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    The Age of Innocence
    The Age of Innocence
    The Age of Innocence
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Age of Innocence

    Written by Edith Wharton

    Narrated by Barbara Caruso

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Newland Archer is a young lawyer, a member of New York's high society, and engaged to be married to May Welland. Countess Ellen Olenska is May's cousin, and wants a divorce from the Polish nobleman she married. Intelligent and beautiful, she comes back to New York where she tries to fit into the high society life she had before her marriage. Her family and former friends, however, are shocked by the idea of divorce within their social circle, and she finds herself snubbed by her own class. Ellen and Newland fall in love and must choose between passion and conventions.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateFeb 22, 2013
    ISBN9781470348380
    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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    • 5/5
      Wonderful for folks who like period pieces, and a focus on relationships.
    • 4/5
      1920 novel by Edith Wharton which won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize. The novel takes place among New York City's upper class during the 1870s, before the advent of electric lights, telephones or motor vehicles; when there was a small cluster of aristocratic "old revolutionary stock" families that ruled New Yorks social life; when "being things" was better than "doing things" - ones occupation or abilities were secondary to heredity and family connections, when reputation and outward appearances came at the exclusion of everything and everyone else. When gentleman were lawyers and ladies were ladies and the "clever people" did everything else. When 5th Avenue was deserted by nightfall and it was possible to follow the comings and goings of society by watching who went to which household along it. The plot is a love story, but is also well regarded for its accurate portrayal of how the upper class of America at one time lived, for which it won the Pulitzer (The Magnificent Ambersons (1918) by Booth Tarkington won a Pulitzer for almost the same reason just a few years earlier, except set in the Midwest). Wharton, born in 1862 and aged 58 at the time of publication, herself lived in this rarefied social world, only to see it change dramatically by the end of WWI, when she looked backed and reminisced about a bygone "age of innocence".
    • 5/5
      "The Age of Innocence" is one of my favorite novels. Newland Archer is committed to May Welland when along comes Ellen Olenska; the flirtation that develops starts small but builds to a crescendo; the looks, comments, light touches, and gestures are so brilliantly described by Wharton that I felt I was the one being flirted with. :-) Wharton is dead on in her observations about men, women, and marriage; you have to get past some of the New York society stuff but it's well worth it. The book also has a great, great ending. This edition has a great introduction by Cynthia Griffin Wolff, who among other thing points out a truth in Wharton's fiction, that "The real challenge that confronts each man and woman, then, can never be that of finding perfect happiness; rather, it must be that of creating some form of possible happiness...In this life, no one can expect more."Quotes:On marriage:"...once more it was borne in on him that marriage was not the safe anchorage he had been taught to think, but a voyage on uncharted seas.""He had married (as most young men did) because he had met a perfectly charming girl at the moment when a series of rather aimless sentimental adventures were ending in premature disgust; and she had represented peace, stability, comradeship, and the steadying sense of an unescapable duty.""As she sat thus, the lamplight full on her clear brow, he said to himself with a secret dismay that he would always know the thoughts behind it, that never, in all the years to come, would she surprise him by an unexpected mood, by a new idea, a weakness, a cruelty, or an emotion. She had spent her poetry and romance on their short courting: the function was exhausted because the need was past. Now she was simply ripening into a copy of her mother, and mysteriously, by the very process, trying to turn him into a Mr. Welland.""...he had watched Mrs. Thorley Rushworth play toward a fond and unperceiving husband: a smiling, bantering, humouring, watchful and incessant lie. A lie by day, a lie by night, a lie in every touch and every look; a lie in every caress and every quarrel; a lie in every word and in every silence."On the double standard:"In this view they were sedulously abetted by their mothers, aunts, and other elderly female relatives, who all shared Mrs. Archer's belief that when 'such things happened' it was undoubtedly foolish of the man, but somehow always criminal of the woman. All the elderly ladies whom Archer knew regarded any woman who loved imprudently as necessarily unscrupulous and designing, and mere simpleminded man as powerless in her clutches. The only thing to do was to persuade him, as early as possible, to marry a nice girl, and then trust to her to look after him."On politics:"Every one in polite circles knew that, in America, 'a gentleman couldn't go into politics.' But, since he could hardly put it in that way to Winsett, he answered evasively: 'Look at the career of the honest man in American politics! They don't want us."On passion:"Ellen! What madness! Why are you crying? Nothing's done that can't be undone. I'm still free, and you're going to be.' He had her in his arms, her face like a wet flower at his lips, and all their vain terrors shrivelling up like ghosts at sunrise. The one thing that astonished him now was that he should have stood for five minutes arguing with her across the width of the room, when just touching her made everything so simple.""I mean: how shall I explain? I - it's always so. Each time you happen to me all over again."On adultery:"But in Archer's little world no one laughed at a wife deceived, and a certain measure of contempt was attached to men who continued their philandering after marriage. In the rotation of crops there was a recognised season for wild oats; but they were not to be sown more than once.Archer had always shared this view: in his heart he thought Lefferts despicable. But to love Ellen Olenska was not to become a man like Lefferts: for the first time Archer found himself face to face with the dread argument of the individual case. Ellen Olenska was like no other woman, he was like no other man: their situation, therefore, resembled no one else's, and they were answerable to no tribunal but that of their own judgment."On transience:"Its glass shelves were crowded with small broken objects - hardly recognisable domestic utensils, ornaments and personal trifles - made of glass, of clay, of discoloured bronze and other time-blurred substances.'It seems cruel,' she said, 'that after a while nothing matters ... any more than these little things, that used to be necessary and important to forgotten people, and now have to be guessed at under a magnifying glass and labelled: 'Use unknown.' "On the miracle of technology:"Dallas seemed to be speaking in the room: the voice was as near by and natural as if he had been lounging in his favourite arm-chair by the fire. The fact would not ordinarily have surprised Archer, for long-distance telephoning had become as much a matter of course as electric lighting and five-day Atlantic voyages. But the laugh did startle him; it still seemed wonderful that across all those miles and miles of country - forest, river, mountain, prairie, roaring cities and busy indifferent millions - Dallas's laugh should be able to say: 'Of course, whatever happens, I must get back on the first, because Fanny Beaufort and I are to be married on the fifth."On old age:"Sitting alone at night in his library, after the household had gone to bed, he had evoked the radiant outbreak of spring down the avenues of horse-chestnuts, the flowers and statues in the public gardens, the whiff of lilacs from the flower-carts, the majestic roll of the river under the great bridges, and the life of art and study and pleasure that filled each mighty artery to bursting. Now the spectacle was before him in its glory, and as he looked out on it he felt shy, old-fashioned, inadequate: a mere grey speck of a man compared with the ruthless magnificent fellow he had dreamed of being..."And memories of an old love:"During that time he had been living with his youthful memory of her; but she had doubtless had other and more tangible companionship. Perhaps she too had kept her memory of him as something apart; but if she had, it must have been like a relic in a small dim chapel, where there was not time to pray every day...."
    • 4/5
      This is literature. Just the skill and style of the writing is enough to keep you page turning. But there is also insight into human nature, wit, and irony. What strikes me above all, in this story about the New York upper classes, is that this group of people, with vast wealth and resources, live incredibly limited lifes, restricted by their narrow minds and social codes.
    • 4/5
      The Age of Innocence speaks to the struggle involved in contemplating or actually escaping the family and culture one's born into. It is also an exquisite examination of human emotions and motivations. It's also entertaining.
    • 5/5
      I found the Age of Innocence to be an incredibly beautiful book. It has been a long time since I've read anything so masterfully written. It is a book that resonated with me on many levels and won't be forgotten very easily. The characters are wonderfully portrayed. It is a story of a romance that struggles against the norms and unwritten rules of the upper-class of NYC in the 1870's. More fundamentally though the book is also about the constraining/bounded environments/communities/affiliations that we all operate within. How some of us strive to breakout or go against the grain of these realms and take the associated risks. It is a novel of breaking free and seeking something more meaningful and deeper. It has my highest recommendation!
    • 4/5
      I ended up liking this book more than I expected to I thought it would be more sappy and boring but it wasn't either of those.I liked the style of writing and since this is a classic it’s been reviewed by far better than me. Suffice it to say I enjoyed it and will be reading more from Wharton.
    • 4/5
      Dislike for Madame Olenska, disdain for the foolishness of Archer Newland, and respect and admiration for May is what one feels through much of the book.
    • 3/5
      Yes, I know I should absolutely love it, but I guess as it is told with a man's voice that it didn't grasp me as it should have. I was vcery irritated with what "society" expects and the snobbery. The descriptions of characters and places are delightful though, it was easy to picture in my mind through the printed words.I probably read this many moons ago, but memory fades with time.
    • 2/5
      Seeing this title as a Playaway audio book at my library finally convinced me to read(?) it. I also downloaded a print(?) version from Gutenburg.org for "backup." I knew I liked the story from seeing movie versions. I wanted to learn more about why, in the final scene, Newland doesn't go upstairs to see Ellen. It was a different era and society, for sure, but was he exacting some sort of revenge on Ellen? On himself? Just being a jerk? Being senile? Stupid? Honorable? To me, it's a fascinating situation. Don't we all anguish over going to class reunions? Don't we wonder about meeting an old lover? On purpose? By accident? Well, I've skipped the class reunions and I'd probably do a "Newland Archer" for the same reasons, namely, laziness, poor memory, and too much else to do. Angie: Ethan Fromme, Age of Innocence, and House of Mirth!
    • 3/5
      A very good read when you have a little time to be patient with Wharton's descriptions of old New York society. The Age of Innocence is a classic angst-filled romance with bit of dry humor hiding beneath the surface. The last third of the book is surprisingly suspenseful. Wharton keeps you guessing just which of the women our protagonist will choose, and the end just might dampen your eyes.
    • 5/5
      I can't believe it took me so long to read this! I absolutely loved it! A beautiful and devastating novel about love and loss set against the backdrop of old New York. Gorgeous and unforgettable. This will be added to my list of favourite books of all time.
    • 5/5
      This is a masterful work by Wharton, set in the upper echelons of New York society in the 1870s. It deals with the lives of Newland Archer, his young bride May and her cousin, the Countess Ellen Olenska, against a backdrop of the shallow and exclusive high society that constrained them at the time, surrounded by a wealth of characters who define the world they live in.It is impossible to read this book with anything other than modern eyes. From a female perspective in the 21st century, Newland comes across throughout as weak and patronising with his desire to tenaciously cling to the ideal of a "woman's innoncence" and his position as the worldly man who can educate them. May, his young wife, appears both irritating and frustrating. She is manipulative via her innocent assumptions and unbending will on matters of social conformation. By rights, the reader's sympathy should lie with her, but instead one finds that it is Newland Archer for whom you are rooting, willing him to break free. To a modern reader, Countess Olenska is the character with whom sympathy lies. Her independent mind and spirit fights against constraint by the society that she has returned to as a refuge. It is not until Newland forces her to be aware of it, that she adapts her behaviour at all. Ironic that it should be the case when the rest of the story unfolds.I loved this book when I read it a decade ago and on this re-read I was waiting to understand why I had remembered it as such a classic. As I reached the final third, I realised that this is where it shines. The subtext behind the actions of Newland, May and Ellen and the words unspoken carry such weight that it is suffused with tension and sensuality. Throughout there is the idea that to this society, women were almost sacrificial in the face of scandal. The ultimate irony is that despite Newland's consideration of himself as worldly, his need to educate May, in fact he is as innocent as she in his desire to "get away" with Ellen "into a world where ..... categories do not exist". It is Ellen that is realistic. The idea that May had "spent her poetry and romance on their short courting" whilst Newland remains blameless in his eyes and cannot see that he is as responsible and changed as she. The culmination of the farewell meal for Ellen when Archer finally loses his innocence, his moment of realisation of what has been thought of him by society, what has been observed and supposed, is as painful a description of disillusionment as any I have read. Throughout this book there are moments when you dislike May intensely as she seems controlling and manipulative (irrationally, as she is the victim and has done nothing wrong). However, there are moments, such as after the leaving party for Ellen, when she deserves, and Wharton moves us to give her, sympathy.The book is finally resolved by a poignant and brilliant ending where Newland is shown for what he really is: a man as devoted to convention in his way as any other of his time, a man who cherishes his ideals more than the reality of life when it comes to the final reckoning.A brilliant and restrained book, a real classic!
    • 5/5
      Amazing book, about New York society in the 1870s. Sad but hauntingly beautiful like all the Wharton I have encountered.
    • 5/5
      A classic story about a young man torn between chosing the conventions of his time or following his heart. Wharton's characterization of Ellen is wonderful...a woman ahead of her time; a free spirit who is a stranger in a world where women are seen as simply pretty things on a man's arm. I would have rated this one higher except for a disappointing ending.
    • 4/5
      At first sight, this 1920 Pulitzer Prize winner appears to be a comedy of manners or a satire of New York’s upper crust circa 1870. Wrong. Then perhaps a sort of Jane Austen narrative – a thoughtful drama about people in a small social circle finding their way to true happiness with the mates best suited to them? Nope. The story is darker, simpler and more believable. We first meet our protagonist, young Newland Archer, on the night of his betrothal, admiring his fiancée across a crowded opera house. He strikes us as a rather silly young man, so earnest is he in his effort to appear “correct” in the eyes of his peers, his betters and their betters, all equally silly in our eyes as they pose and prance and take one another’s upturned noses very seriously. But very soon the author abandons the attempt to poke fun at these people, and draws us into Newland’s fascination with his old childhood friend, the Countess Ellen Olenska, who has recently separated from her husband the Count. She is also at the opera that night, dressed inappropriately and steeped in scandal as a result of her failed marriage.Ellen – raised abroad and married there -- is everything that the very American Newland, and his innocent young fiancée May, are not: strangely foreign, creative, flamboyant, intellectual, passionate, but also loyal, sensitive and ultimately ethical. Worst of all, she is apparently oblivious to the constricting rules that society expects her to observe, and in the most endearing way she goes about trying to live her life honestly. Newland is both drawn to her and terrified of her, comfortable with May and repelled by May. Thus he will find his way through a conflicted life, and the reader is likely to find his personal struggle and the life he leads not terribly unlike his or her own. This novel is at its core timeless. Society will always demand that we act one way when in fact we might prefer to act another way entirely, and there will always be choices and regrets on the path we choose among those options.
    • 5/5
      This is a fantastic book, worthy of its status as a classic. Erudite without being arch, poignant without being mushy, Wharton is an enormously talented writer who combines a dry sense of humor with terrific psychological insight and social commentary.
    • 5/5
      For any one who has ever fallen in love with someone they can not have. This book is incredibly romantic. It is so beautifully written. It was a life changing experience. I have never felt what I felt while reading this book with any other book. It completely drained me emotionally. But in a good way. Truely shows the heart ache of the situation very poetically.
    • 5/5
      Written in the early part of the 20th century, recipient of the 1921 Pulitzer Prize, and considered a Classic for a reason. Almost ninety years later, it is still an intriguing look at the smugness of the old order of New York society. Wharton's story of the struggle between personal yearnings and the constraints of propriety combined with her eloquent writing make for an intriguing story of the consequences we pay for our decisions.
    • 5/5
      Brilliantly written, The Age of Innocence captures at once the polished outward charm and the inner, well-oiled machinations of 1870s New York City society. Protagonist Newland Archer is a young, affluent lawyer living an elegant life within the familiar, rigid social strictures of his class. He is engaged to May, daughter of the prominent Wellands and granddaughter to powerful matriarch, Mrs. Manson Mingott. May is wide-eyed, adoring, naïve, and impeccably trained by tradition. When the beautiful Ellen Olenska, cousin to May and also granddaughter to Mrs. Manson Mingott, returns to New York, having left the brutish Polish Count she married some years earlier, society is affronted. Welland, however, finds himself attracted to the Countess’s forward-thinking free spirit; on this basis he befriends her, but eventually he falls in love with her. His association with Ellen leads him to question the traditions, moral codes, and “elaborate futility” of the “rich and idle and ornamental” society in which he lives. The deliberate and meticulous precision that has thus far defined his existence begins to grate irrevocably:“The young man, as he followed his wife into the hall, was conscious of a certain reversal of mood. There was something about the luxury of the Welland house and the density of the Welland atmosphere, so charged with minute observances and exactions, that always stole into his system like a narcotic. The heavy carpets, the watchful servants, the perpetually reminding tick of disciplined clocks, the perpetually renewed stack of cards and invitations on the hall table, the whole chain of tyrannical trifles binding one hour to the next, and each member of the household to all the others, made any less systematized and affluent existence seem unreal and precarious. But now it was the Welland house, and the life he was expected to lead in it, that had become unreal and irrelevant, and the brief scene on the shore, when he had stood irresolute, halfway down the bank, was as close to him as the blood in his vein.” (Ch 21)Wharton’s prose is exquisite; I can’t remember when I’ve read such a gorgeous book. The Age of Innocence has become a favourite. Highly recommended!
    • 5/5
      This is one of only four or five books that has actually made me cry. Wharton’s writing also made me underline furiously (which is slightly more difficult on an e-reader, but necessary). "The taste of the usual was like cinders in his mouth, and there were moments when he felt as if he were being buried alive under his future."
    • 2/5
      Seeing this title as a Playaway audio book at my library finally convinced me to read(?) it. I also downloaded a print(?) version from Gutenburg.org for "backup." I knew I liked the story from seeing movie versions. I wanted to learn more about why, in the final scene, Newland doesn't go upstairs to see Ellen. It was a different era and society, for sure, but was he exacting some sort of revenge on Ellen? On himself? Just being a jerk? Being senile? Stupid? Honorable? To me, it's a fascinating situation. Don't we all anguish over going to class reunions? Don't we wonder about meeting an old lover? On purpose? By accident? Well, I've skipped the class reunions and I'd probably do a "Newland Archer" for the same reasons, namely, laziness, poor memory, and too much else to do. Angie: Ethan Fromme, Age of Innocence, and House of Mirth!
    • 3/5
      Classic tale of unrequited love.
    • 5/5
      The really cool thing about this book is that its message about high New York society at the turn of the century is true of elitist societies everywhere. I read this in middle school and was intrigued by how closely I thought it mirrored the "in crowd" and I still think of some of its lessons today.
    • 5/5
      This edition contains an excellent essay into the life of Wharton around the time this book won the 1921 Pulitzer prize. Apparently Wharton was actually insulted by the title, saying that the novel was, to use Australian slang, "taking the piss" of American aristocracy and social customs at the time. She was trying to mock the very people who ended up praising her novel and generally saying it was 'deep and meaningful'. It is a beautifully written book and says quite profound things about American culture, however I also laughed out loud at times because the things characters said and did were so ironic and misguided. Maybe I 'got' what Wharton was saying because I had read this essay before reading the book. I really enjoyed this story, but I do tend to love this genre and anything with a historical insight so I wasn't surprised!
    • 4/5
      This story takes us into late 19th Century New York, where the upper class families are set in their ways and quite protective of them. Newland Archer is a young man among this group, all ready to marry, when the arrival of his fiancee's cousin throws his perspectives into disarray. Ellen Olenska thinks she is escaping from her past and her unhappy marriage into an understanding family and forward-thinking society, but she finds this is far from reality. The story centers on these two, though from the (changing) point of view of Archer.Wharton's descriptions are well done; I had an easy time visualizing each situation, and I could even hear the conversations - even the stifled ones. Certain characterizations were really funny - Catherine Mingott cut a really legendary figure. Newland is almost an idealist, but comes out like a deflated balloon after a while. The story is romantic without really being passionate. I ended up enjoying the story as well as how it turned out, though not feeling at the edge of the seat as I'd thought I'd be by the end. I could see rereading this one, as it's fun to be taken into the glamorous yet constipated society that I could never be a part of.
    • 5/5
       Newland Archer, the focus of consciousness in this third person narrative novel, finds himself in love with the beautiful and exotic Ellen Olenska, whose fineness of wit and perception he cannot quite penetrate. At a signal moment in their failed romance--failed, because Archer chooses not to say no to his fiancee May--Archer implores Ellen if there is not some place--some utopia (or, better, u-topos) where they might go to realize their love without pressure of social norms or labels. Ellen wisely replies that no such place exists, unless Archer refers to the disreputable demi-monde of adulterous relationships. So, while Ellen receives a living from her relatives, Archer soldiers on in his loveless but still worthy marriage, eventually discovering that his wife, whom he had assumed to be "innocent" of knowledge, has known all along the sacrifice Archer has made in staying with her. The innocence in this novel belongs almost entirely to Archer, and certainly not to the tribal caste of upper class New York whose dinners and accoutrements, interiors and fashions Archer cannot bring himself to relinquish.
    • 2/5
      Well, I read this for my book club reading. I guess since this is a classic etc. and so highly praised there must be something wrong with me because I found this book VERY boring! I did not like her style of writing where she had three or more things happening in every sentence and thankfully she let up on this style after the first couple of chapters and only back slid to it a couple of times further on in the story. Perhaps this was a favored writing style when this was written but I almost put the book down several times in the beginning (and also after on just from boredom). As it was, I read four other books while reading this just so that I would finish it. Again, the whole book was very boring for me.Classic or not, I would not recommend this book to any of my reading friends. I will be interested to see what feelings my book club fellows have towards this book this next Saturday.
    • 5/5
      Breathtaking. Such characters. One of my top 5 all time books.
    • 5/5
      This was so beautiful and heartbreaking that I can hardly believe it.