The Age of InnocenceA love story, this novel was written immediately after the end of the First World War. It examines the snobbery and hypocrisy of the wealthy elite of New York society in the 1870s. Newland Archer, the protagonist, charming, tactful, enlightened, is a thorough product of this society; he accepts its standards and abides by its rules but he also recognizes its limitations. His engagement to the impeccable May Welland assures him of a safe and conventional future, until the arrival of May's cousin Ellen Olenska. Independent, free-thinking, scandalously separated from her husband, Ellen forces Archer to question the values and assumptions of his narrow world. As their love for each other grows, Archer has to decide where his ultimate loyalty lies.--Publisher's description. |
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Common terms and phrases
Ada Dyas AGE OF INNOCENCE answered Archer felt Archer looked asked Austrey Beaufort Blenkers Botzen brougham called Carfry carriage Chivers Countess Olenska course cousin Dagonet Dallas dear dine dinner door drawing-room dress drew Duke Ellen Olenska engagement exclaimed eyes face feel Fifth Avenue gave gaze girl glanced Granny hand head heard husband Janey kind knew lady laugh Lawrence Lefferts Letterblair lips lived Lovell Mingott Luyden Madame Olenska Manson Mingott married May's Miss mother never Newland Archer night old Catherine's Opera pale Parker House paused poor Reggie Rivière rose seemed Shaughraun silent Sillerton Jackson Skuytercliff smile society stood Struthers Struthers's suddenly suppose surprise talk tell there's things thought tion told tone Trevenna turned van der Luyden voice waiting walked Welland wife wife's Winsett woman wonder words York young
Popular passages
Page 42 - In reality they all lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs; as when Mrs.
Page 2 - ... the thing" played a part as important in Newland Archer's New York as the inscrutable totem terrors that had ruled the destinies of his forefathers thousands of years ago.
Page 337 - There were certain things that had to be done, and if done at all, done handsomely and thoroughly; and one of these, in the old New York code, was the tribal rally around a kinswoman about to be eliminated from the tribe.
Page 1 - ... above the Forties," of a new Opera House which should compete in costliness and splendour with those of the great European capitals, the world of fashion was still content to reassemble every winter in the shabby red and gold boxes of the sociable old Academy. Conservatives cherished it for being small and inconvenient, and thus keeping out the "new people...
Page 5 - ... younger set," in which it was the recognised custom to attract masculine homage while playfully discouraging it. If he had probed to the bottom of his vanity (as he sometimes nearly did) he would have found there the wish that his wife should be as worldly-wise and as eager to please as the married lady whose charms had held his fancy through two mildly agitated years; without, of course, any hint of the frailty which had so nearly marred that unhappy being's life, and had disarranged his own...
Page 5 - She doesn't even guess what it's all about." And he contemplated her absorbed young face with a thrill of possessorship in which pride in his own mas Aline initiation was mingled with a tender reverence for her abysmal purity. "We'll read Faust together ... by the Italian lakes . . ." he thought, somewhat hazily confusing the scene of his projected honey-moon with the masterpieces of literature which it would be his manly privilege to reveal to his bride. It was only that afternoon that May Welland...
Page 347 - Why, this used to be one of the old Cesnola rooms," he heard some one say; and instantly everything about him vanished, and he was sitting alone on a hard leather divan against a radiator, while a slight figure in a long sealskin cloak moved away down the meagrely- fitted vista of the old Museum. The vision had roused a host of other associations, and he sat looking with new eyes at the library which, for over thirty years, had been the scene of his solitary musings and of all the family confabulations....
Page 43 - But when he had gone the brief round of her he returned discouraged by the thought that all this frankness and innocence were only an artificial product ... a creation of factitious purity, so cunningly manufactured by a conspiracy of mothers and aunts and grandmothers and long-dead ancestresses...
Page 26 - Her visitors were startled and fascinated by the foreignness of this arrangement, which recalled scenes in French fiction, and architectural incentives to immorality such as the simple American had never dreamed of. That was how women with lovers lived in the wicked old societies, in apartments with all the rooms on one floor...
Page 361 - That's it: they feel equal to things — they know their way about," he mused, thinking of his son as the spokesman of the new generation which had swept away all the old landmarks, and with them the sign-posts and the danger-signal. Suddenly Dallas stopped short, grasping his father's arm. "Oh, by Jove," he exclaimed. They had come out into the great tree-planted space before the Invalides. The dome of Mansart floated ethereally above the budding trees and the long grey front of the building: drawing...