Edith Wharton published The Age of Innocence at a very important moment in her life. When the novel came out in 1920, she had been living in France full-time for nearly 10 years and had seen the devastating effects of World War I up close.

Her response was to look back with a sense of nostalgia to the time of her childhood to recreate that staid, restrictive world of New York in the 1870s that, despite its often social cruelty and harsh judgements, seemed to have some kind of moral center. It was a world in which Wharton as a creative woman, however, could not live and work, and thus, she transferred her life in stages to France.

In this episode, Dr. Emily Orlando, a noted Wharton scholar, joins Carl to delve into the background of this novel, take a deep dive into the personalities of the major characters, and discuss what Wharton wanted to say in her masterpiece.

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Edith Wharton's "The Age of Innocence" with Dr. Emily Orlando