CBBC Week One: The Age of Innocence, Chapters 1-10

There's an Internet Archive version of the book if you can't find it at your local library. 

Welcome to the first week of the Cool Bloggers Book Club (CBBC) where we will be discussing the Pulitzer Prize winning The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton! CBBC makes it sound like this is some exclusive club, but anyone can join, blogger or not. You're already cool if you're here. I'm happy you are here and making this journey with all of us. As always, the ground rules for CBBC are:

1) Don't apologize. Don't apologize for having a lot or a little to say in the comments. Don't apologize because you're not an expert on something. Don't apologize because you don't have a doctorate in English literature. Don't apologize if you fall behind or can't keep up. Have fun and say what you have to say. You and your thoughts are important.(If you need more information on this, see my post on Foster's How To Read Literature Like a Professor.)

2) Feel free to come back and respond to comments more than once! I love it when there's a dialogue in the comments.

3) Have fun reading, thinking about the book, and discussing it! Don't feel limited to my discussion prompts - talk about whatever you feel like talking about.

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Who was Edith Wharton?

Edith Wharton was born Edith Newbold Jones in New York City in 1862. Her family was mad rich, yo. Wharton's paternal family, the Joneses, were a very wealthy and socially prominent family, having made their money in real estate. The saying "keeping up with the Joneses" is said to refer to her father's family. She was born during the Civil War, so her family traveled to Europe after the war in part because of the depreciation of American currency. From 1866 to 1872, the Jones family visited France, Italy, Germany, and Spain. At the age of nine, she suffered from typhoid fever, which nearly killed her, while the family was at a spa in the Black Forest. After the family returned to the United States in 1872, they spent their winters in New York City and their summers in Newport, Rhode Island.

At age 17, Edith Jones “came out” into society, making the rounds of dances and parties in Newport and New York, observing the rituals of her privileged world, a world she would later skewer in her fiction. Her childhood ended with the death of her father in March of 1882, followed by two romantic disappointments. Still unmarried at the age of 23, Edith was rapidly approaching “old maid” status. In 1885 she married Edward (Teddy) Robbins Wharton. Though imperfectly suited for each other, the couple filled their early married years with travel, houses, and dogs.

While living in Newport, Wharton honed her design skills, co-authoring (with Ogden Codman, Jr.) her first major book, a surprisingly successful non-fiction work on design and architecture, The Decoration of Houses (1897).

In 1901, eager to escape Newport, Wharton bought 113-acres in Lenox, then designed and built a manse called The Mount, which you can go tour today. Hey, do we have any Massachusetts readers who could go visit?

The Whartons would live at The Mount for ten years. Here she would write some of her greatest works, including The House of Mirth (1905) and Ethan Frome (1911) while her marriage disintegrated under the weight of Teddy Wharton’s chronic depression and Edith's affair with Morton Fullerton, an author and foreign correspondent for The Times of London. The Whartons sold The Mount in 1911, and they divorced in 1913. Edith Wharton moved permanently to France and Teddy returned to his sister’s home. Teddy died in 1928.

In 1914, when World War I broke out, Edith Wharton was wealthy, famous, recently divorced, and living in her favorite city, Paris. Instead of withdrawing to the safety of England or returning to the United States, Wharton chose to stay and devote herself to creating a complex network of charitable and humanitarian organizations. In 1916, Wharton received the French Legion of Honor for her war work.

At the end of the war, Wharton moved out of Paris to Pavillon Colombe, a suburban villa in the village of St.Brice-sous-Forêt. In 1921, her novel of old New York, The Age of Innocence, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. In 1920 she acquired Château Ste. Claire, a restored convent in the south of France. For the rest of her life, she divided her time between these two homes, devoted to her friends and dogs, writing prolifically, traveling, and gardening. Look, I gotta be honest, Edith Wharton's life sounds pretty great to me!

She died on August 11, 1937, age 75 at Pavillon Colombe. She is buried, in the Cimetière des Gonards in Versailles, close to her good friend Walter Berry.

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What happened in these chapters?

(Friends, I've never read this book. I have no idea what's important and what's not, so this is quite detailed.)

We open at the opera when Newland Archer (WTF kind of name is that?) arrives late. He eyeballs a young girl in the box across from his and it turns out this girl is May Welland, his soon-to-be-fiancée. A scandalously dressed woman appears in the box with May and her family and it's May's cousin Countess Ellen Olenska. 

In a ball held at the Beaufort house after the opera, May and Archer announce their engagement. Countess Olenska did not come to the ball. 

Then May and Archer start on betrothal visits, which sound kind of nightmarish to me. Archer heads over to the Mingott place and Mrs. Mingott approves of the betrothal. Towards the end of the visit, Countess Olenska shows up. She was *gasp* with Mr. Beaufort who walked her home in broad daylight. Mrs. Mingott doesn't seem to notice anything untoward about this, but Archer has thoughts.

Meanwhile, Mr. Sillerton Jackson goes to the Archer place for dinner where the food is terrible because Mrs. Archer doesn't spend her money foolishly on things like food. They gossip over Countess Olenska - did she have an affair with her husband's secretary and/or is her husband an absolute beast? Archer ends up saying "Women ought to be free - as free as we are" (Chapter 5) because he feels the need to defend his fiancée's family. Archer takes to his study to have a think about the whole situation.

Meanwhile, the Mingotts invite people to their home to meet Ellen Olenska, but most of them decline. The social ramifications are intense! Archer has his own mother appeal to Louisa van der Luyden, a real shaker and OG NY family. The van der Lyudens chat things over and say they will support Countess Olenska by inviting her to their reception for the Duke of St. Austrey.

We learn more about Olenska's background - her parents died and she was left to be cared for by her irresponsible and feckless aunt, Medora Manson. She married a Polish count, the marriage ended under less than great circumstances, and now Olenska is back with the comfort of her family. She attends the van der Luyen's reception for the Duke, but arrives late and somewhat disheveled and commits the faux pas of leaving the Duke's side to go to talk to Archer.

The next day Archer goes to visit Olenska, but she's not there, so he nosily pokes around her stuff. Once she arrives, they talk about New York society and she cries because she doesn't understand the norms. When Archer takes his leave, he sends flowers to both May and the Countess.

He and May are walking in the park the next discussing their long engagement. Archer wants it shorter. He also muses on how she doesn't seem to be able to be able to think for herself. When he gets home, his sister Janey bursts in to tell him that Countess Olenska had been at Mrs. Lemuel Struthers' party the previous night. Mrs. Struthers is a social climbing commoner. As Archer argues with his family as to the impropriety of Olenska's actions, Mr. Henry van der Luyden is announced. He has just called on Countess Olenska to tactfully warn her about following the Duke to certain common parties.

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All pages numbers are from the Internet Archive version linked above.

Hat mentions (why hats?):

"I wonder if she wears a round hat or a bonnet in the afternoon," Janey speculated. (page 37)

Beaufort stood, hat in hand, saying something...(page 70)

he saw the familiar tall-hatted figures lounging behind the plateglass (page 82)

smoothed his tall hat shyly (page 87)

laid his hat and gloves on the floor beside him in the old-fashioned way (page 87)

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Things I looked up:

Christine Nilsson (page 1) - she was a real Swedish opera singer (1843-1921)

droit de cite (page 17) - citizenship; acceptance

enfilade (page 19) - a suite of rooms with doorways in line with each other

bouton d'or (page 19 and 20) - buttercup - I looked up what wallpaper might look like with this as a motif since wallpaper would have been a growing fad among some people in the 1870s 

Love Victorious by Bouguereau (page 20) -  Adolphe-William Bouguereau (1825-1905), a French painter who won the Prix de Rome in 1850, was well known for his nudes. Bouguereau never painted a painting called Love Victorious, but it’s thought that Wharton may have had this one in mind, Le Printemps (The Return of Spring), painted in 1886.

Le Printemps

Marble Faun (page 31) - The Marble Faun: Or, The Romance of Monte Beni, also known by the British title Transformation, was the last of the four major romances by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and was published in 1860. The Marble Faun is set in a fantastical Italy. The romance mixes elements of a fable, pastoral, gothic novel, and travel guide.

Ouida's novels (page 31) - Maria Louise Ramé (1839-1908), going by the name Marie Louise de la Ramée and known by the pseudonym Ouida, was an English novelist. Ouida wrote more than 40 novels, as well as short stories, children's books and essays. Moderately successful, she lived a life of luxury, entertaining many of the literary figures of the day.

enbonpoint (page 32) - the plump or fleshy part of a person's body, in particular a woman's bosom; most often used to describe people of heavy, but not unattractive, girth. It derives from "en bon point," a phrase from Middle French that means "in good condition."

Gainsborough's Lady Angelica du Lac (page 49) - Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, he is considered one of the most important British artists of the second half of the 18th century. This particular painting appears to be fictitious.

Esther interceding with Ahasuerus (page 55) -  From chapters 5-7 in the Old Testament book of Esther, in which Esther intercedes with King Ahasuerus to spare the Jews. The king had taken Esther as his wife, not knowing she was Jewish, but when his councilor Haman decreed that all Jews in the Persian empire should be massacred, Esther intervened on behalf of her people and the king granted her request.

Intercession of Esther with King Ahasuerus and Haman by Pietro Paolini (1603-1681)

Buhl furniture (pages 19 and 69) - brass, tortoiseshell, or other material cut to make a pattern and used for inlaying furniture

vitrine (page 69) - glass display case

symbolic meaning of lily of the valley and yellow roses (page 77) - Lily of the valley symbolize humility, purity, and the return of happiness. Yellow roses  primarily symbolize friendship, joy, warmth, and platonic affection, serving as a cheerful gesture of caring, congratulations, or "welcome back"

Swinburne's Chastelard (page 83) - a play by Algernon Charles Swinburne, first published in 1865, that dramatizes the doomed love affair between the French poet Pierre de Boscosel de Chastelard and Mary, Queen of Scots, set in the 16th-century Scottish court

Contes Drolatiques (page 83) - usually translated Droll Stories, is a collection of humorous short stories by the French writer Honoré de Balzac, based on Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron and influenced by François Rabelais. The stories are written in pastiche Renaissance French; although the title promises a hundred, only thirty were published, in groups of ten in 1832, 1833, and 1837.

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Lines of notes:

Though there was already talk of the erection (page 1) - Look, I know I have the sensibilities of a teenage boy, but this was the second sentence of the book and I was giggling.

He hated to think of May Welland's being exposed to the influence of a young woman so careless of the dictates of Taste. (page 12) - Oh, Archer. You're such a twat.

The Beauforts' house was one of the few in New York that possessed a ball-room (it antedated even Mrs. Manson Mingott's and the Headly Chiverses) ; and at a time when it was beginning to be thought "provincial" to put a "crash" over the drawing-room floor and move the furniture upstairs, the possession of a ballroom that was used for no other purpose, and left for three-hundred-and-sixty-four days of the year to shuttered darkness, with its gilt chairs stacked in a corner and its chandelier in a bag; this undoubted superiority was felt to compensate for whatever was regrettable in the Beaufort past. (page 16) - Who here wants a ballroom in their house to make up for their regrettable past of financial shenanigans? *raises hand sheepishly*

The immense accretion of flesh which had descended on her in middle life like a flood of lava on a doomed city had changed her from a plump active little woman with a neatly-turned foot and ankle into something as vast and august as a natural phenomenon. (page 25) - Mean. 

What could he and she really know of each other, since it was his duty, as a "decent" fellow, to conceal his past from her, and hers, as a marriageable girl, to have no past to conceal? (page 41) - Archer, you're still a twat. 

She was straightforward, loyal and brave; she had a sense of humor (chiefly proved by her laughing at his jokes) ; and he suspected, in the depths of her innocently-gazing soul, a glow of feeling that it would be a joy to waken. (page 43) - Do I have to say it again? Archer, you're a twat. 

 The young man felt that his fate was sealed : for the rest of his life he would go up every evening between the cast-iron railings of that greenish-yellow doorstep, and pass through a Pompeian vestibule into a hall with a wainscoting of varnished yellow wood. (page 69) - Cry me a river. 

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Questions to ponder:

1) I haven't read this before. If you haven't read it before, what do you think is going to happen in the rest of this book?

2) Okay, I know I repeatedly said Archer is a twat. But I do appreciate that he's honest with May. He was supposed to tell Olenska about their engagement, he didn't, but he fessed up to her. He sent Olenska flowers and I thought for sure he'd hide it from her, but he didn't. So while I think he's a twat of his time and place in society, he's also being up front about some stuff. What do you think of this characterization of Newland Archer?

3) The young man was sincerely but placidly in love. (page 43)

"May is a darling; I've seen no young girl in New York so handsome and so intelligent. Are you very much in love with her?"

Newland Archer reddened and laughed. "As much as a man can be." (page 61)

Consider the above two quotes, along with Archer's musings over how perfect May looks, but also how she doesn't seem to be a critical thinker. What do you think Archer really thinks about May? What do you think May thinks about Archer? Who wants to read this book from May or Mrs. Mingott's POV? 

4) What role is New York high society playing in this book? Which is to say, how do you think this book would be different if Archer and May were two kids living in the same neighborhoods Francie Nolan would end up? 

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Homework for you: How are you reading this book? Paperback, ebook, audiobook, though the Internet archive? Where are you reading it? If you have a photo of your book (maybe you're reading it on the beach!) you'd like to share with the rest of the group, send it in and I'll make a collage for next week.  Deadline for sending it in to make next week's post is 1/7 by noon central. dominique 100 at hotmail dot com

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Upcoming CBBC schedule:

Monday, February 9: Chapters 11-18
Monday, February 16: Chapters 19-26
Monday, February 23: Chapter 27-34
Monday, March 2: Wrap-up