Episode 290: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, Ch. 9-21
The Literary Life Podcast
Angelina Stanford
4.7 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 19 August 2025
⏱️ 114 minutes
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Summary
Welcome to The Literary Life Podcast and our series covering The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. Angelina and Thomas open with their commonplace quotes, then begin discussing the events and characters of this section of the book. Some of the ideas they build on this week are the challenges to social conventions, the many references to the goddess Diana and May's "boyishness", examples of the pretense of society, and the language of flowers. In addition, Thomas shares his feelings about the character of Newland Archer, and Angelina points out the recurring themes of love triangles throughout these chapters.
Join us next week when we finish up the last chapters of this book, then come back after that for an episode on the film adaptation of this book with our film guru, Atlee Northmore.
Visit the HouseofHumaneLetters.com to sign up for all the upcoming and past mini-classes and webinars taught by Angelina, Thomas, and their colleagues!
Be sure to visit https://theliterary.life/290 to view the full show notes for this episode, complete with quotes, book lists, and today's poem.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is not just another book chat podcast. |
| 0:21.6 | Lifelong reader Cindy Rollins joins teachers Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks for an ongoing conversation about the skill and art of reading well. |
| 0:32.6 | Explore the lost intellectual tradition and discover how to fully enter end to the great works of literature. |
| 0:40.2 | Learn what books mean while delighting in the sheer joy of imagination. Each week, we will rescue |
| 0:47.1 | story from the ivory tower and bring it to your couch, your kitchen, and your commute. The literary life is for everyone because in the |
| 0:55.9 | words of Stratford Caldecott, to be enchanted by story is to be granted a deeper insight into |
| 1:02.2 | reality. Join us for an ever-unfolding discussion of how stories will save the world. |
| 1:09.7 | This is the Literary Life Podcast. |
| 1:31.5 | Hello and welcome to the Literary Life podcast. |
| 1:36.7 | I'm Angelina Stanford, and I'm here with the man who is most definitely not my Newlin Archer. |
| 1:38.0 | No, no, thank God. |
| 1:40.0 | Thomas Banks, hello. |
| 1:41.2 | Hello, hello. |
| 1:52.4 | We are Thomas Banks and Angelina Stanford of the House of Humane Letters, and we are discussing episode two today in our series on Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence. |
| 1:55.4 | We're going to be looking at chapters 8 through 21. |
| 2:01.4 | Not to overanalyze trivialities, but it's interesting how you just put my name first when you introduced us. |
| 2:06.5 | AI does that too if you type in, you know, what is the House of Humane letters? |
| 2:07.3 | But it's just... Don't let it get to your... |
| 2:08.3 | I know. This is like the most important I have ever felt. |
| 2:11.1 | I rely on robots to make me feel important. |
| 2:13.6 | That's how... |
| 2:14.4 | Maybe I'm even more sad than Newland Archer. |
... |
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