every time I pick it up.
February 1, 2023
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton is a classic masterpiece. I have listened to it on Audible narrated by Maureen Howard.
The age of Innocence is a story about 1920 s high society life. A man that already is engaged to a young and beautiful lady May. Everything is quite well for the young couple until mysterious Countess Olenska who happens to be who is a cousin to May.
Later the plot is about how two love birds count every single meeting that used to bring joy and a butterfly in the stomach and with time everything has changed but love stayed.
The age of Innocence is a story about 1920 s high society life. A man that already is engaged to a young and beautiful lady May. Everything is quite well for the young couple until mysterious Countess Olenska who happens to be who is a cousin to May.
Later the plot is about how two love birds count every single meeting that used to bring joy and a butterfly in the stomach and with time everything has changed but love stayed.
July 11, 2018
May be I ought to have read this before the four stories in . The novel was written in 1920 and the novellas that pick up, somewhat on the side, some of the same characters were published four years later. Although "Old New York", with its windows onto the four decades of the 1840s; 1850s; 1860s and 1870s, provides the introductory framework of the city of Wharton's (obsessive?) memories and of her earlier novel. The Age of Innocence is set in the 1870s, although the reader keeps the feeling that one is watching it through a telescope that zooms onto the past. This suspicion is confirmed in the last chapter, when the novel is wrapped up at the turn of the century.
Whatever the order, my reading attitude has been the same in both works. Firmly rooted on their sense of place and time, I kept marking in the map of my mind where he various characters stood, where they walked (mostly up and down 5th), and lived (brown-stoned houses and later in the somewhat surreptitious cream-colored buildings), for their particular siting forms certainly part of their portraiture.
In reality this is my second reading. From my first experience I just remember that I had started reading just after sitting on a lecture on the act of looking in nineteenth century painting. The most striking scenes were opera watchers not watching the opera but watching at each other watching themselves. I was then struck by the rounded structure of the novel for it is at the opera that the plot begins; and ends. The reader can see him/herself as witnessing the story from one of the boxes beginning, lets say, at the left side of the horseshoe shaped theater, and gradually moving to one at the extreme right ending it from one of the
The novel is also loaded with references that ground the work to its times and its culture. It is loaded with references: Painting (Bouguereau, Cabanel, Carolus Duran); Art history (Ruskin, William Morris and Walter Pater); Literature (Swinburne's Chastelard, Merim茅e's Lettres 脿 une inconnue, Paul Bourget); Music (pianist Sarrasate, tenor Campanini); Theatre (George Rignold)... It is all there.
This novel is foremost a sociological analysis and although it is, at its core, a sharp and censorious critique of the collective and ethical mores of a very particular society, it retains an air of nostalgia that for a twenty-first century reader brings a certain wistfulness when one realizes that many of the criticized social barriers have been pulled down but that the revealed boundless field can also seem somewhat disorienting. The reader cannot but ponder what would Wharton have thought of today's freedoms.
March 30, 2025
毓氐乇 亘蹖 诏賳丕賴蹖 讴鬲丕亘蹖 丕蹖爻鬲 丕夭 丕丿蹖鬲 賵丕乇鬲賵賳 貙 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 爻乇卮賳丕爻 丌賲乇蹖讴丕蹖蹖 . 讴鬲丕亘 丕賵貙 亘賴 卮讴賱蹖 馗乇蹖賮 賵 丿乇 毓蹖賳 丨丕賱 毓賲蹖賯貙 亘賴 爻賳鬲鈥屬囏й� 丌賲乇蹖讴丕蹖蹖 賯乇賳 賳賵夭丿賴賲貙 亘賴 賵蹖跇賴 丿乇 賲蹖丕賳 胤亘賯賴 丕卮乇丕賮蹖 賳蹖賵蹖賵乇讴貙 倬乇丿丕禺鬲賴 . 賵丕乇鬲賵賳 亘丕 噩夭卅蹖丕鬲 丿賯蹖賯 賵 賳诏丕賴蹖 丕賳鬲賯丕丿蹖貙 丌丿丕亘 賵 乇爻賵賲貙 丕乇夭卮鈥屬囏� 賵 賲丨丿賵丿蹖鬲鈥屬囏й� 丌賳賴丕 乇丕 賳卮丕賳 丿丕丿賴.
丿丕爻鬲丕賳 讴鬲丕亘 賴賲丕賳 乇賵丕蹖鬲 讴賱丕爻蹖讴 毓卮賯 賵 亘賴 趩丕賱卮 讴卮蹖丿賳 丌賳 丿乇 丌賲乇蹖讴丕 丿乇 丕賵丕禺乇 賯乇賳 賳賵夭丿賴 丕爻鬲 . 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 丿乇 丿賴賴鈥屰� 郾鄹鄯郯 丿乇 賳蹖賵蹖賵乇讴 丕鬲賮丕賯 丕賮鬲丕丿賴 賵 乇賵丕蹖鬲 夭賳丿诏蹖 賲乇丿蹖 亘賴 賳丕賲 賳蹖賵賱賳丿 丌乇趩乇丕爻鬲 . 丌乇趩乇 賳丕賲夭丿 丿禺鬲乇蹖 丕爻鬲 讴賴 亘賴 胤亘賯賴 丕卮乇丕賮 丌賲乇蹖讴丕 貙 亘丕 禺氐賵氐蹖丕鬲 賵 乇賮鬲丕乇蹖 丕卮乇丕賮 賲賳卮 賵 爻禺鬲 倬丕蹖亘賳丿 亘賴 丌丿丕亘 賵 爻賳鬲 诏匕卮鬲賴 鬲毓賱賯 丿丕乇丿 貙 丕賲丕 亘丕 賵乇賵丿 夭賳蹖 噩匕丕亘 賵 賲爻鬲賯賱 讴賴 丕夭 賴賲爻乇 禺賵丿 噩丿丕 卮丿賴 賵 亘賴 丌賲乇蹖讴丕 亘丕夭诏卮鬲賴 貙 鬲賯乇蹖亘丕 賴賲賴鈥屭嗃屫� 鬲睾蹖蹖乇 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀�.
爻亘讴 夭賳丿诏蹖 丕卮乇丕賮 :
毓氐乇 亘蹖 诏賳丕賴蹖 賳诏丕賴蹖 丕賳鬲賯丕丿蹖 亘賴 夭賳丿诏蹖 丕卮乇丕賮 丌賲乇蹖讴丕蹖蹖 丿丕乇丿 . 丌賳賴丕 胤亘賯賴 丕蹖 賴爻鬲賳丿 讴丕賲賱丕 噩丿丕 賵 賲賳賮讴 丕夭 毓丕賲賴 賲乇丿賲 . 乇賵亘胤 丌賳賴丕 賲丨丿賵丿 亘賴 禺賵丿 亘賵丿賴 賵 鬲賯乇蹖亘丕 讴丕乇蹖 亘賴 噩夭 禺賵丕賳丿賳 乇賵夭賳丕賲賴 丿乇 丿賮丕鬲乇蹖 亘爻蹖丕乇 賱賵讴爻 賵 賲噩賱賱 賳丿丕乇賳丿 . 丕卮乇丕賮 乇丕 亘丕蹖丿 亘賴 毓賳賵丕賳 賳賲丕丿蹖 丕夭 孬乇賵鬲貙 賯丿乇鬲 賵 賳賮賵匕 丕噩鬲賲丕毓蹖 丿乇 丌賲乇蹖讴丕 丿丕賳爻鬲 . 夭賳丿诏蹖 丌賳鈥屬囏� 丿乇 毓賲丕乇鬲鈥屬囏й� 亘夭乇诏 賵 賲噩賱賱貙 亘乇诏夭丕乇蹖 賲賴賲丕賳蹖鈥屬囏й� 亘丕卮讴賵賴 賵 倬賵卮蹖丿賳 賱亘丕爻鈥屬囏й� 诏乇丕賳鈥屬傐屬呚� 爻倬乇蹖 賲蹖 卮賵丿. 丌賳鈥屬囏� 亘賴 卮丿鬲 亘賴 丨賮馗 馗丕賴乇 賵 丌亘乇賵蹖 禺賵丿 丕賴賲蹖鬲 賲蹖鈥屫囐嗀� 賵 鬲賱丕卮 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗁嗀� 鬲丕 丿乇 噩丕賲毓賴 噩丕蹖诏丕賴 禺賵丿 乇丕 丨賮馗 讴賳賳丿 . 亘丕 丕蹖賳 丨丕賱貙 丿乇 夭蹖乇 丕蹖賳 馗丕賴乇 倬乇 夭乇賯 賵 亘乇賯貙 鬲賳卮鈥屬囏� 賵 鬲囟丕丿賴丕蹖 丿乇賵賳蹖 賳蹖夭 賵噩賵丿 丿丕乇丿. 亘乇禺蹖 丕夭 丌賳鈥屬囏� 丕夭 夭賳丿诏蹖 鬲讴乇丕乇蹖 賵 禺爻鬲賴鈥屭┵嗁嗀� 禺賵丿 賳丕乇丕囟蹖 賴爻鬲賳丿 賵 亘賴 丿賳亘丕賱 丌夭丕丿蹖 賵 乇賴丕蹖蹖 丕夭 丌丿丕亘 賵 爻賳鬲 賵 丕賳丿讴蹖 賴蹖噩丕賳 賲蹖鈥屭必嗀�. 亘乇禺蹖 丿蹖诏乇 賳蹖夭 亘丕 賲丨丿賵丿蹖鬲鈥屬囏й� 丕噩鬲賲丕毓蹖 賵 丕賳鬲馗丕乇丕鬲 噩丕賲毓賴 丿乇诏蹖乇 賴爻鬲賳丿.
爻賳鬲 賴丕蹖 丌賲乇蹖讴丕蹖蹖 :
诏乇趩賴 賯賴乇賲丕賳丕賳 讴鬲丕亘 丕卮乇丕賮 賴爻鬲賳丿 賵 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 亘賴 丌丿丕亘 賵 爻賳賳 賵 鬲卮乇蹖賮丕鬲 丌賳賴丕 亘蹖卮鬲乇 倬乇丿丕禺鬲賴 貙 丕賲丕 賲蹖 鬲賵丕賳 鬲賱丕卮 賲乇丿賲 毓丕丿蹖 乇丕 亘乇丕蹖 倬蹖乇賵蹖 丕夭 丌丿丕亘 丌賳賴丕 丿蹖丿 賵 丕蹖賳 诏賵賳賴 亘賴 亘禺卮蹖 丕夭 爻賳鬲 賵 賮乇賴賳诏 丌賲乇蹖讴丕蹖蹖丕賳 丿乇 丕賵蹖賱 賯乇賳 诏匕卮鬲賴 倬蹖 亘乇丿 . 丿乇 丿丕爻鬲丕賳貙 禺丕賳賵丕丿賴 賳賯卮 賲丨賵乇蹖 丕蹖賮丕 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀�. 鬲氐賲蹖賲丕鬲 賲賴賲 夭賳丿诏蹖貙 賲丕賳賳丿 丕夭丿賵丕噩貙 賳賴 鬲賳賴丕 鬲氐賲蹖賲 賮乇丿蹖 亘賱讴賴 賲爻卅賱賴鈥屫й� 禺丕賳賵丕丿诏蹖 丕爻鬲 讴賴 亘乇 丕毓鬲亘丕乇 賵 噩丕蹖诏丕賴 讴賱 禺丕賳丿丕賳 鬲丕孬蹖乇 賲蹖鈥屭柏ж必�. 丌亘乇賵蹖 禺丕賳賵丕丿賴 丕夭 賴乇 趩蹖夭 丿蹖诏乇蹖 賲賴賲鈥屫� 丕爻鬲. 賴乇诏賵賳賴 乇爻賵丕蹖蹖 蹖丕 乇賮鬲丕乇蹖 讴賴 賲睾丕蹖乇 亘丕 賴賳噩丕乇賴丕蹖 丕噩鬲賲丕毓蹖 亘丕卮丿貙 賲蹖鈥屫堌з嗀� 亘賴 卮賴乇鬲 讴賱 禺丕賳賵丕丿賴 賱胤賲賴 亘夭賳丿. 亘乇丕蹖 賳賲賵賳賴 賮乇丿蹖 讴賴 丕夭 賴賲爻乇卮 噩丿丕 卮丿賴貙 丿乇 噩丕賲毓賴 賲賵乇丿 賯囟丕賵鬲 賵 丕賳夭賵丕 賯乇丕乇 賲蹖 诏蹖乇丿.
丕夭丿賵丕噩鈥屬囏� 賴賲 丕睾賱亘 亘乇 丕爻丕爻 賲賱丕丨馗丕鬲 丕噩鬲賲丕毓蹖 賵 丕賯鬲氐丕丿蹖 氐賵乇鬲 賲蹖鈥屭屫辟嗀� 鬲丕 毓卮賯 賵 毓賱丕賯賴. 丕賳鬲禺丕亘 賴賲爻乇 亘乇丕蹖 賳蹖賵賱賳丿 丌乇趩乇貙 賳賲賵賳賴鈥屫й� 丕夭 蹖讴 丕夭丿賵丕噩 賲賵乇丿 鬲丕蹖蹖丿 噩丕賲毓賴 丕爻鬲 讴賴 孬亘丕鬲 賵 鬲丿丕賵賲 爻賳鬲鈥屬囏й� 禺丕賳賵丕丿诏蹖 乇丕 鬲囟賲蹖賳 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀�.
賳賯卮 賵 噩丕蹖诏丕賴 夭賳丕賳:
丿乇 丕蹖賳 噩丕賲毓賴 丕夭 夭賳丕賳 丕賳鬲馗丕乇 賲蹖鈥屫辟堌� 讴賴 賲胤蹖毓貙 賲毓氐賵賲貙 賵 禺丕賳賴鈥屫ж� 亘丕卮賳丿. 賳賯卮 丕氐賱蹖 丌賳鈥屬囏� 賴賲爻乇蹖 卮丕蹖爻鬲賴 賵 賲丕丿乇 禺賵亘 亘賵丿賳 丕爻鬲. 丕爻鬲賯賱丕賱 賵 丕亘乇丕夭 賵噩賵丿 亘乇丕蹖 夭賳丕賳 倬爻賳丿蹖丿賴 賳蹖爻鬲. 胤賱丕賯 亘賴 卮丿鬲 賲賵乇丿 賳讴賵賴卮 賯乇丕乇 诏乇賮鬲賴 賵 夭賳 賲胤賱賯賴 亘丕 賳诏丕賴蹖 賲賳賮蹖 賵 卮讴丕讴丕賳賴 丿乇 噩丕賲毓賴 乇賵亘乇賵 賲蹖鈥屫促堌�. 賴乇诏賵賳賴 乇丕亘胤賴 禺丕乇噩 丕夭 丕夭丿賵丕噩 賳蹖夭 亘賴 卮丿鬲 爻乇讴賵亘 賲蹖鈥屫促堌�. 夭賳丕賳 丿乇 丕蹖賳 噩丕賲毓賴 丕睾賱亘 賲爻卅賵賱 丨賮馗 賵 丕賳鬲賯丕賱 丕乇夭卮鈥屬囏� 賵 丌丿丕亘 賵 乇爻賵賲 亘賴 賳爻賱鈥屬囏й� 亘毓丿蹖 賴爻鬲賳丿.
丕賲丕 亘丕 賵噩賵丿 賴賲賴 丌丿丕亘 賵 爻賳鬲 貙 賵丕乇鬲賵賳 賳卮丕賳 賲蹖 丿賴丿 讴賴 丿乇 倬爻 馗丕賴乇 賲丨丕賮馗賴鈥屭┴ж� 噩丕賲毓賴貙 賳卮丕賳賴鈥屬囏й屰� 丕夭 鬲睾蹖蹖乇丕鬲 丕噩鬲賲丕毓蹖 賵 賮讴乇蹖 亘賴 趩卮賲 賲蹖鈥屫堌必�. 夭賳 賲胤賱賯賴 賳賲丕丿蹖 丕夭 丕蹖賳 鬲睾蹖蹖乇丕鬲 丕爻鬲貙 夭賳蹖 讴賴 鬲賱丕卮 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀� 鬲丕 亘乇 賲丨丿賵丿蹖鬲鈥屬囏й� 噩丕賲毓賴 睾賱亘賴 讴賳丿 賵 夭賳丿诏蹖 賲爻鬲賯賱鈥屫臂� 丿丕卮鬲賴 亘丕卮丿.
毓氐乇 亘蹖鈥屭嗀з囒� 賳賴 鬲賳賴丕 蹖讴 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 毓丕卮賯丕賳賴 丕爻鬲貙 亘賱讴賴 賳诏丕賴蹖 丕蹖爻鬲 賳爻亘鬲丕 丿賯蹖賯 賵 丕賳鬲賯丕丿蹖 亘賴 爻賳鬲鈥屬囏й� 丌賲乇蹖讴丕蹖蹖 丿乇 蹖讴 丿賵乇賴 鬲丕乇蹖禺蹖 禺丕氐 . 賵丕乇鬲賵賳 亘丕 丕爻鬲賮丕丿賴 丕夭 卮禺氐蹖鬲鈥屬囏� 賵 乇賵丕亘胤 丌賳鈥屬囏ж� 倬蹖趩蹖丿诏蹖鈥屬囏� 賵 鬲賳丕賯囟鈥屬囏й� 丕蹖賳 爻賳鬲鈥屬囏� 乇丕 亘賴 鬲氐賵蹖乇 讴卮蹖丿賴 賵 賳卮丕賳 丿丕丿賴 讴賴 趩诏賵賳賴 丕蹖賳 爻賳鬲鈥屬囏� 賲蹖鈥屫堌з嗁嗀� 亘乇 夭賳丿诏蹖 賵 丕賳鬲禺丕亘鈥屬囏й� 丕賮乇丕丿 鬲丕孬蹖乇 亘诏匕丕乇賳丿.
丿丕爻鬲丕賳 讴鬲丕亘 賴賲丕賳 乇賵丕蹖鬲 讴賱丕爻蹖讴 毓卮賯 賵 亘賴 趩丕賱卮 讴卮蹖丿賳 丌賳 丿乇 丌賲乇蹖讴丕 丿乇 丕賵丕禺乇 賯乇賳 賳賵夭丿賴 丕爻鬲 . 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 丿乇 丿賴賴鈥屰� 郾鄹鄯郯 丿乇 賳蹖賵蹖賵乇讴 丕鬲賮丕賯 丕賮鬲丕丿賴 賵 乇賵丕蹖鬲 夭賳丿诏蹖 賲乇丿蹖 亘賴 賳丕賲 賳蹖賵賱賳丿 丌乇趩乇丕爻鬲 . 丌乇趩乇 賳丕賲夭丿 丿禺鬲乇蹖 丕爻鬲 讴賴 亘賴 胤亘賯賴 丕卮乇丕賮 丌賲乇蹖讴丕 貙 亘丕 禺氐賵氐蹖丕鬲 賵 乇賮鬲丕乇蹖 丕卮乇丕賮 賲賳卮 賵 爻禺鬲 倬丕蹖亘賳丿 亘賴 丌丿丕亘 賵 爻賳鬲 诏匕卮鬲賴 鬲毓賱賯 丿丕乇丿 貙 丕賲丕 亘丕 賵乇賵丿 夭賳蹖 噩匕丕亘 賵 賲爻鬲賯賱 讴賴 丕夭 賴賲爻乇 禺賵丿 噩丿丕 卮丿賴 賵 亘賴 丌賲乇蹖讴丕 亘丕夭诏卮鬲賴 貙 鬲賯乇蹖亘丕 賴賲賴鈥屭嗃屫� 鬲睾蹖蹖乇 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀�.
爻亘讴 夭賳丿诏蹖 丕卮乇丕賮 :
毓氐乇 亘蹖 诏賳丕賴蹖 賳诏丕賴蹖 丕賳鬲賯丕丿蹖 亘賴 夭賳丿诏蹖 丕卮乇丕賮 丌賲乇蹖讴丕蹖蹖 丿丕乇丿 . 丌賳賴丕 胤亘賯賴 丕蹖 賴爻鬲賳丿 讴丕賲賱丕 噩丿丕 賵 賲賳賮讴 丕夭 毓丕賲賴 賲乇丿賲 . 乇賵亘胤 丌賳賴丕 賲丨丿賵丿 亘賴 禺賵丿 亘賵丿賴 賵 鬲賯乇蹖亘丕 讴丕乇蹖 亘賴 噩夭 禺賵丕賳丿賳 乇賵夭賳丕賲賴 丿乇 丿賮丕鬲乇蹖 亘爻蹖丕乇 賱賵讴爻 賵 賲噩賱賱 賳丿丕乇賳丿 . 丕卮乇丕賮 乇丕 亘丕蹖丿 亘賴 毓賳賵丕賳 賳賲丕丿蹖 丕夭 孬乇賵鬲貙 賯丿乇鬲 賵 賳賮賵匕 丕噩鬲賲丕毓蹖 丿乇 丌賲乇蹖讴丕 丿丕賳爻鬲 . 夭賳丿诏蹖 丌賳鈥屬囏� 丿乇 毓賲丕乇鬲鈥屬囏й� 亘夭乇诏 賵 賲噩賱賱貙 亘乇诏夭丕乇蹖 賲賴賲丕賳蹖鈥屬囏й� 亘丕卮讴賵賴 賵 倬賵卮蹖丿賳 賱亘丕爻鈥屬囏й� 诏乇丕賳鈥屬傐屬呚� 爻倬乇蹖 賲蹖 卮賵丿. 丌賳鈥屬囏� 亘賴 卮丿鬲 亘賴 丨賮馗 馗丕賴乇 賵 丌亘乇賵蹖 禺賵丿 丕賴賲蹖鬲 賲蹖鈥屫囐嗀� 賵 鬲賱丕卮 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗁嗀� 鬲丕 丿乇 噩丕賲毓賴 噩丕蹖诏丕賴 禺賵丿 乇丕 丨賮馗 讴賳賳丿 . 亘丕 丕蹖賳 丨丕賱貙 丿乇 夭蹖乇 丕蹖賳 馗丕賴乇 倬乇 夭乇賯 賵 亘乇賯貙 鬲賳卮鈥屬囏� 賵 鬲囟丕丿賴丕蹖 丿乇賵賳蹖 賳蹖夭 賵噩賵丿 丿丕乇丿. 亘乇禺蹖 丕夭 丌賳鈥屬囏� 丕夭 夭賳丿诏蹖 鬲讴乇丕乇蹖 賵 禺爻鬲賴鈥屭┵嗁嗀� 禺賵丿 賳丕乇丕囟蹖 賴爻鬲賳丿 賵 亘賴 丿賳亘丕賱 丌夭丕丿蹖 賵 乇賴丕蹖蹖 丕夭 丌丿丕亘 賵 爻賳鬲 賵 丕賳丿讴蹖 賴蹖噩丕賳 賲蹖鈥屭必嗀�. 亘乇禺蹖 丿蹖诏乇 賳蹖夭 亘丕 賲丨丿賵丿蹖鬲鈥屬囏й� 丕噩鬲賲丕毓蹖 賵 丕賳鬲馗丕乇丕鬲 噩丕賲毓賴 丿乇诏蹖乇 賴爻鬲賳丿.
爻賳鬲 賴丕蹖 丌賲乇蹖讴丕蹖蹖 :
诏乇趩賴 賯賴乇賲丕賳丕賳 讴鬲丕亘 丕卮乇丕賮 賴爻鬲賳丿 賵 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 亘賴 丌丿丕亘 賵 爻賳賳 賵 鬲卮乇蹖賮丕鬲 丌賳賴丕 亘蹖卮鬲乇 倬乇丿丕禺鬲賴 貙 丕賲丕 賲蹖 鬲賵丕賳 鬲賱丕卮 賲乇丿賲 毓丕丿蹖 乇丕 亘乇丕蹖 倬蹖乇賵蹖 丕夭 丌丿丕亘 丌賳賴丕 丿蹖丿 賵 丕蹖賳 诏賵賳賴 亘賴 亘禺卮蹖 丕夭 爻賳鬲 賵 賮乇賴賳诏 丌賲乇蹖讴丕蹖蹖丕賳 丿乇 丕賵蹖賱 賯乇賳 诏匕卮鬲賴 倬蹖 亘乇丿 . 丿乇 丿丕爻鬲丕賳貙 禺丕賳賵丕丿賴 賳賯卮 賲丨賵乇蹖 丕蹖賮丕 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀�. 鬲氐賲蹖賲丕鬲 賲賴賲 夭賳丿诏蹖貙 賲丕賳賳丿 丕夭丿賵丕噩貙 賳賴 鬲賳賴丕 鬲氐賲蹖賲 賮乇丿蹖 亘賱讴賴 賲爻卅賱賴鈥屫й� 禺丕賳賵丕丿诏蹖 丕爻鬲 讴賴 亘乇 丕毓鬲亘丕乇 賵 噩丕蹖诏丕賴 讴賱 禺丕賳丿丕賳 鬲丕孬蹖乇 賲蹖鈥屭柏ж必�. 丌亘乇賵蹖 禺丕賳賵丕丿賴 丕夭 賴乇 趩蹖夭 丿蹖诏乇蹖 賲賴賲鈥屫� 丕爻鬲. 賴乇诏賵賳賴 乇爻賵丕蹖蹖 蹖丕 乇賮鬲丕乇蹖 讴賴 賲睾丕蹖乇 亘丕 賴賳噩丕乇賴丕蹖 丕噩鬲賲丕毓蹖 亘丕卮丿貙 賲蹖鈥屫堌з嗀� 亘賴 卮賴乇鬲 讴賱 禺丕賳賵丕丿賴 賱胤賲賴 亘夭賳丿. 亘乇丕蹖 賳賲賵賳賴 賮乇丿蹖 讴賴 丕夭 賴賲爻乇卮 噩丿丕 卮丿賴貙 丿乇 噩丕賲毓賴 賲賵乇丿 賯囟丕賵鬲 賵 丕賳夭賵丕 賯乇丕乇 賲蹖 诏蹖乇丿.
丕夭丿賵丕噩鈥屬囏� 賴賲 丕睾賱亘 亘乇 丕爻丕爻 賲賱丕丨馗丕鬲 丕噩鬲賲丕毓蹖 賵 丕賯鬲氐丕丿蹖 氐賵乇鬲 賲蹖鈥屭屫辟嗀� 鬲丕 毓卮賯 賵 毓賱丕賯賴. 丕賳鬲禺丕亘 賴賲爻乇 亘乇丕蹖 賳蹖賵賱賳丿 丌乇趩乇貙 賳賲賵賳賴鈥屫й� 丕夭 蹖讴 丕夭丿賵丕噩 賲賵乇丿 鬲丕蹖蹖丿 噩丕賲毓賴 丕爻鬲 讴賴 孬亘丕鬲 賵 鬲丿丕賵賲 爻賳鬲鈥屬囏й� 禺丕賳賵丕丿诏蹖 乇丕 鬲囟賲蹖賳 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀�.
賳賯卮 賵 噩丕蹖诏丕賴 夭賳丕賳:
丿乇 丕蹖賳 噩丕賲毓賴 丕夭 夭賳丕賳 丕賳鬲馗丕乇 賲蹖鈥屫辟堌� 讴賴 賲胤蹖毓貙 賲毓氐賵賲貙 賵 禺丕賳賴鈥屫ж� 亘丕卮賳丿. 賳賯卮 丕氐賱蹖 丌賳鈥屬囏� 賴賲爻乇蹖 卮丕蹖爻鬲賴 賵 賲丕丿乇 禺賵亘 亘賵丿賳 丕爻鬲. 丕爻鬲賯賱丕賱 賵 丕亘乇丕夭 賵噩賵丿 亘乇丕蹖 夭賳丕賳 倬爻賳丿蹖丿賴 賳蹖爻鬲. 胤賱丕賯 亘賴 卮丿鬲 賲賵乇丿 賳讴賵賴卮 賯乇丕乇 诏乇賮鬲賴 賵 夭賳 賲胤賱賯賴 亘丕 賳诏丕賴蹖 賲賳賮蹖 賵 卮讴丕讴丕賳賴 丿乇 噩丕賲毓賴 乇賵亘乇賵 賲蹖鈥屫促堌�. 賴乇诏賵賳賴 乇丕亘胤賴 禺丕乇噩 丕夭 丕夭丿賵丕噩 賳蹖夭 亘賴 卮丿鬲 爻乇讴賵亘 賲蹖鈥屫促堌�. 夭賳丕賳 丿乇 丕蹖賳 噩丕賲毓賴 丕睾賱亘 賲爻卅賵賱 丨賮馗 賵 丕賳鬲賯丕賱 丕乇夭卮鈥屬囏� 賵 丌丿丕亘 賵 乇爻賵賲 亘賴 賳爻賱鈥屬囏й� 亘毓丿蹖 賴爻鬲賳丿.
丕賲丕 亘丕 賵噩賵丿 賴賲賴 丌丿丕亘 賵 爻賳鬲 貙 賵丕乇鬲賵賳 賳卮丕賳 賲蹖 丿賴丿 讴賴 丿乇 倬爻 馗丕賴乇 賲丨丕賮馗賴鈥屭┴ж� 噩丕賲毓賴貙 賳卮丕賳賴鈥屬囏й屰� 丕夭 鬲睾蹖蹖乇丕鬲 丕噩鬲賲丕毓蹖 賵 賮讴乇蹖 亘賴 趩卮賲 賲蹖鈥屫堌必�. 夭賳 賲胤賱賯賴 賳賲丕丿蹖 丕夭 丕蹖賳 鬲睾蹖蹖乇丕鬲 丕爻鬲貙 夭賳蹖 讴賴 鬲賱丕卮 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀� 鬲丕 亘乇 賲丨丿賵丿蹖鬲鈥屬囏й� 噩丕賲毓賴 睾賱亘賴 讴賳丿 賵 夭賳丿诏蹖 賲爻鬲賯賱鈥屫臂� 丿丕卮鬲賴 亘丕卮丿.
毓氐乇 亘蹖鈥屭嗀з囒� 賳賴 鬲賳賴丕 蹖讴 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 毓丕卮賯丕賳賴 丕爻鬲貙 亘賱讴賴 賳诏丕賴蹖 丕蹖爻鬲 賳爻亘鬲丕 丿賯蹖賯 賵 丕賳鬲賯丕丿蹖 亘賴 爻賳鬲鈥屬囏й� 丌賲乇蹖讴丕蹖蹖 丿乇 蹖讴 丿賵乇賴 鬲丕乇蹖禺蹖 禺丕氐 . 賵丕乇鬲賵賳 亘丕 丕爻鬲賮丕丿賴 丕夭 卮禺氐蹖鬲鈥屬囏� 賵 乇賵丕亘胤 丌賳鈥屬囏ж� 倬蹖趩蹖丿诏蹖鈥屬囏� 賵 鬲賳丕賯囟鈥屬囏й� 丕蹖賳 爻賳鬲鈥屬囏� 乇丕 亘賴 鬲氐賵蹖乇 讴卮蹖丿賴 賵 賳卮丕賳 丿丕丿賴 讴賴 趩诏賵賳賴 丕蹖賳 爻賳鬲鈥屬囏� 賲蹖鈥屫堌з嗁嗀� 亘乇 夭賳丿诏蹖 賵 丕賳鬲禺丕亘鈥屬囏й� 丕賮乇丕丿 鬲丕孬蹖乇 亘诏匕丕乇賳丿.
December 4, 2013
Before writing this review I decided to find out a bit more about Edith Wharton. Turns out that she is actually a lot more interesting than some of her books. If you turn to the Wikipedia page (not exactly hardcore research, I know but I'm not in a position to march off to the library and start wading through Wharton's presumably numerous biographies) you'll be faced with a picture of a timid and pretty dour looking lady with two disagreeable looking Paris-Hilton porta-dogs plonked on her knee.
Don't let appearances fool you ladies and gentlemen, for Wharton was a regular social and creative dynamo; designer, socialite, writer, Knight (Chevalier of the legion of honour for her work in France during the war) there was no stopping this woman.
So back to The Age of Innocence. What's it all about? Mostly about how being young, rich and desirable and mixing with the cream of society isn't all it is cracked up to be. Why? Well because high society is actually incredibly dull. Really? Yup. In order to set themselves apart from the grubby minions who do the dishes, drive the coaches and actually work for a living, "society" set about creating a set of hideously constrictive rules and moral guidelines which sap the joy, happiness, fun, freedom of expression and general day to day life out of everyone involved.
It is incredibly ironic that everyone then strives to get accepted into this set when everyone who's already there is so damned miserable most of the time. Most of Wharton's principal characters are unhappy with their lot and lead a treading-on-eggshells existence because they're terrified out of their wits about any kind of scandal. Obviously scandal of sorts does ensue but everyone deals with it very nicely, calmly and diplomatically without any mud slinging or calling in Piers Morgan.
Clearly a lot has changed... now massive scandal can be a potentially lucrative money earner if you have the right press connections and in certain cities (Lets pretend I don't live in one of them) people set out to bed a sleb (celebrity) and then launch a modelling/music/TV career based on the back of some good quality kiss and tell anecdotes.
The best thing about this book for me was the names of the main characters. Not satisfied with a range of traditional names (you will find no James, Johns, Matthews or Mikes here reader) Wharton presented me with a barrage of people with names like Newland Archer, Manson Mingott, Sillerton Jackson, Emerson Sillerton and Dallas Archer. Eek! Perhaps the silliness of the names mirrors Whartons' own slightly mocking perspective on the society she herself inhabited.
If I had been brought up in high society I would have probably had to kick off my satin slippers and throw myself under the wheels of the first passing horse and carriage as soon as I entered adulthood. Who would want to live in such constrained times? Not I.
Don't let appearances fool you ladies and gentlemen, for Wharton was a regular social and creative dynamo; designer, socialite, writer, Knight (Chevalier of the legion of honour for her work in France during the war) there was no stopping this woman.
So back to The Age of Innocence. What's it all about? Mostly about how being young, rich and desirable and mixing with the cream of society isn't all it is cracked up to be. Why? Well because high society is actually incredibly dull. Really? Yup. In order to set themselves apart from the grubby minions who do the dishes, drive the coaches and actually work for a living, "society" set about creating a set of hideously constrictive rules and moral guidelines which sap the joy, happiness, fun, freedom of expression and general day to day life out of everyone involved.
It is incredibly ironic that everyone then strives to get accepted into this set when everyone who's already there is so damned miserable most of the time. Most of Wharton's principal characters are unhappy with their lot and lead a treading-on-eggshells existence because they're terrified out of their wits about any kind of scandal. Obviously scandal of sorts does ensue but everyone deals with it very nicely, calmly and diplomatically without any mud slinging or calling in Piers Morgan.
Clearly a lot has changed... now massive scandal can be a potentially lucrative money earner if you have the right press connections and in certain cities (Lets pretend I don't live in one of them) people set out to bed a sleb (celebrity) and then launch a modelling/music/TV career based on the back of some good quality kiss and tell anecdotes.
The best thing about this book for me was the names of the main characters. Not satisfied with a range of traditional names (you will find no James, Johns, Matthews or Mikes here reader) Wharton presented me with a barrage of people with names like Newland Archer, Manson Mingott, Sillerton Jackson, Emerson Sillerton and Dallas Archer. Eek! Perhaps the silliness of the names mirrors Whartons' own slightly mocking perspective on the society she herself inhabited.
If I had been brought up in high society I would have probably had to kick off my satin slippers and throw myself under the wheels of the first passing horse and carriage as soon as I entered adulthood. Who would want to live in such constrained times? Not I.
June 1, 2021
Esta novela tiene mucho de ensayo hist贸rico, retrata a la perfecci贸n el Nueva York de finales del siglo XIX y el modus vivendi de su 茅lite econ贸mica. Pero lo que de verdad me conquist贸 de esta historia fueron los tres protagonistas y sus distintas capas, ya que cuanto m谩s los conoces, m谩s te sorprenden, hasta llegar a un final inesperado pero que da sentido a todo lo que has le铆do. Edith Wharton escribe de maravilla y estoy deseando seguir conociendo su obra.
RESE脩A COMPLETA:
RESE脩A COMPLETA:
April 23, 2021
Although written in the 20th century, The Age of Innocence could well be seen as a pastiche of 19th century literature. We have the na茂ve, well-meaning young man who tries yet fails to overcome the prejudices of his society and social class; we have the foreign woman, sophisticated and beautiful, with whom the young man duly falls in love; and we have the fianc茅e, the typical girl-next-door so beloved in America pop culture, getting between our heroes. Intermeshed with this love triangle, are very rigid puritanical mores, which spill into intricate forms of class divide. I am familiar with how classism works in Europe, remnants, in part, of the old aristocratic order. But although I had heard something about Old Money vs New Money in the US, I had never seen it in action.
The psychological insights only a post-Freud world could provide make this novel truly extraordinary. The love story between Archer and Countess Olenska is beautifully written not for what it is but for the insights into Archer鈥檚 feelings, wonderfully illustrated by the quote: Each time you happen to me all over again. And in fact, the encounters between Archer and Olenska are sparse. Archer spends much more time thinking about her than with her. What could then be a rather banal love story turns into a sublime relationship made of self-denial and lofty feelings. On the other hand, it is precisely the relationship between Archer and his wife, May, that is very much banal, dirty and sullied despite May鈥檚 pretences at purity.
The psychological insights only a post-Freud world could provide make this novel truly extraordinary. The love story between Archer and Countess Olenska is beautifully written not for what it is but for the insights into Archer鈥檚 feelings, wonderfully illustrated by the quote: Each time you happen to me all over again. And in fact, the encounters between Archer and Olenska are sparse. Archer spends much more time thinking about her than with her. What could then be a rather banal love story turns into a sublime relationship made of self-denial and lofty feelings. On the other hand, it is precisely the relationship between Archer and his wife, May, that is very much banal, dirty and sullied despite May鈥檚 pretences at purity.
September 15, 2015
Beautifully written of course but not an especially interesting story. Newman Archer is actually a very unlikeable person although obviously a symptom of the society in which he was raised. I felt sorry for all of them because in the end no one was really happy. A bit depressing really. I do like the way writes but sadly this book did not really do it for me.
July 7, 2021
The taste of the usual was like cinders in his mouth, and there were moments when he felt as if he were being buried alive under his future.
Soundtrack for this majestic novel? by Lana Del Rey. Give this song a listen and tell me you can't feel the power, passion, longing, and heartache echoed in the novel.
Where have you been? Where did you go?
Those summer nights seem long ago
And so is the girl you use to call
The queen of New York City
But if you send for me, you know I'll come
And if you call for me, you know I'll run
I'll run to you, I'll run to you
I'll run, run, run
Now on to the review. Ah, Newland Archer, my love, my heart! As a woman in 2016, it was refreshing to read about a man in love. It feels like modern media usually portrays women as the desperate, clingy, unreasonable and unrealistically passionate ones. The truth is, we're all susceptible to the foolishness and intensity that comes with being in love.
In the beginning of the novel, Archer is accepting and eager about his role and future in society - son, lawyer, bachelor, husband, father. It's the familiar and reliable path followed by the best of his male family, friends and colleagues. There's a comfort in knowing that your major life decisions are predestined, planned and orchestrated by others. Archer learns, however, what he must give up for that comfort. Complacent in his engagement with May Welland, he meets her vivacious and worldly cousin Countess Ellen Olenska and discovers how passionate and surprising his life could be. This awakening causes an internal crisis for Archer. By sticking to the status quo and doing what is expected of him, he gives up many of his liberties. But if he forsakes society, he brings dishonor to his reputation and isolates himself and anyone associated with him. It is this struggle that is the driving force in the novel.
The Age of Innocence is a brilliant portrait of upperclass New York City in the 1870s. I went in with very high expectations for this novel - this is the second book by Edith Wharton that I've read, Ethan Frome being the first - and she did not disappoint. An intimate and critical expos茅 of society coupled with Edith Wharton's elegant prose secures this novel as one of the greatest pieces of American literature I've read yet.
For more bookish photos, reviews and updates follow me on instagram .
Soundtrack for this majestic novel? by Lana Del Rey. Give this song a listen and tell me you can't feel the power, passion, longing, and heartache echoed in the novel.
Where have you been? Where did you go?
Those summer nights seem long ago
And so is the girl you use to call
The queen of New York City
But if you send for me, you know I'll come
And if you call for me, you know I'll run
I'll run to you, I'll run to you
I'll run, run, run
Now on to the review. Ah, Newland Archer, my love, my heart! As a woman in 2016, it was refreshing to read about a man in love. It feels like modern media usually portrays women as the desperate, clingy, unreasonable and unrealistically passionate ones. The truth is, we're all susceptible to the foolishness and intensity that comes with being in love.
In the beginning of the novel, Archer is accepting and eager about his role and future in society - son, lawyer, bachelor, husband, father. It's the familiar and reliable path followed by the best of his male family, friends and colleagues. There's a comfort in knowing that your major life decisions are predestined, planned and orchestrated by others. Archer learns, however, what he must give up for that comfort. Complacent in his engagement with May Welland, he meets her vivacious and worldly cousin Countess Ellen Olenska and discovers how passionate and surprising his life could be. This awakening causes an internal crisis for Archer. By sticking to the status quo and doing what is expected of him, he gives up many of his liberties. But if he forsakes society, he brings dishonor to his reputation and isolates himself and anyone associated with him. It is this struggle that is the driving force in the novel.
The Age of Innocence is a brilliant portrait of upperclass New York City in the 1870s. I went in with very high expectations for this novel - this is the second book by Edith Wharton that I've read, Ethan Frome being the first - and she did not disappoint. An intimate and critical expos茅 of society coupled with Edith Wharton's elegant prose secures this novel as one of the greatest pieces of American literature I've read yet.
For more bookish photos, reviews and updates follow me on instagram .
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