The Age of Innocence (Broadview Literary Texts)

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Summary: Moving beyond words
Review: Just one quick note: the ending of this book is the most deeply moving thing I have ever read. Don't let the high society setting fool you; this book is about the deepest secrets of the human heart. And don't you dare skip ahead - you'll cheat yourself out of its full force.

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Summary: My favorite book of all time.
Review: The Age of Innocense has totally captivated me. The movie version of Wharton's masterpiece did not even come near the intricacy of feeling and experience that she poured into this story.I fell in love with Newland Archer...his depth of feeling, perception, his wise and discreet behaviour. May Welland as his wife hid a much more sensitive and intelligent life than the one she was expected to live in her time and social setting. The Countess Olenska was tough and sensual...this book portrays the cruelty and cynicism of the upper crust of society in a timeless module. This book is an education as well as a great read.

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Summary: One of the saddest love stories in literature.
Review: This classic novel won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. This tale is centered around the social life of the upper class in New York City starting in the 1870's. It was also made into a film in 1992. The principle character is a young lawyer, Newland Archer, who becomes the fiance of May Welland. However, just before the engagement is announced, he meets May's cousin Ellen Olenska. Social taboos in New York society cause her to be nearly ostracized (she is separated from a dissolute Polish count). Archer is intelligent enough to be aware of his position in the society in which he moves. He falls in love with Ellen but it is too late to withdraw his engagement to May. Now forced to marry May, he finds himself trapped by the conditions and conventions of society. The conventions of the society in which he has been raised prevents him from truly following his heart. Years later, after May has died, Newland visits Paris with his son. Ellen invites them to visit her. At the last moment, he sits on the street outside her apartment and sends Dallas, his son, in alone. Apparently, though he is now free, he prefers his ideal vision of the Ellen of his past rather than the reality of the present. He slowly walks away without seeing her. This book is one of the top novels of the twentieth century.

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Summary: a classic but troubled love story
Review: The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton. The classic story of a 19th century love affair between Newland Archer, a married New Yorker and Ellen Olenska, who is separated from her husband in europe. When Olenska leaves her husband and returns to her family in new york, a scandal ensues. Olenska is beautiful and attracts a wealth of suitors, the most prominent being Archer who understands her best and shares her ideas about freedom from social constraint. Archer is a lawyer and intervenes in Olenska's marital dispute and suggests she not file for divorce to save the public embarrassment. Meanwhile he pursues a relationship with her that can't work out because of his own marriage to May Welland, a dainty beauty, and Olenska's own troubled past. This social drama is set in old New York, a highly refined world that seems British, with all the well to do Protestants living lives of privilege and social custom. The story is how these customs are challenged but preserved by the failed relationship between Archer and Olenska and how love is hindered by convention in this rarefied world.

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Summary: A classic on every level.
Review: One of the most finely controlled American novels ever. The resonance is captivating as are the gossamer delicate levels of manipulation and perception which if your willing to contemplate leave you bedazzled...yes we were all Archer as we read not in the sense that we empathised solely with him but that we share his plight of being shimmied and shammied by wily females. I first read this book at the age of seventeen and never fail to have read every couple ever since. It is assuming more and more the guise of an comic tragedy in the form of a love poem with every revisit.

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Summary: Enjoyed this Story!
Review: This book is a wonderful story of harnessed desire. It has interesting characters that reflect the prudish attitude of the time. I'm not one for love stories, but this one works!

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Summary: one of the most amazing books Ive ever read!!!
Review: I just finished reading this book today, and I had to talk about it. There's not much action in the book, but little did I realize that the love story would be so poignant, complex and beautifully subtle. There's just not enough to be said about Wharton's exquisite language.Pure poetry! She made me sympathize with the characters-all of them.She drew a harrowing portrait of turn-of-the-century elite New York society-a society where people are forever hiding from the "unpleasant" side of life, which made me realize how empty their lives must've been. People here fall in love but they have no passion for each other, they exist collectively for their asinine dinner parties, their opera nights and weddings, but they are unable to live as individuals in their own right. Enter Madame Olenska who forces them to face life with all its scandals and unpleasantness, and ignites a furious passion in Newland Archer-who understands his own people because he grew up around them, but the only difference is that he is aware of the utter emptiness of people's lives, he recognizes the lack of passion and poetry, the rut that people seem content to spend the rest of their lives in. There are times when I found myself turning back to certain incidents just for the joy of re-reading Wharton's exquisite poetry(especially the love scenes between Madame Olenska and Newland Archer) and her rationalizations and philosophies on a society that on the outside appears harmless and friendly but never fails to ruthlessly root out those who do not conform to its rigid social conduct, namely Madame Olenska. A truly fascinating story, told with deep feeling and love for the characters, made even more enjoyable by Wharton's poetic diction. My only regret is that I saw the movie(which I loved) before I read the book.

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Summary: Absolutely my favorite book of all time.
Review: THE classic American novel. It's difficult to describe the true beauty and wonder of this masterpiece without sounding cliche, because in it Wharton has managed to achieve literary perfection: the writing, the story, the characters, the setting, the history, the sheer poetry . . . everything. I re-read this and The Great Gatsby year after year and only look forward to reading them again.

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Summary: The Age of Innocence is a must-read novel
Review: Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence takes the reader into the fantastic world of New York in the late 1800s. Wharton shows an adept handling of her figurative language as she tells of the elite society in that great city. But more importantly, she draws the reader into the burning love triangle between Newland Archer, his fiancee, May Welland and her cousin, Countess Olenska. These characters each display a certain piece of society; with beautiful, innocent May the ideal society-girl, following all the conventions she had been moulded to follow; with Countess Olenska, the foreign, freedom loving, and sensuous member of one of the highest-ranking families of New York, who broke all the rules and never noticed they had been broken; with Newland Archer, the man who had been raised under the strict hand of society, yet longed to break free, torn between his fiancee and the woman he loved. This novel seduces the reader with its tale of betrayal and forbidden love, and astounds them with the outright hypocrisy that this old New York society displays. If you are someone who loves literary structure, hidden symbolism, and outstanding use of figurative language, this is a must-read novel.

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Summary: Heartbreaking, Enlightening, Mesmerizing, Unforgettable
Review: I'm a male fan devoted mostly to adventure and mystery novels, but was completely stunned to feel the quietly devastating power of this masterpiece by Wharton. I'm not yet married, but this story was a revelation in the nature of stable marriage vs. overwhelming passion. Written with incredible precision and elegance, and with a penetrating insight into human character that is truly unforgettable, Wharton achieved a bit of immortality in a classic, the truth in which will be appreciated by many generations to come.