The Age of Innocence
ByPublisher Description
Upper-class New York gentleman Newland Archer is set to wed May Welland in a picture-perfect union when the bride’s cousin, Ellen Olenska, returns from a failed marriage overseas. As Newland endeavors to help Countess Olenska be reinstated into the family’s good graces, his affections for her grow. Newland soon finds himself torn between his desire to conform to the society he knows and his new-found passion for the forbidden Countess.
The Age of Innocence was originally published in 1920 as a four-part series in Pictoral Review, then later that same year as Wharton’s twelfth novel. It went on to win the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making Wharton the first woman to win the award.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities2953 Reviews
Abbey Anne
Created 1 day agosals
Created 3 days ago
“I’m so conflicted reading this. I mean, I know at some point, Archer was the victim of societal expectations but he also did his crimes because he was too fond of being in a good side of the society. When he was too eager to marry May and then he was suddenly falling (again, perhaps) for Ellen and still acted on it no less? I am so mad, I want to whack him on the head. I think he should know the consequences of his choice and LIVE with it. In the end he did live with it but believe me I am still mad at his wishing for May’s death. Like, she’s your fucking wife?? And Ellen, too, she was not a saint, not at all, but I respect her for eventually putting some distance to Archer out of respect to May. One of them need to have some dignity here. Imagine how did May actually felt. Being scorned to death by her own husband. I’m team May, probably that’s why I AM SO FUCKING MAD.
Hot takes, I also feel like Archer didn’t actually love Ellen, in one way or another. He was obsessed with the idea of “change and grow” quality that May didn’t possess, in his opinion. Ellen as well to Archer. I think she was just lonely… and his sympathy (turned into obsession) she perceived as something more and she might catch a feeling here and there. I don’t think if they had been finally together it would have been a good love story. One day, Archer would have find something lacking in Ellen which he might have found it in another woman and then he might’ve snapped again. That the cycle of having a ‘love’ affair methinks
Well, anyway. It’s a good book nonetheless. Makes me a bit dizzy though with mentions of unrelated names etc.”JB
Created 3 days agoAbout Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton (born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper class New York "aristocracy" to realistically portray the lives and morals of the Gilded Age. In 1921, she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Literature, for her novel The Age of Innocence. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1996. Among her other well known works are The House of Mirth and the novella Ethan Frome.
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