Tammy’s Reviews > The Age of Innocence > Status Update

They were tall, pale, slightly round-shouldered, with long noses and sweet smiles like subjects of a faded Reynolds portrait. The main difference is that mom was plump and daughter was thin and viriginal. Although they spoke alike, mother lacked imagination but the daughter’s suppressed fancy occasionally welled up. Mother and sister respected him and he cared deeply for them. This time he stayed for dinner.

The women have very tame tastes. They grow things and have their handwork. They prefer serious reading and historical fiction and look down their noses at Dickens. Um, not my kind of people, but it’s not about me. They sought scenery, architecture, and painting as subjects for art when they traveled. Of course, they took Ruskin very seriously. Mother and daughter were like sisters, true Newlands.

Mingotts, Mansons, etc - eating, clothes, money
Archer-Newland, van-der-Luyden tribe - travel, horticulture, the best
fiction

So, Newland and May come from families with very different values. When Jackson got the invite, he figured her dinner would help relieve gout caused by the Mingott-Mason invitations.

Newland has the rooms upstairs and the library. The women have a haven downstairs.

Ch. 5 The gossip Mr. Sillerton Jackson gets invited to so many dinners and he often sends his spinster sister Sophia for him. Since Mrs. Archer hardly ever invites anyone to dinner, he usually goes himself. She’s a bit of a recluse. Although he gets on well with Newland, he prefers him to be out so that his opinions are not fact checked. He also wished she served better food, but her family didn’t care about food.

Ellen holds out her hand and expects Newland to hold it. He does not. She invites him to come see her. He is stunned. He is glad he is marrying a New Yorker like him (more pride). No New York woman would be out walking with the likes of Julius Beaufort nor would she invite a just-engaged man to visit her.

Granny and Beautfort have a lot in common. They were once poor and came from obscure backgrounds. They are now wealthy and they can afford to live by their own scruples and not live by the convention of others. They are both good at cutting to the chase. In the hall when May and her mom are putting on their furs, Newland apologizes to Ellen for not telling her about their engagement. She gently chides them.

The door opens and in walks Ellen with Julius Beaufort! The scandal! Granny calls him by his last week (much like Augusta Elton in Emma<\i>. He bumped into Ellen at Madison Square and he escorted her home. Granny begs him to sit down and gossip with her. She wants him to tell her about Mrs. Lemuel Struthers, the widow of a shoe-polish magnate (new money). Granny approves of this, of course.

Mrs. Welland remarks on how sparse the sapphire looks all by itself, but Granny comments that a cameo set in pearls worked in her day. Granny notices how large May’s hands are (sports) and how small her own hand which honestly means nothing if you are the size of a whale. She’s just glad her skin is white. When asked about a date, Newland says ASAP and Granny suggests before Lent in case she dies of pneumonia.

Newland is amused to imagine Catherine living out the life in French novels that explore adultery versus duty. On the one hand they are relived that Ellen is not there. On the other, she’s out in broad daylight during shoppping hour for all to see. No shadow of her unhappy past can mar their radiant future. Catherine is delighted. She admires the large saphire on the engagement ring.

The description of Catherine the GREAT is hilarious. Her girth prevents her from going upstairs so her bedrooms are downstairs which is not as shocking as it could be. In novels, some women with bad reputations have their bedroom downstairs so they are harder to catch in the act. Granny has such a spotless reputation that the thought of being naughty never occurs to her. If she wanted a man, she would have him.