The Age of Innocence

In 1870s New York City, rich heir Newland Archer is newly engaged to rich heiress May Welland. It’s a good match since they’re both in the same super-rich close-knit social circle. This circle is disrupted by the arrival of May’s cousin Ellen from Europe, returning to America in scandalous circumstances having escaped an abusive marriage to a Count. She doesn’t follow the strict unwritten social rules of the New York rich - she dines with whomever she wants, speaks her mind, and petitions for *gasp* a divorce. Newland works at the law firm she has hired and feels drawn to her intellect and worldliness. He’s torn between wanting to give her the gift of freedom and safety or listening to their friends and family beg him to show more discourage her because divorce just isn’t done. In an effort to get Ellen out of his head Newland moves up his wedding to May, and Ellen moves to Washington DC. When they see each other again a year after the wedding, they realize nothing has changed between them. Newland wants her to stay close so they can still be in each other’s lives, but Ellen is still unwelcome in his society, so she leaves for Europe (but not back to her husband). Newland plans to follow her, but May tactfully reveals she is pregnant and he stays. Decades later, the widowered Newland is visiting his adult son in Paris when he’s invited to dinner at Ellen’s. He declines.

This is not a super fun read because Newland sucks a lot. Both Ellen and May are pretty sympathetic. Ellen just wants freedom and safety. May is smarter than Newland gives her credit for, even if she mostly chooses not to use it. You could argue she’s a bit manipulative but she’s only trying to manipulate herself out of the position her husband put her in. As a man, Newland is the only one in the triangle with real agency, but he doesn’t know what he wants - essentially he wants to have his cake and eat it too. He wants to keep the luxury and privilege of his life, and his marriage to May, but also wants to be with Ellen, but does not want to commit adultery or have a mistress (because that would be unseemly). And in the end, even when he’s eaten the cake, and then he gets the cake, he throws it away.

Aside from the lackluster main plot there’s a lot of interest here. The side characters are vivid - especially the snappy Granny Mingott and the scandalous Beaufort family. It’s a peek into a world full of bizarre unspoken rules and strict rituals that haunt Americans to this day. In this respect Ellen is especially interesting - the American myth tells us that European nobility is stratified, stuck-up, and overly formal, but it’s the American plutocracy that shuns Ellen for stepping a toe out of line.

Worth reading once for the Gilded Age historical context, but I don’t think I’ll ever return to it. show less

I first read this over 20 years ago — it's one of the few books I remember reading for pleasure while I was in college. And I loved it then, though at the time it was the climax of the first book that struck deepest at my heart. And it's still a fantastic act break, but this time through, the second book resonated more. As it should, because I'm older and more familiar with the way the world works.

Oddly enough, the two things that the book most reminded me of are Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, and The Wire. The former because, like Morpheus, Newland Archer resists change so long that it does him serious damage. The latter because, like The Wire, it's ultimately a tale of people who are completely at the mercy of the system that they show more think they can defeat, or at least play to their advantage.

And I cried at the end, because what else can you do? Gorgeous. show less

It took me awhile to get through this novel. While I read, I think my inner critic was opining on whether or not it was worthy of the Pulitzer Prize (there's a whole side story on this, involving author Sinclair Lewis, and how one feels about it may largely depend on one's definition of "wholesome").

I gave this novel 4 stars because overall, it is a very good novel and Wharton is a very good writer. She takes a cold hard look at late 19th century New York society, its social hypocrisy and unspoken codes of morality. Her characters are very well drawn and believable and, at times, quite maddening as they move through the time and place they are born into.

Wharton can be, by turns, intensely romantic: "Each time, you happen to me all show more over again."

Then, hilarious: "Mr. Jackson had helped himself to a slice of the tepid filet which the mournful butler had handed him with a look as sceptical (sic) as his own, and had rejected the mushroom sauce after a barely perceptible sniff. He looked baffled and hungry..."

Then, tragic: "But after a moment a sense of waste and ruin overcame him. There they were, close together and safe and shut in; yet so chained to their separate destinies that they might as well have been half the world apart."

This is a sad story, but one also full of family ties and loyalties that give certain characters a dignity about them, showing awareness of the restrictive lives they lead under social controls. These restrictions certainly apply to the women of this time, but also extend to the men, who find themselves just as trapped as the women (albeit with more ways available to sidestep them).

My particular copy was poorly edited, to the point it was distracting more than once. I enjoyed this novel enough to want to revisit it in the future, and will treat myself to a quality hardcover. Definitely recommended. show less

This is a masterful work by Wharton, set in the upper echelons of New York society in the 1870s. It deals with the lives of Newland Archer, his young bride May and her cousin, the Countess Ellen Olenska, against a backdrop of the shallow and exclusive high society that constrained them at the time, surrounded by a wealth of characters who define the world they live in.

It is impossible to read this book with anything other than modern eyes. From a female perspective in the 21st century, Newland comes across throughout as weak and patronising with his desire to tenaciously cling to the ideal of a "woman's innoncence" and his position as the worldly man who can educate them. May, his young wife, appears both irritating and frustrating. She show more is manipulative via her innocent assumptions and unbending will on matters of social conformation. By rights, the reader's sympathy should lie with her, but instead one finds that it is Newland Archer for whom you are rooting, willing him to break free. To a modern reader, Countess Olenska is the character with whom sympathy lies. Her independent mind and spirit fights against constraint by the society that she has returned to as a refuge. It is not until Newland forces her to be aware of it, that she adapts her behaviour at all. Ironic that it should be the case when the rest of the story unfolds.

I loved this book when I read it a decade ago and on this re-read I was waiting to understand why I had remembered it as such a classic. As I reached the final third, I realised that this is where it shines. The subtext behind the actions of Newland, May and Ellen and the words unspoken carry such weight that it is suffused with tension and sensuality. Throughout there is the idea that to this society, women were almost sacrificial in the face of scandal. The ultimate irony is that despite Newland's consideration of himself as worldly, his need to educate May, in fact he is as innocent as she in his desire to "get away" with Ellen "into a world where ..... categories do not exist". It is Ellen that is realistic. The idea that May had "spent her poetry and romance on their short courting" whilst Newland remains blameless in his eyes and cannot see that he is as responsible and changed as she. The culmination of the farewell meal for Ellen when Archer finally loses his innocence, his moment of realisation of what has been thought of him by society, what has been observed and supposed, is as painful a description of disillusionment as any I have read. Throughout this book there are moments when you dislike May intensely as she seems controlling and manipulative (irrationally, as she is the victim and has done nothing wrong). However, there are moments, such as after the leaving party for Ellen, when she deserves, and Wharton moves us to give her, sympathy.

The book is finally resolved by a poignant and brilliant ending where Newland is shown for what he really is: a man as devoted to convention in his way as any other of his time, a man who cherishes his ideals more than the reality of life when it comes to the final reckoning.

A brilliant and restrained book, a real classic! show less

A reread for me, I think the third time I've read this. Every time I find myself noticing something new. This time I was thinking the entire time of what the book would have been from May Welland's point of view. I would love to read a retelling of that - is there one??

For those who haven't read this, [Age of Innocence] follows Newland Archer, a young man on the cusp of marriage to May Welland and into the stifling, closed off New York society of the 1870s. When worldly, exotic (well, to their small circle) Ellen Olenska returns home to escape a bad marriage, Archer becomes enthralled. This is a love triangle but also a study of what happens when people are caught in a shifting society and whether they'll stick with the old rules or show more forge a new path.

The book is written from Newland Archer's perspective which wildly annoyed me the first time I've read this. Subsequent readings have made me so impressed with how Wharton manages to make this about the women, particularly about May, without giving them a direct voice.

I love this book and highly recommend it. show less

From my second reading of this book, I am more than ever impressed with Edith Wharton's insight into the inner-workings of old New York society and the characters who inhabit it. We have characters who embrace the Old Order and use all their power and wiles to maintain it. And then we have the characters who are questioning the status quo, dare to break free from restraints and almost but not quite achieve it.
A very interesting conflict between old and new values occurs as we watch Archer's consuming passion for a married woman overtake his will to remain faithful to his wife and way of life. The way in which his wife ties Archer to her without ever articulating her knowledge of his love for Ellen is a revelation of Old Order show more manipulation. But on the other hand a marriage is saved and we find in an epilogue that Archer had a successful and fairly content life. Beautiful language and nuanced expression of feeling by a master of her art. show less

I avoided Wharton's work for years because I hated Ethan Frome when I read it in high school, and now I realize I made a grave mistake. The Age of Innocence is wonderful. I can't remember the last time I was so captivated by a novel of manners. This is like an anthropologist's treatise on 1870s New York City high society, and it is revelatory both about its time period and our assigned roles now. I found the views on the roles of women particularly relevant and engaging. Highly recommended.