In Claudia Roth Pierpont’s novel, American Rhapsody, she discusses Edith Wharton in her first chapter. Her analysis on the particularly fruitful and successful 19th Century writer who lived “hardly a writer’s life at all” contained a significant amount of criticism in contrast to the abundance of praise she received during her lifetime and well past her death. Despite the fact that her opinions may be regarded “in the minority”, Pierpont makes an array of valid points regarding Wharton’s writing upon reading The Age of Innocence.
The Age of Innocence was a piece written by Wharton late in her life at a time when she was already an author held in high regard. The way she writes transports the reader to a time much different from ours today where New York societal norms and ethics reigned supreme and dictated the lives of all those involved, especially the rich and wealthy who were put up to these standards and looked up to to maintain this lifestyle. It describes Count Olenksa, a woman who left her sad marriage and abusive husband in Europe and scandalously returns to her home of New York. The protagonist, Newland Archer comes from a less regarded (comparative to the Mingotts) family according to New York society and falls in love with Count Olenska despite being engaged to her cousin. The way Pierpont analyzes Wharton’s writing by drawing from her past experiences makes sense in this case. Wharton was abandoned by two suitors at a young age and left to marry into a loveless, “disastrous”, emotionless marriage; similar to Count Olenska. Her experience living in this high-class society is portrayed quite accurately in The Age of Innocence.
Overall, Pierpont did understand Wharton’s mature writing style as she breaks down the way she develops her works in conjunction with her life events (divorce, abandonment). Wharton’s writing is heavily influenced by her past living in rigid high-class society. Ironically, because of this, Pierpont declares that Wharton is not a feminist despite the way she portrayed women in an unconventional light.
