An Introduction to Roxane Gay and The Age of Innocence

Roxane Gay opens the series by saying why Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence is her favorite of her favorites. She gives you Wharton first: born in 1862 into the New York 400, a disastrous marriage to Teddy Wharton at 23, a first novel at 40, and a Pulitzer that made her the first woman to win it. Then she sets the scene, the Gilded Age of the 1880s and 1890s, railroads and record wages on the surface, rot underneath.

The useful part is her sketch of the three principals. Newland Archer believes in the rules and wants to break them. May Welland seems content with her place, though Gay warns she'll prove far more than she seems. Ellen Olenska has left an abusive count and finds New York less welcoming than she hoped. Gay's promise for the book is a love triangle played out against the petty intrigues of the rich, in prose that lingers on what people wore and ate. You come away knowing whom to watch.

Transcript

Hello, strangers. My name is Roxane Gay and I'm a writer, editor, professor, and sometimes podcaster. Currently, I am the Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair in Media Culture and Feminist Studies at Rutgers University, which is certainly a mouthful. My PhD is in Rhetoric and Technical Communication, which is a technical way, if you will, of saying that I am an expert on persuasive writing and communicating complex subjects in ways that are effective and engaging for multiple diverse audiences in the classroom.

I teach creative writing, both fiction and nonfiction, short form and long. Beyond the classroom, I've written for all kinds of publications, great and small. I am a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, and I am the author of several bestselling books, including Bad Feminist, Hunger, Difficult Women, and most recently Opinions: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People's Business. Clearly, I love writing and I love reading even more.

I'm often asked about my favorite book. This is in some ways an impossible question because I love many books and can hardly choose just one as my favorite, but still, in my heart of hearts, I do have a favorite of my favorites: Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence. This novel is a story about the upper crust of New York society set during the Gilded Age. I am excited to talk about my love for this incredible novel, the brilliant writing and sharp wit Wharton brings to the page, and how she lovingly skewers the wealthy in their ways while still telling an elegant, utterly compelling story.

Let me first tell you a little bit about the author. They say we should write what we know, and Edith Wharton certainly did that to some extent. Wharton was born in 1862 to a wealthy family, part of the 400 in New York City. In those days, the wealthy were often referred to as the 400 because 400 people could fit in the ballroom of one Mrs. Caroline Schermerhorn Astor. Though Wharton would spend much of her life as an expat in Europe, she was no stranger to the city, and though New York has changed quite a lot over the past century, some of the places she references in the novel are still standing.

As a writer, Wharton defied the bigotry, or misogyny more specifically, of low expectations. Women of her day were supposed to be sophisticated, well-mannered, intelligent without being overbearing. They were to be first dutiful daughters and then dutiful wives and doting mothers. Throughout Wharton's life, she struggled with the pressure and limitations of these expectations while also trying to meet them. She entered into a disastrous marriage to Teddy Wharton at the age of 23, but the relationship ended in divorce 18 years later after mutual infidelities. She published her first novel at 40 and would spend the rest of her life writing and living on her own terms.

Wharton ultimately published more than 20 novels and novellas, including Ethan Frome, The Custom of the Country and House of Mirth, numerous short stories and poems, and The Writing of Fiction, a sharp meditation on the writing of, well, fiction. The Age of Innocence, Wharton's eighth novel, was first published in 1920 as a serial, which was a popular publishing strategy in those days. The novel was released across four installments and was an immediate success. The book went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction the next year. It was a much different time, and as you might imagine, Wharton was the first woman to win the prize.

More than a century later, The Age of Innocence remains popular and well-regarded. In 1993, Martin Scorsese adapted the novel into a critically acclaimed film starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Winona Ryder, and Michelle Pfeiffer. Now, let's get into The Age of Innocence.

The when of this novel is important. Mark Twain coined the phrase "the Gilded Age," which encompasses the 1880s and 1890s, to speak to many of the themes of The Age of Innocence. It was a time of great industrial and technological innovation. The American economy, for many, was thriving. Wages were at an all-time high, though the South, in the wake of the Civil War, did not enjoy the same bounty as the rest of the country. Railroads began to stretch across the states, connecting people and places that were once isolated. There was a robust wave of immigration and the rise of labor unions, but it was also a time of stark economic stratification and political corruption. The surface of the age was gilded, but beneath there was rot.

It is during this time that The Age of Innocence takes place. There are three principal characters in the novel and a significant cast of supporting characters. Newland Archer is a lawyer and gentleman of leisure and wealth in the same New York society into which Wharton was born. He fills his days with the occasional day at the office, perambulations around the city, reading and contemplation. His evenings are filled with the social obligations of his set: dinners, balls, theater, and of course the opera, where the novel begins. Newland is a man of convention. He understands and believes in the rules by which he must live his life, and still there is a part of him that wants to challenge convention.

Newland is betrothed to May Welland. She comes from a good family and is of course beautiful and well regarded as an equestrian. She is, we assume, happy to inhabit her place in the world, to not want anything but what she has, though throughout the novel we will see moments where May is far more than she seems.

Some of the best novels involve a love triangle, and the woman who serves as the third point of the triangle in The Age of Innocence is Countess Ellen Olenska. At the novel's onset, she has recently returned to New York from Europe, where she has just left a marriage to a philandering, abusive husband, Count Olenski. Ellen is looking for safe harbor, but she comes from a society where convention and adherence are the most valued qualities. By leaving her husband, she has broken the rules, and Ellen quickly finds that she is not as welcomed home as she would like to be. And then she meets Newland, and they immediately have an unexpected connection. We get to watch this love triangle play out while also witnessing the petty intrigues of the upper class.

Edith Wharton, it must be said, is a master of many things. Her lush descriptions of people, places, what they wore and what they ate are one of the centerpieces of this novel. She takes great attention with the details that make the world of her novel vibrant and indelible, and I hope you lose yourself in her words as much as I do.

Let me also tell you a bit about this platform. Rebind is a new way of engaging with books. As you read through The Age of Innocence, you'll find videos like this one where I will talk to you about what you're reading and provide some insight and context. You will also find planned discussions to guide your thinking about the themes this novel explores and the story Edith Wharton is telling. The most important thing you need to know is there is no wrong way to interact with this Rebind of The Age of Innocence. We are simply exploring a new way of experiencing one of the oldest forms of entertainment in the world.

Please enjoy your initial foray into The Age of Innocence. I'll be back soon.