Saturday, October 13, 2012

The Age of Innocence




Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence is another book set in NYC, right around my place (12th Street) in the Astor Place area, but a long time ago, circa 1870s in the high society!  Enter Newland Archer, a gentleman, lawyer, and heir to one of the richest families in NYC who meets the beautiful virginal May Welland.  As the wedding date looms, enter the even more beautiful cousin of May, Countess Ellen Olenska, who has been living in Europe.  Her return is precipitated by a bad marriage to a Polish count. Newland’s interactions with Ellen makes him begin to doubt his choice of brides, but Ellen (and her family) are very worried about what the potential would be for a divorce, can you say “family scandal” especially in this time period.  After sharing his love for Ellen, Newland gets pressure from others influencing him to not ask Ellen to divorce her husband but to rush his marriage to May and all will be fine.  The two marry, hoping this will relieve Newland of his feelings to Ellen, it does not, though she has relocated to Washington, DC.  Ellen eventually returns to NYC to help her grandmother who has taken ill.  Newland is on the verge of getting her to agree to be his mistress and Newland is about to tell May about his love for Ellen when May tells him she is pregnant(!), with Ellen deciding to move back to Europe.  May explains to Newland that she already told Ellen about the pregnancy (was it because she suspected an affair?).  Newland gives up his desperate pursuit of further relationship with Ellen and stays married to May and is dedicated to his family.  Fast forward twenty-six years after May’s death…. Newland and his grown son, Dallas, visit England.  While there, Dallas, notes he would like to visit with his mother’s cousin who he learned was in the city.  They both go to visit.  And you won’t believe what happens.  You know I won’t give this one up!  What a great “thwarted” love story.  The pressures of society and how one gives up what he really wants based on “peer pressure”… doesn’t that still happen today?  A good read, though dated.  I think a lot of the soap operas of the past three decades used this story line over and over and over again.

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