The Age of Innocence

The time is 1873, the place New York City. The players are the city's wealthiest, who live from one elegant dinner party to the next, while exacting a stiff code of conduct for themselves and those like them. Among these people is Newland Archer, just engaged to May Welland when the Countess Olenska returns after 14 years in Europe. Newland falls for her. Will he break the code and run away with her? Wharton's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is superbly read by Alyssa Bresnahan, who renders Newland, May, and the Countess as unforgettable characters. She is equally able with dozens of minor figures. Bresnahan is particularly adept at portraying Newland Archer's dilemma: a choice between love of honor and love for a woman. Bresnahan's reading is thoroughly empathetic. T.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

In New York City of the 1870s, few are more upper crust than handsome and class-conscious Newland Archer, who is about to be wed to the rich and equally proper May Welland. But then May's European cousin, the beautiful and openly sensual Countess Wolenska, comes into their lives, and Newland must choose--the exciting countess, to whom he is magnetically drawn, or the rather boring May, to whom he is socially committed. Wharton's marvelously written novel is justifiably considered an American masterpiece of satire on the class system, and reader David Horovitch does it proud with his measured pace, his character differentiations, and his own wry take on Wharton's delicious and malicious commentary. T.H. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine

Welcome to the New York of the 1870's, where everyone in the upper crust fits into the mold or is ostracized for nonconformity. In spite of having married the socially suitable May, Weland Archer wishes to be unconventional and sees the Countess Olenska as a role model at the same time that he falls in love with her. Wanda McCaddon is a perfect narrator for this book. Her voice is as cold and sharp as the society she reads about. Through her intonation and phrasing, a stifling Victorian mask drops over each character. As Wharton describes a society long ago, McCaddon brings it to life in a dry, droll, appropriately uncaptivating manner. M.B.K. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Eighty-five years after it won the Pulitzer Prize, Edith Wharton's romantic novel remains as intriguing and captivating as ever. Unfortunately, its slow pace as it depicts turn-of-the-century New York will deter many of today's readers. For this reason, this audio edition is a delight. By what seems to be some magic trick or secret ingredient, Lorna Raver manages to present distinctive and perfectly modulated voices for over a dozen characters. Some audio publishers might have been tempted to use multiple narrators. But Blackstone has enough faith in the words and pace of the novel itself to trust that this extremely perceptive single reader has all the tools she needs. Raver is not yet a household name in audiobooks, but she should be. R.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, NEA Big Read Selection (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

Narrator Lauren Lefkow brings a calm and dignified tone to Edith Wharton's high-society classic. It's a novel full of wry comic observations on the social restraints that bind the upper echelon of New York City society, especially its female members. Lefkow contributes a fitting sense of intelligent restraint without sacrificing the warmth and versatility necessary to keep the listener engaged and entertained. Wharton's strongest asset is her sparkling wit, which proves consistently ironic and fatalistic, and Lefkow seldom misses a beat, ensuring that a character's twinkling eye or raised eyebrow is available to the attentive listener. Though her character range is understated, a shortcoming noticeable only in scenes with multiple characters, Lefkow's sensitivity to character gives a constant lift to an insightful classic. Z.S. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

Like an autocrat of a nineteenth-century drawing room, Daniel Henning captures the pedantic wit of Edith Wharton's keenly observant masterpiece about a "long vanished America," which won a 1921 Pulitzer Prize. It's the Gilded Age of the 1870s, and a young scion of one of New York's finest and most influential families is about to marry the girl of his dreams, also a member of New York's high society. Then he meets her exotic, sophisticated cousin, who just happens to be unhappily married to a Polish count. As our hero is torn between two loves, Henning nicely accentuates Wharton's light and ironic tone in describing the never-ending parties, the gossip, and society's insatiable appetite for scandal. A tour de force of American literature. B.P. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine