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The Age of Innocence
  
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The Age of Innocence (Hardcover)

by Edith Wharton (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (100 customer reviews)

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Somewhere in this book, Wharton observes that clever liars always come up with good stories to back up their fabrications, but that really clever liars don't bother to explain anything at all. This is the kind of insight that makes The Age of Innocence so indispensable. Wharton's story of the upper classes of Old New York, and Newland Archer's impossible love for the disgraced Countess Olenska, is a perfectly wrought book about an era when upper-class culture in this country was still a mixture of American and European extracts, and when "society" had rules as rigid as any in history. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.


From AudioFile

Welcome to the New York of the 1870's, where everyone in the upper crust fits into the mold or is ostracized for nonconformity. In spite of having married the socially suitable May, Weland Archer wishes to be unconventional and sees the Countess Olenska as a role model at the same time that he falls in love with her. Wanda McCaddon is a perfect narrator for this book. Her voice is as cold and sharp as the society she reads about. Through her intonation and phrasing, a stifling Victorian mask drops over each character. As Wharton describes a society long ago, McCaddon brings it to life in a dry, droll, appropriately uncaptivating manner. M.B.K. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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100 Reviews
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4.3 out of 5 stars (100 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Masterpiece, Jan 30 2003
By B. Gone - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: The Age of Innocence (Paperback)
Since it is almost ten years ago that I saw Scorcese's movie adaptation of this book, I thought that enough time had passed to read this book without preconceived notions and entirely on its own merits. I am glad I did, since the book clearly outshines the flick.

Because so many reviews have been written on this novel and it has found its ultimate validation by justified inclusion in the list of hundred best books of the 20th century, there is little need for any additional endorsement. Yet, some of the reviews might scare some potential readers away and require some debunking.

This book is no soap opera.
While a romance is at the center of this book this does not imply that we are dealing with a romance novel.

This book is not for women only.
While the story approaches the point of mushiness at a few short instances, I think Wharton did an excellent job portraying the male central character of Newland Archer.

By juxtaposing elements like self versus society, mind versus heart, practical versus desirable The Age of Innocence offers us with an awful lot in a small number of pages. Add to that I supreme writing style, that couples the female eye for detail with Dickensian wit in portraying New York's high society, and follow the beautiful archetypes from Paris and Helena, the original doubter and femme fatale, respectively, and you end up with a true masterpiece.

On top of that, this book has one of literature's best final chapters with bitter, sweet and sarcastic undertones. Just having Welland sit in Paris on a bench close to the Dome des Invalides is priceless!

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Love, Loneliness and the Strictures of Society., Nov 2 2008
By Themis-Athena (from somewhere between California and Germany) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: 20th Century Age Of Innocence (Paperback)
Imagine living in a world where life is governed by intricate rituals; a world "balanced so precariously that its harmony [can] be shattered by a whisper" (Wharton); a world ruled by self-declared experts on form, propriety and family history - read: scandal -; where everything is labeled and yet, people are not; where in order not to disturb society's smooth surface nothing is ever expressed or even thought of directly, and where communication occurs almost exclusively by way of symbols, which are unknown to the outsider and, like any secret code, by their very encryption guarantee his or her permanent exclusion.

Such, in faithful imitation of Victorian England, was the society of late 19th century upper class New York. Into this society returns, after having grown up and lived all her adult life in Europe, American-born Countess Ellen Olenska, after leaving a cruel and uncaring husband. She already causes scandal by the mere manner of her return; but not knowing the secret rituals of the society she has entered, she quickly brings herself further into disrepute by receiving an unmarried man, by being seen in the company of a man only tolerated by virtue of his financial success and his marriage to the daughter of one of this society's most respected families, by arriving late to a dinner in which she has expressly been included to rectify a prior general snub, by leaving a drawing room conversation to instead join a gentleman sitting by himself - and worst of all, by openly contemplating divorce, which will most certainly open up a whole Pandora's box of "oddities" and "unpleasantness:" the strongest terms ever used to express moral disapproval in this particular social context. Soon Ellen, who hasn't seen such façades even in her husband's household, finds herself isolated and, wondering whether noone is ever interested in the truth, complains bitterly that "[t]he real loneliness here is living among all these kind people who only ask you to pretend."

Ellen finds a kindred soul in attorney Newland Archer, her cousin May Welland's fiancé, who secretly toys with a more liberal stance, while outwardly endorsing the value system of the society he lives in. Newland and Ellen fall in love - although not before he has advised her, on his employer's and May and Ellen's family's mandate, not to pursue her plans of divorce. As a result, Ellen becomes unreachable to him, and he flees into accelerating his wedding plans with May, who before he met Ellen in his eyes stood for everything that was good and noble about their society, whereas now he begins to see her as a shell whose interior he is reluctant to explore for fear of finding merely a kind of serene emptiness there; a woman whose seemingly dull, passive innocence grinds down every bit of roughness he wants to maintain about himself and who, as he realizes even before marrying her, will likely bury him alive under his own future. Then his passion for Ellen is rekindled by a meeting a year and a half after his wedding, and an emotional conflict they could hardly bear when he was not yet married escalates even further. And only when it is too late for all three of them he finds out that his wife had far more insight (and almost ruthless cleverness) than he had ever credited her with.

Winner of the 1921 Pulitzer Prize and the first work of fiction written by a woman to be awarded that distinction, "The Age of Innocence" is one of Edith Wharton's most enduringly popular novels; the crown jewel among her subtly satirical descriptions of New York upper class society. By far not as overtly condemning and cynical as the earlier "House of Mirth" (for which Wharton reportedly even saw this later work as a sort of apology), "The Age of Innocence" is a masterpiece of characterization and social study alike: an intricate canvas painted by a master storyteller who knew the society which she described inside out, and who, even though she had moved to France (where she would continue living for the rest of her life) almost a decade earlier, was able to delineate late 19th century New York society's every nuance in pitch-perfect detail, while at the same time - seemingly without any effort at all - also blending together all these minute details into an impeccably composed ensemble that will stay with the reader long after he has turned the last page.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Perfect cure for insomnia, Jun 12 2000
By Chandler Merrell (Roswell, GA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Age of Innocence (Paperback)
At the risk of offending the literary world, this is the slowest piece of fiction I have ever read. The story is about New York, circa 1880, and the stuffiness of the elite class.

The author descibed her characters succintly in Chapter 33 when she wrote " It was the old New York way of taking life " without effusion of blood": the way of people who dreaded scandal more than disease, who placed decency above courage, and who considered that nothing was more ill-bred than scenes, except the behaviour of those who gave rise to them".

The plot centers upon a engaged lawyer, Newland Archer. From one of the finest families in New York, he falls for an exotic beauty with a scandalous past, the Countess Olenska, who also happens to be his fiance's cousin.

The young man struggles with whether he settles into the staid and boring life that his family name and status have earned him surrounded by people he despises, or does he follow his heart. He defends the charcter of the mysterious and exotic Countess Olenska, who is scorned by both family and friends. The Countess, equally in love with Archer, makes the hard decision to let Archer go so he can fulfill the life that has been planned for him.

Beautifully written but dreadfully slow.

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 		 Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Wharton Puts Jane Austen To Shame
Wharton's story about taboo love and social mores in New York high society puts Jane Austen's quaint, fluffy world to shame. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Erin

5.0 out of 5 stars Totem and taboo in old New York.
The reading public must have been taken by shock when, in 1920, Wharton published this novel. Written off by most of the critics and audience of her time as having her best... Read more
Published on Jul 8 2004 by Jerry Clyde Phillips

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books I've read
I enjoyed every word of this book. It just captivated me. I'm glad Wharton chose the sentimental ending rather than going for the melodramatic.
Published on Jun 20 2004 by Sarah Sammis

5.0 out of 5 stars Tension between individualism and confomity
Edith's book talks about the tension between following one's heart and loyalty to societal expectations. Case in point, Newland Archer. Read more
Published on April 11 2004 by La Reyna

5.0 out of 5 stars The age of wisdom
Edith Wharton has a place in the North American Literature canon as one of the best female writers ever. Read more
Published on Feb 15 2004 by Alysson Oliveira

3.0 out of 5 stars Less than her best!
They say that novels must make sense, because life doesn't. And perhaps this is the draw of the book. Read more
Published on Jan 29 2004 by C Brunner

4.0 out of 5 stars Acidic, but zippy on the tongue, with a hint of berry
This novel is like a big, fat grape. I think really that says it all.
Published on Oct 28 2003 by Nanx Hedwerp

5.0 out of 5 stars An Age of Questioning
One decision can impact a life forever. Should one choose what is best for him or what society demands of him? Read more
Published on April 8 2003 by Melissa Nee

5.0 out of 5 stars An Age of Questioning
One decision can impact a life forever. Should one choose what is best for him or what society demands of him? Read more
Published on April 8 2003 by Melissa Nee

4.0 out of 5 stars Classic
I thouroughly enjoyed what at first looked to be a dull read. I picked up the book in an attempt to round out my literary knowledge. Read more
Published on Feb 21 2003 by ggincg

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