The Age of Innocence in Reading with Style

Apr 20, 2009 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, 5-star-reads, 1001-books, author-wharton-edith, awards-pulitzer

I'm not sure I have sufficient vocabulary to fully express myself about this book. Prior to this afternoon, I would have told you that Stegner's Angle of Repose is my all time favorite book. No more. Wharton's Pulitzer prize-winner is told from the viewpoint of wealthy Newland Archer. It is a love story, but not pure and simple, as nothing in life is truly pure and simple. Even as a reader, we don't always get what we want in life.

So what is "The Age of Innocence"?

Was it that time in our nation I'm not sure I have sufficient vocabulary to fully express myself about this book. Prior to this afternoon, I would have told you that Stegner's Angle of Repose is my all time favorite book. No more. Wharton's Pulitzer prize-winner is told from the viewpoint of wealthy Newland Archer. It is a love story, but not pure and simple, as nothing in life is truly pure and simple. Even as a reader, we don't always get what we want in life.

So what is "The Age of Innocence"?

Was it that time in our nation's history when Society (yes, with a capital S) had a certain proscribed standard? That was a time when certain behavior was the norm, and, if one's behavior moved outside that norm, it was carefully concealed. It was a time when women of some means were protected and had a certain narrow role in life. Wharton knew this society well, and wrote of the possiblity that life could be different. "Women should be free-as free as we are," struck to the root of a problem that it was agreed in his world to regard as non-existent. "Nice" women, however, wronged, would never claim the kind of freedom he meant, and generous-minded men like himself were therefore-in the heat of argument-the more chivalrously ready to concede it to them.

Later, Newland Archer, thinking of his intended while looking at his future mother-in-law, thought

... and he asked himself if May's face was doomed to thicken into the same middle-aged image of invincible innocence.

Ah, no, he did not want May to have that kind of innocence, the innocence that seals the mind against imagination and the heart against experience!

Perhaps the innocence was on the part of men, however. Perhaps women did, in fact, know about the philandering of husbands and chose to pretend they did not.
Or is the Age of Innocence when we believe that anything is possible, that society will allow us be and do anything, including loving those whom our circle does not accept? Times have changed, and perhaps we are moving toward a time when such is possible. It was not possible in the 1870s of which the novel is written, nor in 1920 when the novel was published.

An advertisement of my younger years that targeted women I remember particularly, proclaimed "You've come a long way, Baby!" Yes, we have.
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Oct 26, 2011 Kathleen (itpdx) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A book that moved me emotionally and intellectually. Make a choice between family, safety, and tradition or adventure, the unknown, and excitement. That makes it sound a little trite by Wharton carries it off beautifully and left me with an aching heart.

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Nov 15, 2008 Rachel N. rated it liked it · review of another edition

Newland Archer is engaged but is attracted to the married cousing of his fiancee. An interesting look into upperclass New York life at the end of the 1800's. I found Newland to be rather annoying and like both women far more than I liked him. ...more

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