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The Age of Innocence is a library-sale book I've had about for a while, on the "no, really, I'm going to stop reading so much fluff and elevate my average" shelf. Yes, well, one day. I happened to pick up Innocence, literally in passing, and within a couple of pages was thinking "Where have you been all my life?"
OK, it wasn't so much love at first sight - but it was surprised delight. My expectations? Stuffy, I guess; stiff; something you'd be forced to read in high school. Something a Merchant ...more
OK, it wasn't so much love at first sight - but it was surprised delight. My expectations? Stuffy, I guess; stiff; something you'd be forced to read in high school. Something a Merchant ...more
If you read the synopsis--responsible young man falls in love with his Fiancé's cousin, internal turmoil commences--it sounds both boring and really not my kind of reading. But this book is so much more than that! The other plot--the one that is drawn out with the same subtlety that is demonstrated in the novel--is the way proper New York society in the late nineteenth century recognizes and stops this type of aberration, without any direct acknowledgement of its existence.
This novel is a work ...more
This novel is a work ...more
Read this in high school but was due for a re-read...
Wharton is a genius - you think you're going to get a love story but you get a social satire instead. The basic plot, set in Old New York of the 1870s, is interestingly told from a man's point of view: Newland Archer, engaged then married to the girl he is "supposed to" want, the innocent and unimaginative May Welland. Yet he finds himself drawn to her cousin, the fascinating Ellen Olenska, a social pariah after separating from her husband. We ...more
Wharton is a genius - you think you're going to get a love story but you get a social satire instead. The basic plot, set in Old New York of the 1870s, is interestingly told from a man's point of view: Newland Archer, engaged then married to the girl he is "supposed to" want, the innocent and unimaginative May Welland. Yet he finds himself drawn to her cousin, the fascinating Ellen Olenska, a social pariah after separating from her husband. We ...more
Having read this novel after Ethan Frome, it was difficult not to compare. It seemed that with both works Wharton was illustrating what seemed to her to be the inherent struggle caused by the presence of both duty and passion in a man's heart. While Ethan and Newland where very different men it seemed as they were walking down the same road. You would think it would give you a sense of deja vu or redundancy, but the duty Newland is bound to is not a product of his character but rather of his soc
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I used to enjoy spending a whole weekend with the Lovell Mingotts and the Reggie Chiverses, but now it all feels like prep work for Penn trustees meetings.
The Age of Innocence (Modern Library Classics) by Edith Wharton (1999)
Edith Wharton's books always take on a sort of romantic, melancholy tone (juxtaposed against, or maybe in spite of, her main characters' often feisty disposition and head-strong will), and of them all, I found this book to be the least sorrowful. Not only her writing, but Wharton's characters and their relationship to each other, are poetic and take on a life of their own. It's not as happy or straightforward as your average romantic tale, but offers a more realistic read within the setting of W
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I thought this book started off really slowly and then picked up speed at the end. Not my favorite book I've ever read, but I'm glad I did.
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Apr 20, 2014
Bethany Miller
marked it as to-read
Nov 22, 2014
Melissa Wiebe
rated it
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2015
Jan 30, 2016
Sarah
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Nov 17, 2016
Thorn
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Jan 24, 2017
maria
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Oct 06, 2019
Kate
marked it as kindle-books-to-read
Aug 25, 2022
Clara
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Sep 07, 2022
JC
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