Pure Age

Author: Edith Wharton
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2002-01-01
Features: The Age of Innocence is an enduring masterpiece and is considered one of Edith Wharton's most perfectly structured novels. The author draws her material from her own experiences and familiar surroundings, creating characters and grounding the work in a deep sense of reality. Particularly through the rise and fall of the fortune of the Bowfords, which contrasts with the main thread of the protagonist's tragic love story, an ordinary tale of romance is imbued with profound social significance. The Age of Innocence primarily takes place in the upper-class society of New York in the late 1870s and early 1880s. This was the place where Edith spent her childhood and youth, where she grew up, entered society, became engaged and then broke off the engagement, and finally married Edward Wharton of Boston, spending the early years of her marriage there. Forty years later, as a novelist, she looks back at the society that nurtured and also constrained her, her feelings are complex—both affectionate nostalgia and a clear critique. The author compares the upper-class society of New York at that time to a small pyramid, which is both sharp and slippery, making it difficult to find a foothold. At the top of the pyramid, there are only a few truly aristocratic families: the Daggetts of Washington Square, whose ancestors were genuine members of the county gentry; Mr. Vanderlyn, the great-grandson of a former Dutch governor, whose family had intermarried with several aristocratic families of France and England; and the Laning family, who were married to the Earl of Degras. They are the highest echelon of the upper class, but it is clear that they are in a declining phase. The backbone of the upper class consists of the prominent families represented by the Mingoes, the Newlands, and the Chivers, whose ancestors were wealthy merchants from England or the Netherlands who rose to prominence in the colonies early on and became figures of status and standing. For example, one of the great-grandfathers of Newland Archer participated in the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and another served as a general under Washington. As Mrs. Archer said, "New York has always been a commercial society," and the dominant force is these solidly wealthy merchants. At the bottom of the pyramid are the wealthy but not noble people, most of whom are the newly rich who rose after the Civil War, who, through substantial financial means and marriage, have climbed into the upper class. The author draws her material from her own experiences and familiar surroundings, creating characters and grounding the work in a deep sense of reality. Particularly through the rise and fall of the fortune of the Bowfords, which contrasts with the main thread of the protagonist's tragic love story, an ordinary tale of romance is imbued with profound social significance.