I feel as though I have been reading The Age of Innocence since the beginning of time…this perhaps gives a good indication of how I feel about this novel. I am a great believer that the time/mood you read a book has a huge impact on your perception of it, and this is how I feel about this novel.
It follows the lives of Newland Archer and his new wife, May in the New York of the 1870s. We first meet them when they are about to announce their engagement, and May’s cousin, the mysterious Countess Olenska has returned to New York and abandoned her foreign husband back in Europe. Unfortunately, Newland is clearly falling for Countess Olenska, but the rules of their society make it impossible for him to act on is feelings, and so he marries May and has to live with the consequences of his decision.
I first picked this novel up during the last week of term, and as was expected the Christmas holidays and my return ‘home’ have meant a chaotic, crazy but enjoyable week or so. Due to this and due to my lack of engagement with the characters as whole, I didn’t really feel involved or interested in this novel, and therefore had little desire to sit and read and escape from the craziness of life for a few hours. So my reading has dragggggggggggggged on and on and on.
For me the characters just did not hold my interest. I did not feel any connection to them, and therefore I found myself frequently distracted whilst I was reading, and to be honest I have very little idea of what actually happened. Yes, this could be seen as a terrible reading confession and I am probably missing something huge and truly exciting about this novel, but unfortunately it was not for me.
Due to various upheavals in my home life, I am visiting relatives who have very little Internet access *sob*, this not only has impacted on my work, but on my blogging, but luckily I am able to receive updates from the blogs I follow, so I’m not completely blog free. I was fortunate to get lots of lovely books for Christmas, so I will be blogging about them when I return to some form of normality.
I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and enjoys a Happy New Year!
LindyLit 