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Title: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, Louis Auchincloss ISBN: 0375753206 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: April, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.26
Rating: 4
Summary: Tedious Intrigue
Comment: Edith Wharton's Age of Innocence is a stunning tale of love and loss, entangled in the superficial New York society of the 1870s. The novel focuses on Newland Archer and his conflict between his love for unconventional Countess Olenska and his devotion to "nice" May Welland, his betrothed. The interactions of the characters are beautifully written, but the plot drags in some parts. Countess Olenska's mystery and scandal is introduced early causing the reader to be intrigued about her fate. On the other hand, May is the canon New York young woman. She adheres to society's binding rules, and consequently never fully develops an inquisitive mind like Olenska's. Archer's strong and often feministic opinions overshadow May's almost boring character. He wants May to know of the world and be an independent thinker. My favorite character is Madame Olenska because she is feisty, passionate, and unconventional. She and Newland fall in love after he's already announced his engagement to her cousin, May. My favorite aspect of the story is Newland's internal struggle between what he desires and what society wants for him because it is fast paced and lively, compared to the external plot. This book is for the patient reader because the plot moves slowly. The story's hold on me was from my desire to know if Newland ended up with May or Countess Olenska. This conflict was the only thing that kept me intrigued. New York society's haughty and hypocritical attitude enraged me because it was hindering Countess Olenska's happiness with Archer. Though I feel the plot could have been livelier, I still recommend this book. The unfolding of Archer and Countess Olenska's intricate relationship and character make the novel worth plodding through. I suggest this book to anyone who enjoys 19th century romance and complicated internal struggles in the characters. The story has its ironic and comical parts as well. For example, it is ironic that the women parade the façade that they are innocent and pure, but actually complain and gossip. These situations help liven the tiresome plot. However, if you did not like Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, I doubt that you will appreciate this story because it moves at a much slower pace. It can also be frustrating because society forbids Countess Olenska and Newland Archer to act upon their love for each other. Despite these problems, I still recommend the book because of its strong message against superficiality. Through the characters, Wharton depicts how complicated life becomes when you are not honest with yourself and those around you. Therefore The Age of Innocence is an emotional novel that will leave you frustrated, upset, and filled with awe.
Rating: 5
Summary: Wharton continues to amaze.
Comment: Written in 1920 but set primarily in the 1870's, Edith Wharton's "The Age of Innocence" is a novel of nostalgia, recalling its author's memories of what New York high society was like in a time when the industrial age had raised the standard of living to indulgent levels of comfort but before twentieth-century technologies had made life faster, busier, and noisier; a world where balls, formal dinners, and the opera were the main events and the lower classes were visible only as servants. Into this setting Wharton fashions an elegant story about a young man caught between his fiancee and the woman he believes he loves even more.
Newland Archer, a junior partner in a prominent law firm, is engaged to marry May Welland who, like Archer, comes from one of the many respected upper middle class New York families. However, Archer takes an interest in May's cousin, the Countess Ellen Olenska, who has just separated from her wealthy aristocrat husband in Europe and plans to settle in New York. Ellen bears the burden of possibly causing a scandal in her family if her separation results in divorce, and she is already raising eyebrows by consorting with Julius Beaufort, a married banker. Archer gradually falls in love with Ellen and wishes to whisk her away to a place where they can escape the scrutiny of reproachful eyes; May, sensing that his romantic interests may lie elsewhere than with her, even suggests that he should follow his heart. Loyal to societal conventions and propriety, however, he marries May but remains passionate about Ellen, whose presence in New York is a constant reminder of his sacrifice.
Lurking beneath the plot are implications about the many social and cultural differences between America and Europe. Archer has a taste for literature, and since America at that time did not have much of a body of literature or even an identifiable culture for that matter, everything he reads is imported from Europe. Part of his attention to Ellen is due to her connection to and representation of the rich culture of Europe, while May, for all her wholesome goodness, represents to him the dull conventionality that is so much a part of the uncultured New York. (Henry James, a great influence on Wharton, explored a similar theme in "The Ambassadors.")
It's likely the snobbish society that Wharton describes so vividly still exists today, though maybe with different standards and "rules." Her prose once again is graceful and exact, portraying with admirable candor this cold, vicious, uninviting world as an arena of cruelty masked by gentility. Like Lily Bart in "The House of Mirth," Ellen Olenska is a product and a victim of the society of her time and her class, but fortunately unlike Lily, she manages not to let it destroy her.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Age of Innocence is a must-read novel
Comment: Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence takes the reader into the fantastic world of New York in the late 1800s. Wharton shows an adept handling of her figurative language as she tells of the elite society in that great city. But more importantly, she draws the reader into the burning love triangle between Newland Archer, his fiancee, May Welland and her cousin, Countess Olenska. These characters each display a certain piece of society; with beautiful, innocent May the ideal society-girl, following all the conventions she had been moulded to follow; with Countess Olenska, the foreign, freedom loving, and sensuous member of one of the highest-ranking families of New York, who broke all the rules and never noticed they had been broken; with Newland Archer, the man who had been raised under the strict hand of society, yet longed to break free, torn between his fiancee and the woman he loved. This novel seduces the reader with its tale of betrayal and forbidden love, and astounds them with the outright hypocrisy that this old New York society displays. If you are someone who loves literary structure, hidden symbolism, and outstanding use of figurative language, this is a must-read novel.
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Title: The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, Anna Quindlen ISBN: 0451527569 Publisher: Signet Classic Pub. Date: February, 2000 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
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Title: Old New York by Edith Wharton ISBN: 0020383142 Publisher: Scribner Paperback Fiction Pub. Date: 01 March, 1995 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, Anita Shreve ISBN: 0451527666 Publisher: Signet Classic Pub. Date: 12 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
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Title: Summer by Edith Wharton ISBN: 0553214225 Publisher: Bantam Classics Pub. Date: August, 1993 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
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Title: SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway ISBN: 0684800713 Publisher: Scribner Paperback Fiction Pub. Date: March, 1995 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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