"The Age of Innocence" - A Book Review

Michelle Pfeiffer and Daniel Day Lewis star in "The Age of Innocence" the movie

Having just completed the book, I can't wait to see "The Age of Innocence" the movie. This movie stars Daniel Day Lewis as the protagonist, Newland Archer, Winona Ryder as his beautiful, but dull wife, May, and Michelle Pfeiffer as the outsider, Countess Olenska. I am looking forward to seeing the beautiful costumes, the sumptuous opera nights, and the exotic dinners that fill the days of the rich, according to author, Edith Wharton's portrayal of Old New York.

This book is about the strict social rules governing rich New York society. Surprisingly, in trying to emulate the ornate social rules of the Old World, the New York upper classes have out-stiffed the Europeans. Europe at this equivalent time was more liberal and tolerant (interpreted by New Yorkers as more decadent). It was at about this approximate time frame that Emily Post, Edith Wharton's peer, wrote her seminal book, "Etiquette".

Young and rich, Newland Archer can play the social game. On the verge of marrying May Welland, a gorgeous, but conventional and unimaginative young woman, Newland meets Ellen Olenska. Ellen Olenska is an outsider, with the taint of Europe and scandal surrounding her reputation. Through very few, but poignant interactions in which the two characters barely touch each other, Newland falls desperately in love with Ellen. In Ellen, he sees living outside of the narrow limits of New York society as a possibility for the first time. In Newland, Ellen finds the rarity and intense beauty of unconsummated love.

I won't completely describe the most chilling moment of the book. But in short, the New York "tribe", which had been rallying around the wronged wife, May, succeed in maneuvering the two lovers apart through chilly demeanor at one ornate dinner party.

When viewing how strictly regulated society was at that time, I am reminded how life in the Silicon Valley is just as limited and narrow, but in a different way. I, like Newland, feel that I could be living life in a Bigger way. We are all in this rat race to appear in control, go on more expensive vacations, start one's own business ventures. Perhaps, like Newland, I see glimpses of how to live life outside of this rat race. But, like Newland, I am pulled back into the fray.