The Age of Innocence

In an era before the advent of electric lights, telephones or motor vehicles, there exists a small cluster of aristocratic “old revolutionary stock” families that rule New York’s social life. Under the rules of this society, “being things” is better than “doing things” and reputation and outward appearances come at the exclusion of everything else. In this Gilded Age, when America’s expansion and increased industrialism produce a group of newly wealthy robber barons and financiers, the patient, time-honored values of the old ruling class, and century, are giving way to the expediencies of the new. Caught at this cusp, a triangle of lovers, who must choose between the expectations of family and society, and the deepest yearnings of the heart.

Newly engaged couple, Newland Archer, a young lawyer, and May Welland, a society debutante, are part of the old world, where the “right people” follow the “correct rules” and marry into “acceptable families.” The arrival from Europe of May’s cousin, the Countess Ellen Olenska, complicates their union, as Ellen’s mysterious past threatens to cast a shadow of scandal over the newly betrothed couple. Newland Archer, at first critical of Ellen’s bohemian lifestyle, and her seemingly wilful ignorance of the rules and customs of his Old New York, is soon captivated by Ellen’s warmth, spirit, and her generous and loving heart. Will he cast off the life for which he’s been groomed, or sacrifice happiness for duty and the greater good of the social order?

Chapter Thirty Four

Perhaps she too had kept her memory of him as something apart; but if she had, it must have been like a relic in a small dim chapel, where there was not time to pray every day.

Chapter Thirty Three

There were certain things that had to be done, and if done at all, done handsomely and thoroughly; and one thse in theold New York code, was the tribal rally around a kinswoman about to be eliminated from the tribe.

ChapterThirty Two

It struck Archer that May, since their return from Europe, had seldom worn her bridal satin, and the surpsie of seeing her in it made him compare her appearance with that of the young girl he had watched with such blissful anticipations two years earlier.

Chapter Thirty One

She had the heedless generosity and the spasmodic extravagance of persons used to large fortunes, and indifferent to money; but she could go without many things which her relations considered indispensable, and Mrs Lovell Mingott and Mrs Welland had often been heard to deplore that anyone who had enjoyed the cosmopolitan luxuries of Count Olenski's establishments should care so little about 'how things were done'.

Chapter Thirty

He had determined to wait until the chance presented itself natually; and here it was, and here he was, on the doorstep.

Chapter Twenty Nine

The crudeness of the question startled him: the word was one that women of his class fought shy of, even when their talk flitted closest about the topic.

Chapter Twenty Eight

Archer's lips stiffened; he felt a savage impulse to dash his fist into the long vain handsome face at his side.

Chapter Twenty Seven

The disappearance of the Beauforts would leave a considerable void in their compact little circle; and those who were too ignorant or too careless to shudder at the moral catastrophe bewailed the loss of the best ball-room in New York.

Chapter Twenty Six

"Hints have indeed not been wanting; but since you appear unwilling to take them from others, I offer you this one myself, in the only form in which well-bred people of our kind can communicate unpleasant things to each other."

Chapter Twenty Five

The discovery the he had been excluded from a share in these negotiations, and even from the knowledge that they were on foot, caused him a surprise hardly dulled by the wonder of what he was learning.

Chapter Twenty Four

"I'm the man who married one woman because another one told him to."

Chapter Twenty Three

He started to walk across the Common; and on the first bench, under a tree, he saw her sitting. She had a grey silk sunshade over her head - how could he have ever imagined her with a pink one?

Chapter Twenty Two

He had the feeling of unexplained excitement with which, on half holidays from school, he used to start off into the unknown.

Chapter Twenty One

From the willow walk projected a slight wooden pier ending in a sort of pagoda-like summer-house; and in the pagoda a lady stood, leaning against the rail, her back to the shore.

Chapter Twenty

If her simplicity had been the simplicity of pettiness he would have chafed and rebelled.

Chapter Nineteen

"But they opened it for Ellen, it seems, and she told me what a darling little place it was; she says it's the only house she's seen in America that she could imagine being perfectly happy in."

Chapter Eighteen

"Ah, my poor Newland - I suppose this had to be. But it doesn't in the least alter things," she said, looking down at him in her turn from the hearth.

Chapter Seventeen

She broke off, still twinkling at him, and asked, with the casual irrelevance of old age: "Now, why in the world didn't you marry my little Ellen?"

Chapter Sixteen

"You mustn't think that a girl knows as little as her parents imagine. One hears, and notices - one has one's own feelings and ideas."