I enjoyed your essay so much! Most of the reflections I’ve read on Age of Innocence see May as a bit dim, but she is sharp, subtle, clever, and (I waffle on this), either very kind or very selfish. She is either in love with Newland and acts to protect his happiness by arranging things cleverly to keep him out of danger, or not in love with him but has settled on him as her path to social success, money, etc - everything her society values. I agree with you about life today missing those amazing details where so much can be conveyed by unbuttoning a glove. But we have modern dentistry and excellent home coffee machines, so I guess on balance I prefer today. ;-)
Thank you so much, I'm so glad you enjoyed! I also wondered whether May was "very kind or very selfish," but it's nice that Wharton leaves it up to us to make our own conjectures—in my mind it's a bit of both. And yes, we have so many things that make life today preferable to life then, even if all the little intrigues of the "hieroglyphic world" have their charm!
“In this world a woman must have both the businessman’s “scrupulous probity” and his smarts. She must be a savvy trader in the commerce of words, in the market of emotions, but her wins cannot come at the total expense of another’s, for then the whole market would collapse; business would not be possible.”
Woman’s work. Exhausting, no? Has that changed much since James’ and Wharton’s time?
Thanks for holding up the flag of the long form essay here on Substack, Ramya!
I largely agree with your sense of that, Ramya (from my male perspective). I think there was some good pushing for change, and now comes the backlash. Sad.
I enjoyed your essay so much! Most of the reflections I’ve read on Age of Innocence see May as a bit dim, but she is sharp, subtle, clever, and (I waffle on this), either very kind or very selfish. She is either in love with Newland and acts to protect his happiness by arranging things cleverly to keep him out of danger, or not in love with him but has settled on him as her path to social success, money, etc - everything her society values. I agree with you about life today missing those amazing details where so much can be conveyed by unbuttoning a glove. But we have modern dentistry and excellent home coffee machines, so I guess on balance I prefer today. ;-)
Thank you so much, I'm so glad you enjoyed! I also wondered whether May was "very kind or very selfish," but it's nice that Wharton leaves it up to us to make our own conjectures—in my mind it's a bit of both. And yes, we have so many things that make life today preferable to life then, even if all the little intrigues of the "hieroglyphic world" have their charm!
“In this world a woman must have both the businessman’s “scrupulous probity” and his smarts. She must be a savvy trader in the commerce of words, in the market of emotions, but her wins cannot come at the total expense of another’s, for then the whole market would collapse; business would not be possible.”
Woman’s work. Exhausting, no? Has that changed much since James’ and Wharton’s time?
Thanks for holding up the flag of the long form essay here on Substack, Ramya!
It certainly is exhausting! And no, I don’t think it’s changed very much 😂
As always, thank you for reading, Baird!
I largely agree with your sense of that, Ramya (from my male perspective). I think there was some good pushing for change, and now comes the backlash. Sad.
Your prose is delightful.
Thank you!