- Sep 22, 2013
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A very stunning work of American literature is Edith Wharton's unusual look into the world of early 20th Century aristocratic New York, The Age of Innocence (1920). It won Wharton the 1921 Pulitzer Prize. That's one reason it's a terrific review consideration.
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The subtle 'magic' of this Wharton work is the re-presentation of that time period in New York (America) and the pageantry of the quiet but emotional aristocracy and a prince-figurehead, Newland Archer who's coming to terms with unresolved dissatisfaction with his arranged marriage to the aristocratic young lady May. Archer meets May's exotic/gorgeous cousin Countess Olenska and begins a consideration of adultery, one that opens his mind to the human critique of programmed aristocratic life and the weight/consideration of escaping it to entreat unexpressed communications and even love. It's not standard 'rebellious' cliche here, and we might compare it to the soft-sided world-perceptive feel of 'escapism' we see in the courtship between Zhivago and Lara in Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago.
Countess Olenska 'completes' this picture of the complex vanities of early 1900s New York (America). She's dashing, daring, sharp, unusual, worldly, surprisingly sensitive, and witty. She's no evil woman or complex neurotic as often presented in canons of 'sore-thumb' gender-strain storylines. In fact, Olenska must force Archer to come to terms with what he considers the 'divine right' of American kings/figures. We get terrific atmospherics in Wharton's uncanny sense of re-casting a time-and-place through the ornamented lens of directional or intentional culture boasts or rituals. It's like a nice stage-presentation of customs and language. This is why, arguably, it did make for an outstanding work of cinematic translation, in Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence, in which we see Daniel Day-Lewis as Newland, Michelle Pfeiffer as a rather terrific Countess Olenska, and the always-dependable Winona Ryder as the accepting May.
If we consider what Pasternak gave us in terms of the Russian Revolution and human bondage in Dr. Zhivago, we might compare the American language/customs of Wharton's The Age of Innocence as a revisionist look into what makes developed culture and human relations both timely and dogmatic. It's a nice 'American' counterpart or complement to Pasternak's Russian ballet. In other words, it seems to me Wharton's given us a nice 'face' of what makes American imagination so peculiarly designed!
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"Money is everything" (Ecclesiastes)
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The subtle 'magic' of this Wharton work is the re-presentation of that time period in New York (America) and the pageantry of the quiet but emotional aristocracy and a prince-figurehead, Newland Archer who's coming to terms with unresolved dissatisfaction with his arranged marriage to the aristocratic young lady May. Archer meets May's exotic/gorgeous cousin Countess Olenska and begins a consideration of adultery, one that opens his mind to the human critique of programmed aristocratic life and the weight/consideration of escaping it to entreat unexpressed communications and even love. It's not standard 'rebellious' cliche here, and we might compare it to the soft-sided world-perceptive feel of 'escapism' we see in the courtship between Zhivago and Lara in Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago.
Countess Olenska 'completes' this picture of the complex vanities of early 1900s New York (America). She's dashing, daring, sharp, unusual, worldly, surprisingly sensitive, and witty. She's no evil woman or complex neurotic as often presented in canons of 'sore-thumb' gender-strain storylines. In fact, Olenska must force Archer to come to terms with what he considers the 'divine right' of American kings/figures. We get terrific atmospherics in Wharton's uncanny sense of re-casting a time-and-place through the ornamented lens of directional or intentional culture boasts or rituals. It's like a nice stage-presentation of customs and language. This is why, arguably, it did make for an outstanding work of cinematic translation, in Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence, in which we see Daniel Day-Lewis as Newland, Michelle Pfeiffer as a rather terrific Countess Olenska, and the always-dependable Winona Ryder as the accepting May.
If we consider what Pasternak gave us in terms of the Russian Revolution and human bondage in Dr. Zhivago, we might compare the American language/customs of Wharton's The Age of Innocence as a revisionist look into what makes developed culture and human relations both timely and dogmatic. It's a nice 'American' counterpart or complement to Pasternak's Russian ballet. In other words, it seems to me Wharton's given us a nice 'face' of what makes American imagination so peculiarly designed!
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"Money is everything" (Ecclesiastes)
