Read "The Age of Innocence" with me!

Another Edith Wharton read-a-long begins May 8th

All chapter guides are now available to paid subscribers. Scroll down for links!

The novel that won her the Pulitzer

The novel I’ve selected for us to read together next just makes sense: more Edith Wharton, more marriage-plot shenanigans, more Old New York, meddling aunts, opera boxes, ornate gowns, and downright vicious dinner parties.

This time, add a worried Countess, a cold winter, and a deep, existential midlife crisis to the mix and you get the 1920 novel that won Edith Wharton the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. She was the first woman to win the award, and since her win in 1921, 30 other women have won (including Barbara Kingsolver, Louise Erdrich, and Donna Tartt).

Consider upgrading to a paid subscription to support the extra time I spend each week developing the chapter guides and close readings for the novel.

The Age of Innocence follows the story of Newland Archer, a young, wealthy, and well-positioned young man in the 1870s who is newly engaged to the innocent and pure May Welland — and here’s where it gets juicy — damningly drawn to her exotic cousin, the beautiful, mysterious, and perpetually-socially-maligned Countess Ellen Olenska.

"We can’t behave like people in novels, though, can we?”
— from The Age of Innocence

What unfolds between these three primary characters is a surprisingly tense and beautifully ornate story about why and how Newland chooses the life he does, and the consequences of the choices — and non-choices — he makes along the way. It’s also a story about desire and its many infuriating, intoxicating forms.

It’s a sheer pleasure to read.

In fact, it’s so good that the novel inspired Martin Scorsese to make one of the best fiction-to-film adaptations of all time. You may think Scorsese’s a surprising choice for a subtle social period drama, but he channels the venomous, vindictive nature of Old New York just as Wharton writes it. As he told Charlie Rose in 1993, The Age of Innocence is “refined violence. It’s emotional and psychological violence. Just as powerful and just as deadly as Joe Pesci getting shot in Goodfellas.”

There are no guns or street fights or mobsters in Wharton’s masterpiece of realist fiction. Instead, the novel focuses on the petty violences of gossip and the dangerous mobbing behaviors of powerful social groups. As a result, it also focuses on the inner turmoil, heart-wrenching confusion, and desperate decisions that people make inside the most rigid and unforgiving of social systems.

Wharton wrote this romantic, heart-wrenching, and thematically perfect novel when she was 58 years old — a lovely reminder to us all that age doesn’t define your relevance to your field. You’re not too old to write that book or to apply to that dreamy grad program, move abroad, or change your career.

You may very well have a Pulitzer to win!

Let’s read it together over the next ten weeks

I like to think of our read-a-longs as an asynchronous reading group or an offline-then-online book club: giving you a great reason to pick up an amazing novel instead of your phone for a few hours at night.

You do the assigned reading each week, and I’ll show up every Wednesday with a guide to that week’s chapters. And just as we did during our reading of The House of Mirth, we’ll dive into the comment thread each week to share our insights and do close readings together. (My favorite part!)

Reasons to join in the fun:

• I have my PhD in modernist literature — I’ve studied Wharton extensively!

  • I treat our reading group the same way I treated the college English and writing courses I taught for years. I come prepared each week with a full guide to the chapters read! All you need is a copy of the novel and an open, eager mind.

• Weekly posts keep you inspired and help you track the details.

  • When the novel feels like it’s dragging a bit, or you don’t know which people or plot lines to care about, I share helpful historical context each week to help you stay engaged and find a way back into the story.

• Deepen your close reading practice with the tips and tricks I learned in grad school.

  • Each week’s guide includes reading questions, writing prompts, and other discussion points, as well as close reading pointers and tips, to help you deepen your reading of the novel and shape your close reading practice.

  • New! I’m sharing a free, weekly close reading log or notes outline, designed to help you try new free writing styles and dive into the reading more deeply. Make a copy or print it out to keep track of your notes as you read.

REVIEWS FROM CLOSE READERS

“I've always been just a casual reader. But surprisingly I got so much out of this book and this reading.”
—Lillian

“I eagerly wait for Wednesdays because I know I’ll be getting a new Wharton newsletter. Thank you for sharing your expertise and research with us!”
—Shruti Koti, MD of Brief Op Notes

Every Wednesday, I’ll send out a post detailing the reading for that week. It’ll include:

1. A brief plot summary

2. A close reading or deep dive into historical context, character analysis, or a specific reading question

3. A few resources, quotes, and links to essays and other recommended reading that aligns with what we’ve read so far

4. An invitation to jump into the comments and get the conversation going!

Each week, you read along with the schedule and join us in the comments any time you’re ready with thoughts to share or questions to ask.

Throughout the read-a-long, you can visit this form at any time to submit anonymous questions about the novel, the history, the film adaptation, Edith Wharton, related authors, or other related topics for me to answer in the next week’s guide.

REVIEWS FROM CLOSE READERS

“I've not been so spectacularly challenged on so many levels for ages. The House of Mirth is a great novel, but I would have missed so much if I had just read it. The concept of close reading seems like a more intimate way to connect with an author. I can't wait to go apply it to some of my all time favorite books.

Building a community to take the journey together and asking us to share our perceptions has exponentially strengthened the process for me. I'm not sure exactly how I found my way here, but thank you.”
-Maryann

Ways to show your support

Want to show your support on a deeper level? Consider a paid subscription to help fund the time & energy I devote to developing meaningful, well-researched chapter guides each week!

Subscribe before the end of week one, and you get 20% off the full-year subscription cost, bringing the monthly cost down to just $4, and paying for at least once of the iced americanos I will be sipping on while I read and write along with you each week!

Other ways to support:

Share the reading guide with your book club and friends, and post about the readings each week on your Bookstagram or other socials.

Join in the comments each week as we make our way through the novel to share your thoughts, ask questions, and learn how other close readers are unpacking the myriad themes of Wharton’s Old New York.

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You should definitely join if:

• you want to read “a classic” piece of American literature, but feel intimidated or don’t know where to start

• you want the experience of taking a college literature class, without all the writing homework and quizzes

• you’ve tried reading classic authors like Wharton before, but haven’t been able to get into it — but you’re willing to try again

• you love messy, emotional, sexy love stories — this is certainly one of those

REVIEW FROM A CLOSE READER

“I’m going into my PhD Special Fields exam in a few weeks and [The House of Mirth] was on my reading list, but it’s been 9 months and 90 books ago, so following along with this series was such a great way to jog my memory (and in such depth, wow!)”

-Tia of No Outlet

So…are you in?!

Everything you need to get started is listed below:

• You’ll obviously need a copy of the novel (FYI: this link is an affiliate code to my Bookshop.org account)

  • Here are a few other editions you might consider:

    • This gorgeous 100th Anniversary edition, with foreword by the illustrious Colm Tóibín (author of Brooklyn)

    • A simple World’s Classic edition

• You may want a small, durable ruler for underlining and some great pens or highlighters for annotating your copy of the novel

  • Hate writing in your books? Here’s my favorite legal pad to take notes on. And here’s my favorite reading journal.

  • (FYI: these are not affiliate links; I’m just sharing my favorite tools!)

• Here is the form you can use to submit your questions

  • A reminder: there’s really no such thing as a dumb question! Readers have asked everything from the meaning behind the title, definitions of confusing cultural terms, and historical contexts to help making intertextual connections — like when one reader asked me to compare The House of Mirth with Shakespeare’s Hamlet)

• New! A custom close reading weekly notes outline you can use to track your insights.

  • Print 10 copies now, so you’re set for the entire reading experience!

  • Or fill it out digitally each week, so you can make edits or add to the same document as you go along.

Our full reading schedule is detailed below:

Please note that the novel is divided into two “Books,” but the chapter numbers do not restart in Book 2. There are 34 chapters in the novel, in total. We’ll be reading anywhere from 1 to 4 at a time (I’ve tried to land us on a few fun cliffhangers!).

You can view all chapter guides here.

Week 1: May 8 — A freebie, for all readers
Start of Book 1. Read Chapter 1 only!

Week 2: May 15 — To access this chapter guide and all others, upgrade to a paid subscription
Read chapters 2-5 (through the end of chapter 5)

Week 3: May 22
Read chapters 6-9 (through the end of chapter 9)

Week 4: May 29
Read chapters 10-14 (through the end of chapter 14)

Week 5: June 5
Read chapters 15-18 (through the end of chapter 18)

Week 6: June 12
Start of Book 2. Read chapters 19-21 (through the end of chapter 21)

Week 7: June 19
Read chapters 22-24 (through the end of chapter 24)

Week 8: June 26
Read chapters 25-28 (through the end of chapter 28)

Week 9: July 3
Read chapters 29-33 (through the end of chapter 33)

Week 10: July 10
Read chapter 34 (end of the novel)

Come read with me!

We had so much fun reading The House of Mirth together earlier this year, and I can’t wait to embark on another literary adventure with you all.

New to Wharton Wednesdays? Check out the previous reading guide for The House of Mirth to see how it all goes down.

Now, hop into the comments and let me know if you’ll be reading along with us!