The Age of Innocence (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) (urspr publ 2008; utgåvan 1999)

I finally found the inspiration behind the Gossip Girl novels in this book! It treads along the same plotlines that are rife with social scandal, love affairs, words not said, and the feeling of "New York-ness." Even the characters' names are similar to those in GG, and it is clear who the character models are.

Nate Archibald is Newland Archer, with their feeling of duty to their "ideal" wife, but being inevitably attracted to Madam Olenska and dangerous new ideas.
Blair Waldorf is May Welland, the wife of Archer/Archibald who might seem demure but is actually a master manipulator who works in silence to get what she wants.
Serena van der Woodsen is Ellen Olenska, in her accidental seduction of Newland/Nate and constant love affairs with dubious characters and need for a bohemian lifestyle away from the New York ideas of propriety (though her name comes from the van der Luydens since they have the same familial power over society as do the van der Woodsens).
Chuck Bass is Lawrence Lefferts, since he's the one who actually gets together with Ellen Olenska but who doesn't take a large role in the books like Chuck is mostly absent from the GG novels.
Dan Humphrey is Beaufort, because he is the only non-New Yorker, follows Ellen Olenska around, but who is inevitably ruined financially and exiled from New York society.

Overwhelmingly this novel was highly entertaining for those who like social scandal! ( )

:((( ( )

Takes a bit of getting into but well worth it for this evocative contextualisation of 1870s New York 'society', and the self-tortured lack-of-love life of its hero, constrained by entrapment in a social straighjacket.

The Age of Innocence is a quick and piercing read. A heavyset and challenging critique of 1870s New York; its stifling social conventions and very traditional expectations on marriage, classes, and women themselves. Betrothal and betrayal are the chief troublemakers and, fascinatingly, also the peacemakers throughout this whole debacle of a repressed romantic pursuit complicated by familial relations and reputations. Heartbreaking and infuriating, the short breaths of rebellion dies out in place of a mundane yet secure life; a bittersweet sacrifice.

This novel pulls you in: you join the dinners, listen to the town gossip, gets annoyed and terrified by Beaufort and his investments, judge the prejudiced yourself, and looks on with pity from afar as Newland Archer gets off the carriage, snow all over, the harsh wind upon his face as the tears fall whilst May Welland-Archer is at home playing with ignorance. Sometimes passionate love does not suffice. Each time you happen to me all over again. Sometimes late is too late.

Edith Wharton was really on another level during her time. What a woman. ( ( )

Problematic. There is feminism and there is anti-masculism, and this book may be nearer to the latter than the former. Had the characters' genders been reversed even the most conservative reader would have found it problematic for its mistreatment (not mere misrepresentation) of women.