The Age of Innocence (Masterplots II: Women’s Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Edith Wharton
- First Published: 1920
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: The 1870’s
- Setting: New York City
- Principal Characters: Newland Archer, May Welland, Ellen Olenska, Mrs. Manson Mingott, Julius Beaufort, Henry, Sillerton Jackson, Lawrence Lefferts
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism, Fiction of manners
- Subjects: Values, New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Love or romance, Nineteenth century, New York City, Social issues, Marriage, Social life, Obsession, Upper classes, Adultery, Divorce, Duty, Lawyers, Bohemianism, Gossip, Scandal, Peer pressure
- Locales: New York, NY, Newport, RI
Form and Content
Edith Wharton opens The Age of Innocence at the opera, and the reader first glimpses the heroines through Lawrence Lefferts’ opera glass. It is a privileged glimpse, as is most of Wharton’s fiction; she lets the reader view an entire society through her eyes. This affluent New York society operates on a strict set of unwritten rules. Things happen the same way year after year; no one dares to deviate from the established traditions. Each year, always on the night an opera is seen, the Beauforts hold a ball. It is the only night of the year that they...
[The entire page is 2328 words long]
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