The Age of Innocence: Chapters 6-9

"Why not make one's own fashions?"

Welcome to Week 3! This week, we got our first real encounters between Ellen and Newland — and had a front-row seat to more Old New York drama, like an entire society of people refusing an invitation to a great dinner party.

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Now. Let’s dive into our reading.

A brief summary

I’ve put out an audio summary of this week’s chapters. Because these chapters are so jam-packed with detail, I focused on the main theme I am tracking, and talked a bit about how I see this theme — of Newland’s relationship to reality — evolving from chapter 1.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what happens in the first chapter, with the characters we meet this week in bold.

Chapter 6

• Newland starts to panic about his wedding to May

• The Mingotts send invitations out for a welcome dinner for Ellen and receive a hard pass from literally everyone (except Sillerton Jackson and th…