A word of caution: This is not for the reader who expects a fast-paced story or desires fulfilled in a steamy way. Instead, Wharton takes us on a grand tour through the stuffy upper crust of 1870s New York and their social rituals, deadlocked in self-righteousness.
Just about to marry his betrothed May, a pretty if somewhat naive and dull girl, Newland Archer meets her cousin, the Countess Olenska, a woman rather shunned in society for her running away from her cheating husband in Europe, and quickly befriends her. He is immensely attracted by her personality and fascinated by her unconventional (liberal and "European") views, which she shockingly never hesitates to express quite freely. Newland falls in love with Ellen, at first without even knowing for he still marries May. But the glimpse of a life without all the restraints he's known all his life and his desire for Ellen make him rebel against all the old ways he thought he had appreciated. Will he up and away with the woman who could make his life an exciting one, filled with honest emotions, or will he go back to his wife and a safe but dull life in a world opulent, beautiful and cultured but empty and boring, with no room for individuality?
Read this book and find out yourself (yes, it's a spoiler-free review :-). Age of Innocence works on different levels. Its a story about rebellion against a stagnant and hypocritical society whose outdated rules need to be broken up, as well as one about a man loving an unattainable woman. 50 years later the woman could have been black, yet another while later the two lovers might have been of the same sex. This story is a timeless one in being about a love that brings social death, and I'm afraid that this oh-so-civilized human race will never rise above having outcasts.
