Edith Wharton - The Age of Innocence

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Table of Contents

FROM THE PAGES OF
THE AGE OF INNOCENCE

Few things seemed to Newland Archer more awful than an offense against Taste, that far-off divinity of whom Form was the mere visible representative and vicegerent.

(page 14)

The persons of their world lived in an atmosphere of faint implications and pale delicacies, and the fact that he and she understood each other without a word seemed to the young man to bring them nearer than any explanation would have done.

(page 16)

If we dont all stand together, therell be no such thing as Society left.

(page 43)

He always came away with the feeling that if his world was small, so was theirs, and that the only way to enlarge either was to reach a stage of manners where they would naturally merge.

(page 86)

I want to be free; I want to wipe out all the past.

(page 90)

I felt there was no one as kind as you; no one who gave me reasons that I understood for doing what at first seemed so hard andunnecessary. The very good people didnt convince me; I felt theyd never been tempted. But you knew; you understood; you had felt the world outside tugging at one with all its golden handsand yet you hated the things it asks of one; you hated happiness bought by disloyalty and cruelty and indifference. That was what Id never known beforeand its better than anything Ive known.

(page 141)

Its worth everything, isnt it, to keep ones intellectual liberty, not to enslave ones powers of appreciation, ones critical independence?

(page 164)

His whole future seemed suddenly to be unrolled before him; and passing down its endless emptiness he saw the dwindling figure of a man to whom nothing was ever to happen.

(page 185)

In the rotation of crops there was a recognized season for wild oats; but they were not to be sown more than once.

(page 249)

It was the old New York way, of taking life without effusion of blood; the way of people who dreaded scandal more than disease, who placed decency above courage, and who considered that nothing was more ill-bred than scenes, except the behavior of those who gave rise to them.

(page 272)

The worst of doing ones duty was that it apparently unfitted one for doing anything else.

(pages 284-285)

He had to deal all at once with the packed regrets and stifled memories of an inarticulate lifetime.

(page 289)

EDITH WHARTON

Edith Newbold Jones was born January 24, 1862, into such wealth and privilege that her family inspired the phrase keeping up with the Joneses. The youngest of three children, Edith spent her early years touring Europe with her parents and, upon the familys return to the United States, enjoyed a privileged childhood in New York and Newport, Rhode Island. Ediths creativity and talent soon became obvious: By the age of eighteen she had written a novella, Fast and Loose (as well as witty reviews of it) and published poetry in the Atlantic Monthly.

After a failed engagement, Edith married a wealthy sportsman, Edward Wharton. Despite similar backgrounds and a shared taste for travel, the marriage was not a success. Many of Whartons novels chronicle unhappy marriages, in which the demands of love and vocation often conflict with the expectations of society. Whartons first major novel, The House of Mirth, published in 1905, enjoyed considerable literary success. Ethan Frome appeared six years later, solidifying Whartons reputation as an important novelist. Often in the company of her close friend Henry James, Wharton mingled with some of the most famous writers and artists of the day, including F. Scott Fitzger ald, Andr Gide, Sinclair Lewis, Jean Cocteau, and Jack London.

In 1913 Edith divorced Edward. She lived mostly in France for the remainder of her life. When World War I broke out, she organized hostels for refugees, worked as a fund-raiser, and wrote for American publications from battlefield frontlines. She was awarded the French Legion of Honor for her courage and distinguished work.

The Age of Innocence, a novel about New York in the 1870s, earned Wharton the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1921the first time the award had been bestowed on a woman. Wharton traveled throughout Europe to encourage young authors. She also continued to write, lying in her bed every morning, as she had always done, dropping each newly penned page on the floor to be collected and arranged when she was finished. Wharton suffered a stroke and died on August 11, 1937. She is buried in the American Cemetery in Versailles, France.

THE WORLD OF EDITH WHARTON ANDTHE AGE OF INNOCENCE

1862	Edith Newbold Jones is born January 24 in New York City, the last of three children. Her parents are wealthy and socially well-connected.
1866	The Jones family leaves for Europe, where they will live for the next six years.
1870	In Germany, Edith falls ill with typhoid fever and for a time hovers between life and death. When she recovers, the fam ily moves to Florence. Edith begins writing stories, which she recites to her family.
1872	The Joneses return to America, where they live in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island.
1877	Edith finishes a novella, Fast and Loose, which will be pub lished a century later, in 1977. Henry Jamess novel The American appears.
1878	Ediths mother pays to publish a collection of Ediths poems, Verses.
1879	Edith is presented to society in New York City.
1880	A wealthy young man, Henry Leyden Stevens, proposes to Wharton. The Atlantic Monthly magazine publishes five of Whartons poems.
1881	Henry Jamess novel Portrait of a Lady appears.
1882	Ediths father dies in the south of France. Edith and her mother return to the United States to find that Henry Stevenss mother disapproves of the engagement. It is broken off, and the Jones women return to France.
1883	While summering in Bar Harbor, Maine, Edith agrees to marry Edward Wharton, an independently wealthy sportsman from Massachusetts.
1885	Edith and Edward wed and over the next several years divide their time between Europe, New York, and Newport.
1889	Whartons poems appear in Scribners Magazine and the At lantic Monthly.
1891	Whartons first published story, Mrs. Mansteys View, ap pears in Scribners Magazine.
1897	The Decoration of Houses appears; it is a nonfiction work on interior design written by Wharton and architect Ogden Codman, Jr.

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