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    The Age of Innocence
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    The Age of Innocence
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    The Age of Innocence
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Age of Innocence

    Written by Edith Wharton

    Narrated by Susie Berneis

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Set in the 1870s, Edith Wharton examines the American elite culture on the East Coast. Newland Archer is a lawyer and heir to one of New York City's most prominent families. He is arraigned to be married to May Welland. Newland is pleased with the prospect, until he meets Countess Ellen Olenska, May's older cousin. Suddenly, Newland begins to doubt his arranged marriage and society's shallow rules as his attraction to Ellen increases.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDreamscape Media Audio
    Release dateOct 29, 2013
    ISBN9781624069932
    Author

    Edith Wharton

    Edith Wharton was born in 1862 to a prominent and wealthy New York family. In 1885 she married Boston socialite 'Teddy' Wharton but the marriage was unhappy and they divorced in 1913. The couple travelled frequently to Europe and settled in France, where Wharton stayed until her death in 1937. Her first major novel was The House of Mirth (1905); many short stories, travel books, memoirs and novels followed, including Ethan Frome (1911) and The Reef (1912). She was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature with The Age of Innocence (1920) and she was thrice nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. She was also decorated for her humanitarian work during the First World War.

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    Reviews for The Age of Innocence

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    • 3/5
      I didn't really understand why this novel is so recommended and highly rated. It is a character study of several people, in the vein of the different classes and societal concerns that beset them, but I did not feel engaged or enraptured with the story or the developments that occurred during it. To me, it seemed a bit archaic in form and style and did not seem to age well. The prose was a bit stale and uninspired as well- largely dealing with the same sort of approach and taciturnity that I did not feel suited the novel very well.2.5 stars- worth skipping.
    • 4/5
      The age of individualism has not yet dawned when Newland Archer, a young man from a good New Yorker family, has to make the age-old choice between an untamed true love and a marriage that fits into all the traditions he grew up and believes in. A remarkable story about love, duty, sacrifice and the power that society, its morals and traditons have over the lives of people, especially if they don't fit seamlessly into the fold. The excesses of these conventions often seems absurd to modern readers, the introspective voice of this narrative sometimes borders on melodrama, but especially as I read (listened to) it right after Pride and Prejudice, the difference how both books handle this overarching theme left a deep impression on me. Where P&P takes it with a lot of humour, optimism and exaggeration, the tone here is decidedly melancholic, introspective and much more subdued.
    • 5/5
      I'm really surprised at how much I liked this book considering how I tend to dislike what is considered classic feminist literature. This is the story of a guy named Newland Archer who wants to marry well but also wants good company from his marriage. He gets himself engaged to a young girl named Mary Welland (whoa accidental pun) who offers a nice aesthetic to his image and an increase in wealth. But then he meets her cousin the Countess Ellen Olenska who makes a grand and scandalous return to New York having separated from her husband. Newland is honorable physically but creates an intimate emotional relationship with Ellen. She, being the older and more mature one does her best to keep her distance to not hurt her cousin but things happen when you allow yourself to get emotionally close to someone. Eventually, that isn't good enough for one or both parties involved.Because of my personal conditioning and life experiences, I'm always frustrated with the portrayal of women in classic literature. Not because I'm naive enough to think that women didn't face sexism or am shocked to see men demeaning women but because their feelings don't seem genuine to me. But again it could be that I don't consider myself to be a sensitive type, I'm a very closed off feelings type of person so to see a woman behaving so over-the-top sometimes makes it seem fake to me. In this case, I really enjoyed Mary and Ellen's portrayal because both had feelings and reactions that seemed real. Mary gave Newland an out of their engagement and behaved exactly like that young teenager that I imagined in my mind. Ellen was a quiet but powerful point in every scene she was in. It was clear to me how tied she felt to the arrangement she made with her marriage but she didn't let herself be weighed down by it. Ellen was a kind and respectable woman who knew what she wanted and knew when to back away at the appropriate times. Both women were ones I sympathized with and wanted the best for both.Newland was a hoe, he knew exactly what he was doing and I rolled my eyes at his underestimating Mary's value other than a beautiful trophy wife. He is the kind of man that I truly despise but this book wouldn't have worked for me if he had been a nice guy (TM) who just happened to fall in love with the wrong person. I probably wouldn't have finished the book at all. But in the end he isn't a villain at all, he's just a guy who had feelings for someone and made the wrong decision because he was young and stupid.
    • 1/5
      interesting insight into what life was like for these people but seemed dull to me
    • 1/5
      I am not a fan of Edith Wharton. This book was required reading and bored me to tears. For the most part it felt that nothing was really going on, and while I don't remember specific details nearly 10 years later, I remember that by the time I finished it I was relieved and also hated it. I have never recommended this one to anyone and am usually surprised by those who sing Wharton's praises. It was just too exhausting.
    • 5/5
      The plot of this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel does not move far or fast, but Wharton's prose is so luminous and descriptive that you hardly mind. I did not like this book as much as "The House of Mirth" (which seems to cover a lot of the same ground) or "Ethan Frome," but by the end, I was still completely caught up in what was happening to the characters. 1870s New York is completely unrecognisable as the city of today, and evidently already was even when this novel was written, but this book helped me appreciate the distinctly Puritan character of American heritage, and perhaps even to understand myself a little better. I was, however, disappointed in the ancillary material in the Barnes and Noble edition. Maureen Howard's introduction provides little more than spoilers other than to say that every detail Wharton writes is for a reason; there is also a major spoiler in the first endnote, so if you had skipped the introduction, you might still have had the ending ruined right from the start. The questions for further discussion are particularly esoteric in this novel and not likely to be of much help to lay readers; they seem drawn from a college literature course.
    • 5/5
      I was deeply mesmerized by the delicate writing style Wharton used to paint a vivid picture of old New York during a time dictated by social norms and mores set by tradition and by a group of tightly-knit select people that represented New York, keeping up appearances, and conformity to what society deemed acceptable.Newland Archer was set in the conventions that dictated and moulded his everyday life. He was so set in it that for a time, his actions and thoughts were aligned with it accordingly. His beliefs was jarred at the arrival of the Countess Ellen Olenska, a cousin of his then-betrothed, the docile May Welland. He was, at first, a typical representation of masculine vanity and he chose May as his bride, often taking note of her purity and girlish charm, for what he sees as his "manly privilege".Ellen was a mystery, a breath of fresh air, and a spark of color amidst a black and white crowd and Archer was captivated by her, although, he didn't want to be and has tried to fight it time and again but loses whenever he sees her. Without intending to, she made Archer examine his beliefs, his surroundings, and even his own thoughts and actions. And Archer fell in love, the kind of love accompanied by a deep yearning for something that will never be; a longing to reach someone a mere breadth's away from him but still beyond his reach; an agony of being close to each other but not together.Each characters has very distinct personalities-- Archer, idealistic and romantic; Ellen, "bohemian" and very realistic to the point that she has given up on her and Archer being together; Mrs. Manson Mingott, formidable and astute to the workings, dealings, and feelings of those around her. Some are even more complex, as in the case of May Welland who seemed pure, unassuming, and noble but was actually quite shrewd and cunning and knows a lot more than she lets on, much to the surprise of his husband.I have seldom been this invested to a love triangle than I did in this novel. It wasn't over dramatized and was treated delicately, effectively presenting Archer and Ellen's feelings and heavy emotions in the way they act whenever they're alone together-- the space that separates the two of them alone in a room, their stares and gestures, the desire to touch each other but still hesitating to cross the final boundary-- spoke volumes of the depth of what they felt for each other; although, to be quite honest, I'm still not certain if Ellen's feelings is as deep as Archer's. The crisp and straight prose managed to convey to the readers the pain and frustration of being under the constraints set by the people around them and the helplessness of being stealthily manipulated in accordance to those unspoken but rigid rules. The characters very much operated in almost ritualistic behaviors so ingrained in their upbringing that it even accomplished to stifle their personalities and desires, and heavily influenced their actions and conduct. It was depressing to read about people who would've flourished and lived fuller lives if they only had the courage to break from their restraints, some of which are even self-imposed.One cannot help but be enraptured by the novel's atmosphere of subtle melancholia hiding deeply under guise of twinkling lights and the sparkle of the rich. It amazed me how Edith Wharton worked her prose beautifully to present humorous and ridiculous details, and gradually transform them to something dark and malevolent. Her writing itself can be mistakenly described as seemingly innocent if one will not care to examine it closely.I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I aim to reread it before the year ends, just so I can see whether I missed a few more details that weren't directly stated. I hope to get my hands on a copy of Edith Wharton's other prominent works as I'm really a fan of her writing style.
    • 5/5
      "In reality they all lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs."

      Through Newland Archer is who we see Old New York. Archer's opinions of May is to believe that she is an innocent and hollow person, Archer does not realize his wife's depth until the end when his son reveals:

      " 'She said she knew we were safe with you, and always would be, because once, when she asked you to, you'd given up the thing you most wanted.'

      Archer received this strange communication in silence. His eyes remained unseeingly fixed on the thronged sunlit square below the window. At length he said in a low voice: 'She never asked me.' "

      I watched the movie version directed by Martin Scorcese, immediately after reading this. It was brilliantly done and lush in setting and emotion.
    • 4/5
      Mleh.I didn't really like this one and I feel bad about not liking it. I feel like I've missed some big pointy part of it all, but dash it, I just couldn't muster any feeling of interest or liking for any of the characters or what they were doing (or not doing, as the case may be). I may have been interested in the commentary on the smothering nature of that particular society had I not been aware of it before, but, well, I was, and so I wasn't.
    • 4/5
      The stilted and highly controlled New York society juxtaposed with the humanity of the protagonists.
    • 4/5
      In 1870s New York, Newland Archer apparently has it all: a decent job as a lawyer in and a nice young lady, May Welland, about to become his wife. When May's cousin Countess Ellen Olenska returns to their set with marital troubles, however, Newland begins to question his unthinking bending to convention when he discovers he's in love with the Countess.Themes of convention or community versus personal satisfaction pervade the story and, to my mind, overtook it in such a way that the characters never came alive and I grew rather bored by the end. Our society has changed so much in the last hundred years when it comes to gratification and doing what you want or sacrificing your happiness for another's, that I wonder how many young people reading this today would have anything to relate to. There is certainly enough meat for discussion and I may find my opinion changing slightly as I ponder the book more.
    • 4/5
      Too depressing!
    • 4/5
      Pulitzer Prize winner of 1921 is a portrait of New York on the precipice of change. Old New York has it's rules and society but things are changing as the people cling to their ways. Newland Archer is marrying May Welland. Her cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska returns to the US from a bad marriage with a plan to divorce but she is persuaded not because it isn't the way it is done. Newland champion's Ellen at his wife to be wish and his own desire and soon he is on the outside of all his and her relatives because of his support of Ellen when the rest of New York society withdraws their support of Ellen and wish her to return to her foreign husband. A crisis of decision is interrupted by Newland's wife's clever moves. Here is a quote that I liked, "For such a summer dreams it was too late; but surely not for a quiet harvest of friendship, of comradeship, in the blessed hush of her nearness.
    • 4/5
      Edith Wharton's Pulitzer Prize winning novel is a classic story of one man's struggle over obsessive love and his duty to his family and class.Archer Newland is a well-bred New Yorker from the best of families in the late nineteenth century. He has his calm and serene life well mapped out for him including his fiancee and future wife, May. Every thing is going along without a hitch until one night he goes to the opera to meet May and her family and meets May's older cousin Ellen, the Countess Olenska who has fled her aristocratic husband and returned to New York to find safety among her family.Archer finds himself being drawn more and more into Ellen's orbit and also finds himself questioning the self-satisfied life of his family and friends. He is torn between wanting to follow his grand passion and his feelings of obligation towards his finance (and then wife) who more and more appears to be vapid and conventional when compared to his heart's desire.Wharton's writing draws the reader into the closed society of New York in the 1870's -and deftly shows how society closes around May and her family and makes sure that Archer does the right thing.This is a classic story that is told magnificently.
    • 2/5
      Edith Wharton's "The Age of Innocence" is very much akin to Jane Austen's books, only in that the setting is America. In a word: boring and predictable. I could find not discernible plot. This book is being donated!
    • 3/5
      Surprising, mannered, restrained - especially appropriate ending. All of Wharton's endings are beautiful: inevitable without being predictable.

      Wharton is one of my favourite authors, but there's something... aloof about this book. It's never struck a chord the way The House of Mirth has even though the social commentary is just as concise and the characterisation just as sharp.
    • 5/5
      This tale spans 20-30 years, two continents, and the hearts of two women and one man. Newland Archer is engaged in pre-World-War-One New York City to May Welland. However, he falls for May's cousin Ellen who is fresh off a separation from her marriage in Europe.

      Ellen seems to respond (however subtly) to Newland's flirtations and overtures. Newland seems torn between his two lovers and seems to prefer Ellen over May. May sees the two and responds not with anger but with passivity. She seems to say, "What will be, will be."

      After a couple of years of drama, the final chapter approaches the story over twenty years later after the die has been cast. In one fell swoop, Wharton shows her literary marvel in leaving enough unsettled to make the reader unsettled about the outcome. Just enough ambiguity begets questions and speculation.

      This story is well worth the read, especially for its visage into early 1900s New York City. The City seems to then be run by a few powerful families, almost in-grown in their society. Rank, scandal, and social rules seems to govern the day, and freedom - at least for those on top - seems fleeting at best. Newland's choice is not only whom to love but whether to rebel. This situation is much like that in any smaller, in-grown community like a church or a small town.
    • 3/5
      THE AGE OF INNOCENCE is about the silly manners followed by the very rich New York society in the 1870s. While the book is romantic, the romance serves to show the absurdity of the “rules” they lived by. Newland Archer is a part of this society yet sees the absurdities. But he’s a young man in his 20s and just goes along with it. He becomes engaged to May, a girl from another wealthy New York family. May is an innocent who follows the rules and believes in them. She is not a snob; she knows no other way.Then Newland meets May’s cousin, Ellen. Ellen disregards many of the rules. And that attracts Newland. He falls in love with her.Although I’d like to see this movie, a book about romance and wealthy New York society can sometimes bore me nowadays. I found myself rereading paragraphs because I would forget what I read immediately after I read it. My mind wandered while I was reading, not a good sign.
    • 5/5
      The Age of Innocence is a richly drawn portrait of the elegant lifestyles, luxurious brownstones, and fascinating culture of bygone New York society. It shows the atmosphere of desire and emotion and the social order that disturbs the foundation of one's identify. Newland Archer soon will wed May Welland but is attracted to May's cousin, Countess Ellen OLenska. He finds his world comfortable one moment but oppressive the next. Wharton's characters are so true to life that we feel we have certainly met them and know their hearts, souls and yearnings. The ending pacts a powerful punch and is not to be missed. Wharton was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in 1921. I would highly recommend it to those who love classical fiction.
    • 2/5
      Edith Wharton's "The Age of Innocence" is very much akin to Jane Austen's books, only in that the setting is America. In a word: boring and predictable. I could find not discernible plot. This book is being donated!
    • 3/5
      Set in the old New York of the early 1870s, The Age of Innocence is an examination of the tension between society’s demands and personal freedom. Newland Archer is a young man from a wealthy family about to be married to May Welland, a sweet but unimaginative girl. A bookish dilettante, he leads a comfortable life among New York’s moneyed set. However, his life is turned upside down with the arrival of May’s cousin Ellen Olenska, a damaged woman fleeing her troubled marriage to a European count.In contrast to conventional May, Ellen goes against the grain, spurning society’s expectations. Newland is immediately drawn to the more free-spirited cousin. Although Newland follows through with his promise to May, he secretly yearns for her Ellen.I did not love this book. The social criticism of the first few pages was really biting and funny, but the tone of the book quickly changed to something more somber and less enjoyable. I also had trouble relating to Archer; I understood his frustrations with his rigid society and his desire to follow his heart, but at the same time I was thinking, “You’re a rich white man at the top of New York society, and you’re about to marry a very nice girl. Man, you just have it SO HARD.” (I probably need to work on that empathy thing.)I was, however, fascinated by Ellen. I am ALL ABOUT anything feminist, and I loved that this woman pretty much does what she wants to, and her reputation be damned. She gets married off to a European, has a horrible life with him, and then takes off with the help of ANOTHER MAN (Scandal with a capital S). And then she returns to New York, where she grew up, and proceeds to dress provocatively, socialize with people at whom the “real” old-money crowd look down their noses, and attend parties members of the most privileged set wouldn’t be caught dead at. I so admire her fight for independence, especially considering the time period.Overall, The Age of Innocence was kind of “meh” for me. I appreciate the themes Wharton portrayed, and I thought her nuanced depiction of old New York society was interesting. I just had trouble connecting with the narrator.This is my third book out of 50 read for The Classics Club.Read the full review at Books Speak Volumes.
    • 4/5
      After reading The House of Mirth for my New York Stories class as an undergrad, I was hooked on Edith Wharton. No one explains the New York upper crust at the turn of the century better than she, partly because she was a card-carrying member of the high society of which she writes.When I began reading this paperback, I found the old-fashioned prose and dialogue a little off-putting—enough to set it down for a few years. The stilted, once-fashionable speech of the characters first seemed to be a reflection of Wharton’s lack of imagination; the book seemed a tad boring and slow-moving at times.But once I began listening to it on audiobook, I enjoyed the book much more. Wharton, intimately acquainted with the charm and wit—and the machinations and whims—of New York society, transports the reader into the inner sanctuary of the city’s wealthiest, a circle with deeply embedded customs and manners as incredible as any fantasy novel.She acts as a kind of anthropologist, recording the native tongue and strange mannerisms of a society that had already begun to change radically. Newland’s stuffy, stodgy generation is contrasted against one greatly altered (and liberated) by World War I.Though the story seems mired down by the unique customs and traditions that Wharton seeks to encapsulate, the story is, at its heart, a universal one. Who has not yearned for freedom from normative restraints? Who has not felt the desire to rebel against what you should do, to buck tradition and follow your heart?Edith Wharton received the first Pulitzer awarded to a woman in 1921 for The Age of Innocence. Though at first I wondered how such cautious, traditional prose could win the award, by the end I had realized that Wharton’s combination of anthropology and art made this a unique and important book.Wharton uses her extensive knowledge of this high society’s manners and speech to fully immerse the reader in an authentic and complex world, while simultaneously exploring the extent to which societal norms and expectations shape a person.For a full review, visit Melody & Words!
    • 5/5
      I was astonished to find that a book published in 1920 which focuses on the wealthy of New York "Society" in the 1870s is still so relevant in this time and in society as a whole.While the needless, arbitrary, and sometimes harmful rules of "proper" decorum have changed a great deal, current ideas of propriety are still enforced with ostracism and judgement. Individuals still struggle to find genuine happiness in a society where media and culture rigidly define what one should want and need to be happy.Ms. Wharton puts forward the notion that a woman has the same right to sexual experience without judgement as a man does. I find it mildly depressing that we still aren't there yet.
    • 5/5
      The hypocrisy of the upper class in New York City in the 1870s. At all costs maintain the public facade while the core rots. Wonderfully written.
    • 4/5
      Innocence or naivete? Characters innocently and naively believing that social propriety and convention could be more important and more compelling than the motives and desires of the human heart. Newland was a fool. That he found a modicum of happiness with May is probably more than he deserved.
    • 3/5
      The Age of Innocence tells the story of some of New York's "upper crust" in the 19th century. There's a bit of scandal, since one of the characters divorces. It shows the attitudes of the people and time. May is a strong female character. Newland is portrayed as a weak male character. I recognized why some people like the book, but I was not one who enjoyed it. The book seemed rather pointless to me other than to appeal to those enamored with reading about high society.
    • 5/5
      I read Edith Frome a couple of year's ago, but I enjoyed The Age of Innocence much more. I generally do not enjoy novels set in high society. It is not a milieu that I have ever been a part of, and the concerns of the upper class New Yorkers in The Age of Innocence seem somewhat trivial to me. But perhaps it is because Newland Archer at least flirts with breaking free of the constraints of high society that I was drawn to his story. Engaged to May Welland, Newland has an undeniable connection with May's cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska, who has recently returned to New York after leaving her husband. As this love triangle plays out, I found myself being drawn into the story because of Wharton's ability to bring emotion to the page, even in a constrained environment.
    • 5/5
      I started to compare this to Pride & Prejudice or The Great Gatsby, two other beautifully-written, classic novels that riff on the trivial concerns wealthy members of high society treat with such gravity - but neither of those novels commit to that aspect quite in the way that The Age of Innocence does! Things happen in those novels, while in The Age of Innocence all of the real significance is in what actions are not taken, and what things are left uncommunicated and unknown - the unspoken understandings with (and misunderstandings/Newland's constant underestimation of) Newland's wife, May; Newland's attraction to Ellen Olenska, based primarily on what he doesn't know about her, and how her attitudes and reception reflect on his own life; societal mores and the wordless way they are communicated, described as beautiful in the book's opening pages but compared to a prison as the novel closes...there's so much going on here, but it's all in the blank spaces between the actual actions taking place on the page. It's a very delicate structure to maintain, and I kept waiting to become impatient with or jaded by it, but Wharton really does carry it off!
    • 4/5
      A look at 1880's-1900's New York society. Wharton focuses on the characters' thoughts, veiled message, secret communication, delayed gratification. The tension is palpable. Some members of our book club did not like it because it didn't move, but that's the whole point.
    • 4/5
      The stilted and highly controlled New York society juxtaposed with the humanity of the protagonists.