11 h 40 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 11 h 40 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the life everyone approves of leaves no room for the person you want to become?
In the New York of the 1870s, young lawyer Newland Archer prepares to marry May Welland. Their families approve, and a proper future seems assured. Then May’s cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska, returns from Europe after leaving her husband. Her arrival unsettles Archer’s plans—and his faith in the rules he follows.
In The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton draws you into a society where gossip carries power and polite words conceal hard judgments. Ellen wants freedom without losing her family. Archer believes in loyalty, yet feels drawn toward another life. Between promises and private longing, even silence becomes a choice with a cost.
What you’ll discover
- An evening at the opera Enter a world where the audience comes as much to be seen as to listen.
- Three lives under pressure Follow Archer, May, and Ellen as love and duty pull their hopes in different directions.
- The force of unwritten rules See how family approval shapes marriage, belonging, and the limits of personal freedom.
- What polite words conceal Notice the distance between what people say and the judgments they leave unspoken.
- Wharton’s cool, exact irony Discover a voice that holds affection for this world while exposing its hypocrisies.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy novels of manners, quiet love stories, sharp social comedy and small gestures that carry big feelings. If you like Jane Austen or Henry James, this book is made for you.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- The opera box decides who belongs
- Archer hurries his engagement to shield Ellen
- A small society polices itself through silence
- Archer begins to doubt the purity he is marrying
- Ellen's small house shows another way to live
- Archer persuades Ellen to give up her divorce
- A long engagement ends in sudden haste
- Marriage, Newport and a day in Boston
- The cost of duty, from a bank failure to a museum
- How Wharton makes silence the whole story
Who’s who
- Newland ArcherA cultivated young New York lawyer who wants a modern marriage but lives by old rules, and who falls for the wrong woman.
- May WellandArcher's fiancée, a lovely and athletic young woman raised to be innocent, who knows more and acts more bravely than she appears.
- Ellen OlenskaMay's cousin, a countess who flees an unhappy marriage in Europe and seeks freedom and peace in her home city.
- Mrs. Manson MingottThe enormous, fearless grandmother of the Mingott clan, who ignores convention and backs Ellen.
- Julius BeaufortA rich, arrogant banker of mysterious origin whose splendid parties make society overlook his reputation.
- Sillerton JacksonAn elderly gentleman who knows New York's family trees and scandals, shares gossip at dinner, and carefully guards private confidences.
- Lawrence LeffertsThe city's authority on good form, who preaches morality loudly while hiding his own affairs.
- Louisa and Henry van der LuydenThe aloof, powerful cousins at the very top of society, whose approval can make or break a person.
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The Age of Innocence
by Edith Wharton · 1920
A New York lawyer, engaged to the ideal bride, cannot stop thinking about her scandalous cousin.
Medium level10–20 hours to readDeutsch
Pulitzer Prize for the Novel, 1921
Excellent
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In short
One January evening in the early seventies, a young lawyer leans against the back wall of a box at the New York opera. He watches his fiancée, a girl in white, blush at a love song.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
The opera box decides who belongs
Old New York gathers at the Academy of Music to hear Faust, and everyone knows the rules. Newland Archer arrives late on purpose, because arriving early at the opera is not considered fashionable in his social circle. He has read more and seen more of Europe than his friends, yet he accepts their moral code. That night he means to announce his engagement to May Welland at a ball.
In Archer's club box, Lawrence Lefferts, the city's authority on proper form, stares through his opera glasses. Old Sillerton Jackson, who knows every buried scandal, mutters that the Mingotts should not have tried this. The woman in the box is Ellen Olenska, May's cousin, who has left her Polish husband and come home from Europe.
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Also in the Edith Wharton Book Set: Two Novels
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1920
- Language
- Deutsch
- Reading time
- 7 h 35 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Wharton, Edith. The Age of Innocence. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-age-of-innocence.
Wharton, E. (2026). The age of innocence. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-age-of-innocence (Original work published 1920)
Wharton, Edith. The Age of Innocence. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-age-of-innocence.
@book{wharton2026age,
author = {Wharton, Edith},
title = {The Age of Innocence},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-age-of-innocence},
note = {First published 1920}
}
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What is The Age of Innocence about?
It follows Newland Archer, a young New York lawyer engaged to May Welland, who meets her cousin Ellen Olenska, a countess fleeing a bad marriage. His feelings for Ellen test his loyalty to May and to the rules of his society.
When is The Age of Innocence set, and when was it written?
The story takes place in the 1870s, mainly in New York, and covers about two years in detail. Edith Wharton published it in 1920, writing about the world of her own youth with the distance of fifty years.
Is The Age of Innocence a true story?
The characters and plot are invented, but Wharton drew on the real customs, houses and opera nights of old New York high society. Some real people, such as the singer Christine Nilsson, also appear in passing.
The author
Edith Wharton
1862–1937 · American novelist
Edith Wharton (1862–1937) was an American writer and designer born in New York City. She later lived in France, where she died. Her books include The House of Mirth (1905), Ethan Frome (1911), and The Age of Innocence (1920). She co-wrote The Decoration of Houses with Ogden Codman Jr. in 1897.
More by Edith Wharton
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