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.


From School Library Journal
Grade 10 Up-By Edith Wharton. This tragi-comedy won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


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

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Deeply moving study of the tyrannical and rigid requirements of New York high society in the late 19th century and the effect of those strictures on the lives of three people. Vividly characterized drama of affection thwarted by a man’s sense of honor, family, and societal pressures. A long-time favorite with readers and critics alike.

SYNOPSIS

Deeply moving study of the lives of three people and of affection thwarted by a man’s sense of honor, family, and societal pressures.

FROM THE CRITICS

William Lyon Phelps - The New York Times Book Review

Here is a novel whose basis is a story. It begins on a night at the opera. The characters are introduced naturally—every action and every conversation advance the plot. The style is a thing of beauty from first page to last.... The appearance of a book such as The Age of Innocence is a matter for public rejoicing. It is one of the best novels of the twentieth century and looks like a permanent addition to literature.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

There is no woman in American literature as fascinating as the doomed Madame Olenska... Traditionally, Henry James has always been placed slightly higher up the slope of Parnassus than Edith Wharton. But now that the prejudice against the female writer is on the wane, they look to be exactly what they are: giants, equals, the tutelary and benign gods of our American literature. — Jonathan Lyons

Will writers ever recover that peculiar blend of security and alertness which characterizes Mrs. Wharton and her tradition? — Jonathan Lyons