The Age of Innocence | Literary Precedents
There are a number of literary precedents for this work. The careful, realistic descriptions of social customs and rites that mark the opening chapters of The Age of Innocence recall Henry James's descriptions of similar scenes in works like The American (1877), Washington Square (1881), and The Bostonians (1886). Blake Nevius points to a similar love theme in Madame de La Fayette's The Princess of Cleves (1678), which Wharton praised for its "story of hopeless love and mute renunciation." Nevius also sees Balzac as an important antecedent: "Balzac's...
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