The Age of Innocence

Wharton hater >>> Wharton devotee

For a long time, I was puzzled that The Age of Innocence had won the Pulitzer for fiction in 1921, because Edith Wharton sucked. When I was an undergrad I had to read a different, more obscure Edith Wharton novel (I won't say which one), and it was horrid. I looooathed it. The plot was feeble and uninteresting, the female protagonist vapid, the male supporting characters even more repulsive. In fiction, I read primarily for human drama and interaction, and if I don't feel that the characters are well-developed and have verisimilitude, I don't feel like reading on. I don't have to like a character or want them as a neighbor, but they have to be interesting. Well, Ms. Wharton's characters in that other, weaker novel were neither likable nor interesting. I was required to finish that novel, but then I was done with Edith Wharton forever. Since then, otherwise literate people have suggested that I read The Age of Innocence. I always declined. Recently, though, a writer friend hounded me enough that I accepted the loaner copy she pushed into my hands and promised I would at least try it. Thirty pages or so, I promised. Less than ten pages in, I was hooked. Remember what I said up there about the character-driven novel? Here it is, in spades. If you aren't familiar with the story (no spoilers, I promise), it takes place in New York in the 1870s and centers on a young upper-class attorney, Newland Archer. Though narrated in third person, the reader is privy to Newland's thoughts, ideas, emotions, conflicts. He is engaged to a reputable young woman, but becomes infatuated with her cousin, who is not so reputable. This unfortunate triad (can you feel the tension?) exists in the social minefield of high society, scandal is avoided at all costs, appearances are everything and therefore hypocrisy is the norm. Newland detests his social matrix, but he also benefits from it and it's where he's generally comfortable, so he plays the game. May (his fiancée) and Ellen (her exotic...