December 2017 Group Read: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton *No Spoilers*

[Danielle The Book Huntress]

The Age of Innocence is our December group read. This is the spoiler free discussion thread.

Please feel free to add your spoiler free thoughts about The Age of Innocence.

[Nina]

Happily joining this group read. I started on Friday but was visiting friends over the weekend, so haven't read more than a couple of pages yet. Looking forward! Who else is joining?

[Gisela]

I read this a couple of months ago and absolutely loved it. My second Wharton book and I really love her writing. Very revealing and descriptive. Great read.

[Adria]

I’m about 2/3 through and I’m really enjoying this book. Even though not much is happening in the book, it’s still engaging. I don’t read much fiction anymore, because it’s so poorly written. What a difference between this classic and the garbage that passes for modern literature today.

[☯Emily , moderator]

Could anyone keep track of the genealogical relationships written in chapter 6 and in other places?

[☯Emily , moderator]

I loved her quote about opera in the first chapter: "...the musical world required that the German text of French operas sung by Swedish artists should be translated into Italian for the clearer understanding of English-speaking audiences."

That basically sums up how I feel about opera!

[Gisela]

☯Emily wrote: "Could anyone keep track of the genealogical relationships written in chapter 6 and in other places?"

Definitely a challenge. I would have liked a flow chart at the beginning to refer to, but I guess readers at that time would have had more patience with providing one themselves or keeping track of people.

[Gisela]

☯Emily wrote: "I loved her quote about opera in the first chapter: "...the musical world required that the German text of French operas sung by Swedish artists should be translated into Italian for the clearer un..."
Agree. I would love to enjoy Operas as well as the voices tend to be beautiful but every time I listen to one or watch one I don't really get where we are in the story line because I can't understand especially the female singers.

[Blueberry]

☯Emily wrote: "I loved her quote about opera in the first chapter: "...the musical world required that the German text of French operas sung by Swedish artists should be translated into Italian for the clearer un..."

Funny :)

[Nina]

Karen wrote: "☯Emily wrote: "Could anyone keep track of the genealogical relationships written in chapter 6 and in other places?"

Having been bitten by the genealogy bug 20 yrs ago, I couldn't help but start to..."

I sometimes do that as well but only if early in the story I realize that it will be helpful. Here, at some point I just didn't care so much any more. I could keep the main figures apart and remember their respective family relationships and for the others I just decided that it was not crucial to the story.