The Age of Innocence: Chapters 29-33

"Each time you happen to me all over again."

For all my close readers: if you’d like to receive a Closely Reading postcard to celebrate reaching the end of the novel, (or if you’d just love a little snail mail), please send me a DM here on Substack or fill out this form.

Welcome to our second-to-last week of Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence. If you’ve saved the final chapter for next week, I applaud you! If you found yourself wholly unable to wait, I completely understand.

Please be mindful in your comments this week to not spoil the final chapter for any readers who are waiting to read it in the timeline of the read-a-long!

As we wend our way to the end of the novel, I am so eager to hear what your reactions were to the carriage ride, the ritual exiling of Ellen Olenska, and May’s midnight revelation in the library!

In the first of this week’s chapters, Newland and Ellen happen to each other all over ag…