Episode 291: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, Ch. 22-End

The Literary Life Podcast

Angelina Stanford

Arts, Books, Education

4.7 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 26 August 2025

⏱️ 98 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week on The Literary Life Podcast we wrap up the book discussion portion of our series on Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence. Today, Angelina and Thomas begin with chapter 22, going through the significant scenes all the way to the end of the book. They talk about the ways in which this book is an elegy, as well as the continued glimpses of "the family" as the main character. They also discuss the ways in which May shows herself to be more cunning that she pretends in contrast to Ellen's lack of pretense. Other topics of discussion are America's relationship with foreign influence, Archer's desire to live in an illusion, and the recurring theme of "Faust." They conclude with some thoughts on this book as a parable of American culture.

Join us next week 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, especially "The Viking World" taught by Dr. Michael Drout.

To view the full show notes for this week's episode, please visit https://theliterary.life/291.

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.
1:31.4	Hello and welcome back to the Literary Life podcast.
1:38.1	Continuing today with our series on Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence, I'm Angelina Stanford.
1:44.4	And here with me is a man who I can tell you has an even better library than Newland Archer.
1:48.2	Though I don't have quite as many exclusive club memberships.
1:49.7	No, that's special. He does have that on me.
1:50.7	I won't ask how many countesses in the closet.
1:54.1	Yeah, I know.
1:54.8	If anyone needs me, I'll be in the smoking room.
1:59.4	Trust me, I would not take it like Maywellyn.
2:02.3	I wouldn't just silently bat my eyes and plot behind your back.
2:07.3	She's very stoic about that, yeah.
2:10.2	All right, today we are going to finish up, Edith Wharton's book, The Age of Innocence,
2:16.6	but we're not going to be finished with these characters, though, because next week we'll have Atlea. We're going to talk about Martin Scorsese's film. And of course, Atle's already done his research and discovered there are other film versions and things. So we'll be talking about that next week. But today we're going to try to carry on with this novel, which I have to say, unless I know we have to do commonplace quotes and all that first, but I had forgotten how good it was.
2:43.9	I have to say that the last chapter is now one of my favorite last chapters in American fiction.
	...

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