The Age of Innocence

Edith Wharton

Review By: Shelby

i might get e-yelled at by sasha for not following some sort of anal format but oh well. This is the first of three book reviews i'm going to do out of boredom and avoiding my homework.

Now. The Age of Innocence! *cue the violins*. The A of I is a novel by Edith Wharton. Its setting is in the gilded age and it's basically a classic because it's some sort of commentary on that time. The main character is Newland Archer, and basically he's a guy who can't follow his heart to save his life. He lives in high-society New York, and there are about 5 other families so those are the only people he knows. Anyway, he's supposed to get married to some chick named May. However, her cousin Ellen has just come from Europe from this divorce from some scummy Eurotrash. She and Archer predictably fall in love and oh such trouble...

We had a project on this book, and had to read some literary critics' essays to go along with it. The guy's i read said that this book is some sort of rant of Wharton's. She was mad because people were repressing change. (--this guy's name on Jeopardy is LIZARD-- ). Anyway, Edith Wharton was utterly fabulous. I read that she moved to France and wrote every morning while lying in her bed.

The girls in my group didn't like the book. Mk thought it was kinda boring, and Ad positively hated it. I think to hate this book would be the basest kind of thing a person could do.

read? yes. now.