The Age of Innocence

Name: The Age of Innocence
Author: Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton

English · 1920 · Fiction

Wharton's novel of a young lawyer in 1870s New York high society torn between duty and desire, read for its ironic portrait of social convention.

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Book I
Chapter IOn a January evening of the early seventies, Christine Nilsson was…
Chapter IINewland Archer, during this brief episode, had been thrown into a…
Chapter IIIIt invariably happened in the same way.
Chapter IVIn the course of the next day the first of the usual betrothal visits…
Chapter VThe next evening old Mr. Sillerton Jackson came to dine with the…
Chapter VIThat evening, after Mr. Jackson had taken himself away, and the…
Chapter VIIMrs. Henry van der Luyden listened in silence to her cousin Mrs.…
Chapter VIIIIt was generally agreed in New York that the Countess Olenska had…
Chapter IXThe Countess Olenska had said “after five”; and at half after the…
Chapter XThe next day he persuaded May to escape for a walk in the Park after…
Chapter XISome two weeks later, Newland Archer, sitting in abstracted idleness…
Chapter XIIOld-fashioned New York dined at seven, and the habit of after-dinner…
Chapter XIIIIt was a crowded night at Wallack’s theatre.
Chapter XIVAs he came out into the lobby Archer ran across his friend Ned…
Chapter XVNewland Archer arrived at the Chiverses’ on Friday evening, and on…
Chapter XVIWhen Archer walked down the sandy main street of St. Augustine to the…
Chapter XVII“Your cousin the Countess called on mother while you were away,”…
Chapter XVIII“What are you two plotting together, aunt Medora?” Madame Olenska…
Book II
Chapter XIXThe day was fresh, with a lively spring wind full of dust. All the…
Chapter XX“Of course we must dine with Mrs. Carfry, dearest,” Archer said; and…
Chapter XXIThe small bright lawn stretched away smoothly to the big bright sea.
Chapter XXII“A party for the Blenkers—the Blenkers?”
Chapter XXIIIThe next morning, when Archer got out of the Fall River train, he…
Chapter XXIVThey lunched slowly and meditatively, with mute intervals between…
Chapter XXVOnce more on the boat, and in the presence of others, Archer felt a…
Chapter XXVIEvery year on the fifteenth of October Fifth Avenue opened its…
Chapter XXVIIWall Street, the next day, had more reassuring reports of Beaufort’s…
Chapter XXVIII“Ol—ol—howjer spell it, anyhow?” asked the tart young lady to whom…
Chapter XXIXHis wife’s dark blue brougham (with the wedding varnish still on it)…
Chapter XXXThat evening when Archer came down before dinner he found the…
Chapter XXXIArcher had been stunned by old Catherine’s news. It was only natural…
Chapter XXXII“At the court of the Tuileries,” said Mr. Sillerton Jackson with his…
Chapter XXXIIIIt was, as Mrs. Archer smilingly said to Mrs. Welland, a great event…
Chapter XXXIVNewland Archer sat at the writing-table in his library in East…

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The Age of Innocence

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