‘The Age Of Innocence’,Novel By Edith Wharton
‘The Age Of Innocence’,Novel By Edith Wharton
This month’s book was ‘The Age of Innocence’, a 1920’s novel by American author Edith Wharton. The book is set in the 1870s, in upper-class New York Society. Although we appreciated Wharton’s attention to detail, we found the book introduced too many characters in the first few pages and we discovered that we needed a family tree to catch up. When we established who was who, we found ourselves immersed in the plot.
The story is centred around Newland Archer a young gentleman lawyer who finds himself attracted to Countess Ellen Olenska, his fiancée’s cousin. The countess has a tainted background and is thus shunned by elegant society. The book demonstrates the boundaries and restrictions associated with wealth and class and one’s position in society. We couldn’t agree whether Archer’s fiancée Mary was actually an innocent in the proceedings (as suggested by the title) or manipulative in trying to save her marriage. We all agreed this was an enjoyable and insightful read and gave it an overall score of 8/10.