At first this novel overwhelmed me with its descriptions of New York society and its oppressive social rules, and the narration felt too on the nose (I get it, I get it: Archer is feeling closed in by these cultural rituals, and he's not passionately in love with his fiancee. I get it!). But this tedium waned once the story got rolling, or it became more nuanced and thus entertaining, and Edith Wharton's prose is enviable the whole way through. Her descriptions of ballrooms and what people are wearing reminded me of Somerset Maugham's work, which I adore. My only other complaint(and it feels like a dumb one) is that Archer is a pretty bland guy. I can understand why he'd fall for Madame Olenska, but I don't quite understand why Olenska falls for Archer. He's kind of a douche.

Here are some quotes:

"He bent and laid his lips on her hand, which were cold and lifeless. She drew them away and he turned to the door, found his coat and hat under the faint gas-light of the hall, and plunged out into the winter night bursting with the belated eloquence of the inarticulate."

and

"The immense accretion of flesh which had descended on her in middle life like a flood of lava on a doomed city had changed her from a plump active little woman with a neatly-turned foot and ankle into something as vast and august as a natural phenomenon."

and

"He simply felt that if he could carry away the vision of the spot of earth that she walked on, and the way the sky and sea enclosed it, the rest of the world might seem less empty."