Unrequited love is tragic, like an empty party; unconsummated love is worse -- it's senseless like a sinkhole or a flat soufflé.
Set in the last decades of the nineteenth century, The Age of Innocence narrates the love story of Newland Archer and Ellen Olenska. When the novel opens, Archer is engaged to May Welland, a young woman from one of New York's oldest society families, and Ellen Olenska is married to a Polish count, who has abused her in unspoken ways. Ellen, May's cousin, returns to New York from Europe because she wants to obtain a divorce in the United States. Her family welcomes her back into the fold, but they want to make it clear that divorce is not accepted in their world.

As a respected attorney who is soon to be a family member, Newland is elected to broach this topic with Ellen. Attempting to discourage the divorce, he explains that the customs of their New York society are based on loyalty to one's actual family and to one's social "family." Over the course of several meetings, during which Ellen and Newland are compelled to discuss matters of deep and delicate feeling, they fall in love. Each grows to admire the other's rarity and virtuous sincerity.

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• Literature & Fiction

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• Print Length: 400 Pages
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