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chelsaat's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
“Each time you happen to me all over again.”
Between The Met Gala and the HBO show, the Gilded Age is having a revival of interest. The social conventions were as strict and silly as the Victorian Age over in the UK, but with a distinct Americanness that gives it a special flavor all its own. And the fashion was A+.
The Age of Innocence is the quintessential Gilded Age novel. And man, is it EXCELLENT. Edith Wharton was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1921, and while it’s terrible it took that long, she very much deserved it.
“We can't behave like people in novels, though, can we?”
I just adore Edith Wharton’s sly and sumptuous prose. Written post-WWI, Wharton was far enough removed from the era she grew up in to be able to look back on it more objectively, and with a wry sense of humor at its absurdities. The passages where she describes the hierarchies and faux pas of New York society were some of my favorite bits. True Old Money nonsense.
“Women ought to be free - as free as we are.”
On top of that, you have an incredible love story, full of pining and passion. Newland Archer is tempted to stray outside of social convention to pursue an affair with the dynamic Countess Olenska, but circumstances and his own hangups ultimately prevent him from doing so. He believes himself to be smarter and more imaginative than his dull, vapid wife, but the wonderful thing Wharton does here is subtly show that the women in this society, while adapted to survive, are much sharper than they first appear.
I do think I like The House of Mirth, the other Edith Wharton book I’ve read, slightly more, but I heartily recommend this one as well. Wharton in general needs to be on your list if you haven’t yet read anything of hers. She’s officially one of my favorite classic authors.
Between The Met Gala and the HBO show, the Gilded Age is having a revival of interest. The social conventions were as strict and silly as the Victorian Age over in the UK, but with a distinct Americanness that gives it a special flavor all its own. And the fashion was A+.
The Age of Innocence is the quintessential Gilded Age novel. And man, is it EXCELLENT. Edith Wharton was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1921, and while it’s terrible it took that long, she very much deserved it.
“We can't behave like people in novels, though, can we?”
I just adore Edith Wharton’s sly and sumptuous prose. Written post-WWI, Wharton was far enough removed from the era she grew up in to be able to look back on it more objectively, and with a wry sense of humor at its absurdities. The passages where she describes the hierarchies and faux pas of New York society were some of my favorite bits. True Old Money nonsense.
“Women ought to be free - as free as we are.”
On top of that, you have an incredible love story, full of pining and passion. Newland Archer is tempted to stray outside of social convention to pursue an affair with the dynamic Countess Olenska, but circumstances and his own hangups ultimately prevent him from doing so. He believes himself to be smarter and more imaginative than his dull, vapid wife, but the wonderful thing Wharton does here is subtly show that the women in this society, while adapted to survive, are much sharper than they first appear.
I do think I like The House of Mirth, the other Edith Wharton book I’ve read, slightly more, but I heartily recommend this one as well. Wharton in general needs to be on your list if you haven’t yet read anything of hers. She’s officially one of my favorite classic authors.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infidelity
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