Age of Innocence honestly pictures hypocritical era

As Edith Wharton’s title sugests, The Age of Innocence is a picture of an era.

The story opens in the 1870s. Newland Archer, from whose perspective the story is seen, is a New York nob with a law practice as a hobby; he doesn’t need the money.

Engaged to much younger May Welland, Newland urges a speedy wedding to counter the unpleasantness surrounding the reappearance in New York of May’s cousin Ellen Olenska, who left her European husband under unsavory circumstances.

Once married to May, through his inlaws, Newland gets roped into seeing whether it is feasible for Ellen to get a divorce.

It’s a touchy situation.

Divorce is considered scandalous; it would diminish the social status of all Ellen’s family. Besides that, Newland’s sympathy for Ellen has been interpreted by the family with some acuity as a love interest.

Wharton blows up the hyposcrisy of America’s late Victorian social leaders that’s ridiculed by their less-innocent children.

Wharton is a keen observer and fine writer, yet for all its literary merit the Age of Innocence has little punch. The fault is not Wharton’s writing. The problem is that shallow characters do not make deep books.

© 2011 Linda Gorton Aragoni