The Age of Innocence

2007-07-02T13:12:00.000+01:00

In an era before the advent of electric lights, telephones or motor vehicles, there exists a small cluster of aristocratic “old revolutionary stock” families that rule New York’s social life. Under the rules of this society, “being things” is better than “doing things” and reputation and outward appearances come at the exclusion of everything else. In this Gilded Age, when America’s expansion and increased industrialism produce a group of newly wealthy robber barons and financiers, the patient, time-honored values of the old ruling class, and century, are giving way to the expediencies of the new. Caught at this cusp, a triangle of lovers, who must choose between the expectations of family and society, and the deepest yearnings of the heart.

Newly engaged couple, Newland Archer, a young lawyer, and May Welland, a society debutante, are part of the old world, where the “right people” follow the “correct rules” and marry into “acceptable families.” The arrival from Europe of May’s cousin, the Countess Ellen Olenska, complicates their union, as Ellen’s mysterious past threatens to cast a shadow of scandal over the newly betrothed couple. Newland Archer, at first critical of Ellen’s bohemian lifestyle, and her seemingly wilful ignorance of the rules and customs of his Old New York, is soon captivated by Ellen’s warmth, spirit, and her generous and loving heart. Will he cast off the life for which he’s been groomed, or sacrifice happiness for duty and the greater good of the social order?

Chapter Thirty Four

2006-10-27T07:59:00.000+01:00

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.

Chapter Thirty Three

2006-10-25T10:33:00.000+01:00

There were certain things that had to be done, and if done at all, done handsomely and thoroughly; and one thse in theold New York code, was the tribal rally around a kinswoman about to be eliminated from the tribe.

ChapterThirty Two

2006-10-24T09:56:00.000+01:00

It struck Archer that May, since their return from Europe, had seldom worn her bridal satin, and the surpsie of seeing her in it made him compare her appearance with that of the young girl he had watched with such blissful anticipations two years earlier.

Chapter Thirty One

2006-10-23T00:08:00.000+01:00

She had the heedless generosity and the spasmodic extravagance of persons used to large fortunes, and indifferent to money; but she could go without many things which her relations considered indispensable, and Mrs Lovell Mingott and Mrs Welland had often been heard to deplore that anyone who had enjoyed the cosmopolitan luxuries of Count Olenski's establishments should care so little about 'how things were done'.

Chapter Thirty

2006-10-21T15:24:00.000+01:00

He had determined to wait until the chance presented itself natually; and here it was, and here he was, on the doorstep.

Chapter Twenty Nine

2006-10-20T10:38:00.000+01:00

The crudeness of the question startled him: the word was one that women of his class fought shy of, even when their talk flitted closest about the topic.

Chapter Twenty Eight

2006-10-18T19:22:00.000+01:00

Archer's lips stiffened; he felt a savage impulse to dash his fist into the long vain handsome face at his side.

Chapter Twenty Seven

2006-10-17T09:30:00.000+01:00

The disappearance of the Beauforts would leave a considerable void in their compact little circle; and those who were too ignorant or too careless to shudder at the moral catastrophe bewailed the loss of the best ball-room in New York.

Chapter Twenty Six

2006-10-14T12:24:00.000+01:00

"Hints have indeed not been wanting; but since you appear unwilling to take them from others, I offer you this one myself, in the only form in which well-bred people of our kind can communicate unpleasant things to each other."

Chapter Twenty Five

2006-10-12T10:58:00.000+01:00

The discovery the he had been excluded from a share in these negotiations, and even from the knowledge that they were on foot, caused him a surprise hardly dulled by the wonder of what he was learning.

Chapter Twenty Four

2006-10-10T14:26:00.000+01:00

"I'm the man who married one woman because another one told him to."

Chapter Twenty Three

2006-10-07T11:43:00.000+01:00

He started to walk across the Common; and on the first bench, under a tree, he saw her sitting. She had a grey silk sunshade over her head - how could he have ever imagined her with a pink one?

Chapter Twenty Two

2006-09-13T17:48:00.000+01:00

He had the feeling of unexplained excitement with which, on half holidays from school, he used to start off into the unknown.

Chapter Twenty One

2006-09-13T17:46:00.000+01:00

From the willow walk projected a slight wooden pier ending in a sort of pagoda-like summer-house; and in the pagoda a lady stood, leaning against the rail, her back to the shore.

Chapter Twenty

2006-09-07T06:57:00.000+01:00

If her simplicity had been the simplicity of pettiness he would have chafed and rebelled.

Chapter Nineteen

2006-09-07T06:53:00.000+01:00

"But they opened it for Ellen, it seems, and she told me what a darling little place it was; she says it's the only house she's seen in America that she could imagine being perfectly happy in."

Chapter Eighteen

2006-08-30T17:16:00.000+01:00

"Ah, my poor Newland - I suppose this had to be. But it doesn't in the least alter things," she said, looking down at him in her turn from the hearth.

Chapter Seventeen

2006-08-30T17:13:00.000+01:00

She broke off, still twinkling at him, and asked, with the casual irrelevance of old age: "Now, why in the world didn't you marry my little Ellen?"

Chapter Sixteen

2006-08-24T09:25:00.000+01:00

"You mustn't think that a girl knows as little as her parents imagine. One hears, and notices - one has one's own feelings and ideas."

Chapter Fifteen

2006-08-08T13:46:00.000+01:00

... and in that moment Archer imagined her, almost heard her, stealing up behind him to throw her light arms about his neck.

Chapter Fourteen

2006-08-08T13:39:00.000+01:00

Archer, who dressed in the evening because he thought it cleaner and more comfortable to do so... had never stopped to consider that cleanliness and comfort are two of the costliest items in a modest budget...

Chapter Thirteen

2006-08-08T13:35:00.000+01:00

"Do you think," she asked, glancing towards the stage, "He will send her a bunch of yellow roses tomorrow morning?"

Chapter Twelve

2006-08-08T13:31:00.000+01:00

"But my freedom - is that nothing?"

Chapter Eleven

2006-08-08T12:42:00.000+01:00

"The whole family are against a divorce. And I think rightly."

Chapter Ten

2006-08-07T17:46:00.000+01:00

"Louisa and I are very fond of our cousin - but it's hopeless to expect people who are accustomed to the European courts to trouble themselves about our little republican distinctions."

Chapter Nine

2006-08-01T14:50:00.001+01:00

She lifted her thin black eyebrows. "Is New York such a labryinth? I thought it so straight up and down - like Fifth Avenue. And with all the cross streets numbered!"

Chapter Eight

2006-08-01T14:32:00.000+01:00

But there was about her the mysterious authority of beauty, a sureness in the carriage of the head, the movement of the eyes, which, without being the least theatrical, struck him as highly trained and full of conscious power.

Chapter Seven

2006-07-27T16:42:00.000+01:00

Archer contemplated with awe the two slender faded figures, seated side by side in a kind of viceregal rigidity.

Chapter Six

2006-07-11T11:40:00.000+01:00

What could he and she really know of each other, since it was his duty as a "decent fellow" to conceal his past from her, and hers as a "marriageable girl" to have no past to conceal.

Chapter Five

2006-07-06T17:16:00.000+01:00

"Women ought to be free - as free as we are," he declared, making a discovery of which he was too irritated to measure the terrific consequenses.

Download Chapter Five

Chapter Four

2006-07-05T17:51:00.000+01:00

"We must always bear in mind what an eccentric bring-up Medora Manson gave her. What can you expect of a girl who was allowed to wear black satin at her coming-out ball?"

Download Chapter Four

Chapter Three

2006-06-28T17:43:00.000+01:00

Mrs Archer, who was fond of coining her social philosophy into axioms, had once said: "We all have our pet common people - " and the though the phrase was a daring one, its truth was secretly admitted in many an exclusive bosom.

Download Chapter Three

Chapter Two

2006-06-22T17:18:00.000+01:00

As he entered the box his eyes met Miss Welland's, and he saw that she had instantly understood his motive, though the family dignity which both considered so high a virtue would not permit her to tell him so.

Download Chapter Two

Chapter One

2006-06-16T18:27:00.000+01:00

An unalterable and unquestioned law of the musical world required that the German text of French operas sung by Swedish artists should be translated into Italian for the clearer understanding of English-speaking audiences.

Download Chapter One

Coming soon...

2006-06-02T08:21:00.000+01:00

Written in 1920, by Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence won the Pullizer Prize in 1921. 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 a small cluster of aristocratic "old revolutionary stock" families ruled New York's social life. In this world "being things" was better than "doing things" and one's occupation or abilities were secondary to heredity and family connections. Reputation and outward appearances came at the exclusion of everything and everyone else.

Over the next month I'll be recording this novel and then uploading the audio version of this wonderful story in installments. I hope you'll join me.