• The Age of Innocence

  • By: Edith Wharton
  • Narrated by: Lorna Raver
  • Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (327 ratings)

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The Age of Innocence  By  cover art

The Age of Innocence

By: Edith Wharton
Narrated by: Lorna Raver
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Publisher's summary

Pulitzer Prize Winner, The Novel, 1921

Newland Archer is about to announce his engagement to the docile May Welland when he meets her cousin, the mysterious, nonconformist Countess Ellen Olenska. Edith Wharton's elegant portrait of desire and betrayal in Old New York earned her the first Pulitzer Prize for literature ever awarded to a woman.

©2007 Public Domain (P)2006 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

What listeners say about The Age of Innocence

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Terrific story, TERRIBLE narrator!

This is one of the best novels ever, but the narrator sounds like she smokes 3 packs a day. The novel says that Madame Olenska has a "faint foreign accent", but the narrator gives her some weirdo Russian-sounding accent, even though Madame was American-born and -raised. It was terribly distracting and annoying. Somebody did a lousy job of editing this in the studio as well. Halfway through a paragraph, the narrator stops, says, "Let me take that again" in her normal voice, then proceeds to read the same paragraph over. There's no excuse for that.

I love this book, and wish I could trade this recording in for a better one. It was awful.

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41 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

The Best of Its or Any Day

This is the best. I am an audiobook addict, and it gets no better than this. If you saw the Jeremy Irons movie by Scorsese, it is a very pale copy. Wharton's prose is rich, her characters fully alive, her acute observations succinctly worded, and her multi-generational plot quietly devastating. By the final pages of the last chapter, I had a steady lump in my throat. The reader is masterful in her pacing, clarity and array of voices...almost like listening to the author herself, communicating to us her large-canvas, minutely described vision of a world we will never see again--old New york..

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40 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Better Than Austen

This is definitely an old classic worthy of time to isten. I was fearful that it began much like the Jane Austen novels, but it has more meat to grab your interest. The narration was interesting. There was good diferentiation between characters. I did find it odd having a woman narrate a story told by a man.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

MEN AND WOMEN

Edith Wharton’s “The Age of Innocence” exposes false notions of equality in America and reflects on the human frailty and strength of men and women. Wharton lived through the turn of the 19th into the 20th century in America. She lived an adult life of luxury in New York, and later in France.

Wharton writes about American society; i.e. she exposes New York’s “upstairs, downstairs” snobbery in the early 20th century. In telling the tale, Wharton sharply defines the battle of the sexes, duplicity of romance, and folly of youth. Though writing about a sliver of wealthy American’ society in the early 20th century, Wharton’s story rings as true about men and women today as it did when she won the Pulitzer Prize.

In the end, Wharton shows Archer, the novel's male protagonist, to be emotionally immature. Archer chooses to keep his innocent memory; i.e. his deluded vision of romance, commitment, and love. May and Olenska are shown to understand the difference between lust and romance; commitment, and love. Archer never does. Archer never gets over “The Age of Innocence”.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A well narrated classic!

I am a Wharton fan and this is one of my favorites. The narrator did a good job and really enhanced the story. Kick back with a cup of tea and just let the words wash over you.

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

always seemed I was missing something

it always seemed as if I was missing something. I even rewound to hear the last chapter again. perplexed.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Perfect reader with just the right touch of irony

Lorna Raver makes this book so much fun! Her voice and delivery are perfect for this comedy of manners. This was a joy to listen to.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great Story

Would you consider the audio edition of The Age of Innocence to be better than the print version?

A wonderful classic story of old New York. The narrator was competent, but not exciting.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great Novel

As a regency romance type...I found this novel delightful.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Pompous and Arrogant

read Chapters 1 thru 5 and it's all I can take! If you dislike listening to people that "name drop", by all means DO NOT get this book! It is boring to the point of disgust! The heavy accent of the narrator reiterates the arrogant/pretentious story being told. Maybe I'm too "modern age", but I am so glad to be living in this time and place (Midwest USA) and not during the time period of the subject book. I would have despised living such a self-centered life as the characters in this book. And I definitely don't care to visit with them any longer!

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2 people found this helpful