Every once and a while a book will come along that's pretty much perfection. Everything about it is just right. The story is absorbing, the writing is beautiful and elegant, the characters have depth and breadth and they mature and change over the course of the story. Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence is pretty much that sort of book for me. I read it years ago and am so glad I finally picked it up to read again. Although the broader story has always stayed with me, it's amazing how quickly details fade away. At times I felt like it was all new to me, and I think I've understood and appreciated it more this time around than last.
My post is not going to do this wonderful book justice. I'm not going to go into great detail about the story, as there's so much in it to discuss--more than I can in this small space. It's the sort of book to read and then let simmer and then write about, and I'm going to compress things a bit due to lack of time. As I was reading I was starting to turn down pages to mark passages I might be able to share here now, but there were so many that I finally gave up. In a way there's nothing extraneous about this story, and yet every passage is suffused with meaning. It is filled with so many luxurious descriptions of a decadent 1870s New York, but they are so necessary to the story it never felt like it was over the top. It's a weighty story, but not ponderous, and it's really very accessible. I found it to be quite a page turner actually.
Wharton was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize, which she did in 1921 for this novel. It might be helpful to know a little something about Edith Wharton. She was born in 1862. Her parents were both prominent members of New York Society. I read that it was due to her father, George Frederick Jones, that we now have the expression "keeping up with the Joneses", if that gives you a hint to what family life must have been for Edith. She was educated privately. She was married and then later divorced. Most importantly she was part of the milieu that she wrote so knowledgeably about.
(In case you've not read this, there might be a few spoilers, so please take care).
I was trying to decide how I would describe this book if I had to do it in only a couple of sentences. To get down to the nitty gritty I suppose it's a (bittersweet) love story between Newland Archer and Countess Ellen Olenska that's doomed thanks to a society that's so uncompromising on its insistence on propriety. Their passionate emotions are absolutely straining to burst free, but they are always kept in check by a society that disdains individuality. Wharton maintains this very subtle balance between want and responsibility, and I'll let you guess which wins out. Honestly, it's genius. Perhaps I should build on this a bit?
The book opens at the Opera, and to follow that an opulent ball. Newland Archer and May Welland plan to discreetly announce their betrothal a bit earlier than planned for the sole reason of giving the support of two families, rather than one, to May's cousin Ellen Olenska. The Countess has returned from Europe after many years away but with scandal trailing her. She's left her husband, and while details are slim, it's understood that he's a scoundrel and a brute. New York Society being what it is, the Countess is not being welcomed with open arms, and it's only through the support of the two families that she's eventually accepted. Newland in particular plays a vital role in helping ease her way, as Ellen is really more of a foreigner now with different ideas that aren't likely to conform with those of New York Society.
Newland is a bit of a dilettante and unusual compared to his contemporaries. He has literary and artistic inclinations, yet he was raised with an understanding of society's tight code of ethics and ultimately will always know where his responsibilities lie. Although he doesn't need to work, he spends time playing at being a lawyer. In May he sees the ideal wife. She's beautiful and virtuous and perhaps a little naive. Ellen Olenska is a perfect foil to May. Ellen leads a Bohemian and unconventional life and most importantly is an independent woman. Newland's eyes are really opened through his encounters with this woman he knew as a child and danced with. Ironically everything gets muddled through everyone's best intentions 'not to hurt anyone'. After he spends time with Ellen all of a sudden his life with May sprawls out ahead of him, and he has visions of May becoming just like her mother. He had this idea he would shape May's thinking after they were married, but after meeting Ellen again he sees that May will always be staid and unimaginative.
There's so much more to say about this book, but I'm going to stop here save the best parts for you to discover on your own. This is a gorgeous novel and one of my favorites. Wharton wrote about old New York in Custom of the Country and The House of Mirth, apparently even more caustically and critically than in The Age of Innocence. I've read neither, but I plan on changing that soon. I'd like to revisit the other novels I have read by her including Ethan Frome and Summer along with some others. Edith Wharton is one of those authors 'I've been meaning to get back to' for ages, so it's exciting to finally do so. It's authors like Edith Wharton that remind me just why I love reading so much. I highly recommend this one.