Book Review: "The Age of Innocence" by Edith Wharton

Finished reading “The Age of Innocence” last night and it’s left a kind of bittersweet impression in my mind. Several components struck me – aspects of the book that give you a unique perspective of what the author was trying to convey.

Interestingly, this was one of the few books by a woman that I’ve really enjoyed, though I could make out instantly even if I didn’t know it, that the author is a woman. It’s not corny like “Pride and Prejudice”, but I feel it does over romanticize some aspects of a relationship between a man and a woman – something that most women are guilty of.

Old New York Society

The heart of the book is the fabulous depiction of old New York Society. It’s mannerisms, the way things were always implied and the “decorum” that must be maintained. I was astonished first and foremost by how much was left unsaid those days, which was still perfectly well known to all. Superficial conversation hid reams of dialogue. A totally new experience for us in this time who say what we mean and mean what we say.

The Age of Innocence

But it also showcases their narrow mindedness and how “society” was supposed to be made up of unblemished individuals and how anything unusual was not only avoided, but shunned with a kind of horror. Curtsies must be paid and everything was “done” in a certain way and in a certain order. I don’t know why this sort of society still has the power to surprise me especially after being exposed to it numerous times in the writings of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Dumas, and many others. It just feels so different from today.

However, at the end of the book, which also shows the world as we know it more or less today, I was caught off guard by a sort of nostalgia for how things were. Surprising, because there is no way on earth that I would want to be present in that kind of society. But still, it presented a sort of safety, where old values had tangible meaning. Despite the title of the book though, there was nothing “innocent” about it – except on the surface. And maybe the author is trying to draw our minds to the irony.

Allegory/Metaphor

I also noticed something that perhaps had always been present in writing, but never forced it’s attention onto me. The use of symbolism. I suddenly noticed that maybe the author was trying to say something by describing something else. I’ve never analyzed literature too closely, mostly taking everything at face value, and it’s possible I’m imagining things here. But for example, when an old wedding dress tears and gets a bit dirty in the mud, perhaps the author is using that as a symbol of the state of the marriage itself. Like I said, maybe it’s my imagination, but I don’t think so.

I’ve never before paused to ask the question “Why did the author write this?”, always assuming that everything is part of the story. It’s an interesting tactic to describe something leaving a vague impression in the reader’s mind that the writer is trying to tell us something that would be best left unsaid.

Virtuous Romance

The novel paints situations where a man and a woman obviously love each other, but refuse to even touch – saying that it would be a betrayal of those who place their faith in them. All the words are spoken, but the man quietly accepts the non-physical component of it, going as far as to say that he wasn’t interested in any physical consummation. This is where my disbelief enters leads to my claim that only a woman could have written this!

No man I know is capable of loving purely ethereally (and I’m certain no knowledgeable woman is capable of it for long either) and though later on the subject of sex is touched upon ever so slightly, I still feel that this highly romantic view of love is unrealistic. I’ve noticed this sort of thing in women’s novels before – romance is sacred and sex is to be far removed from the scene! Ouch…It just doesn’t happen that way.

Basically, a great read, and strongly recommended to all who would like to see how things “were.”