The Age of Innocence: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Age of Innocence, credited to Edith Wharton, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton. Read by Brenda Dayne. In an era before the advent of electric lights, telephones or motor vehicles, there exists a small cluster of aristocratic “old revolutionary stock” families that rule New York’s social life. Under the rules of this society, “being things” is better than “doing things” and reputation and outward appearances come at the exclusion of everything else. In this Gilded Age, when America’s expansion and increased industrialism produce a group of newly wealthy robber barons and financiers, the patient, time-honored values of the old ruling class, and century, are giving way to the expediencies of the new. Caught at this cusp, a triangle of lovers, who must choose between the expectations of family and society, and the deepest yearnings of the heart. Newly engaged couple, Newland Archer, a young lawyer, and May Welland, a society debutante, are part of the old world, where the “right people” follow the “correct rules” and marry into “acceptable families.” The arrival from Europe of May’s cousin, the Countess Ellen Olenska, complicates their union, as Ellen’s mysterious past threatens to cast a shadow of scandal over the newly betrothed couple. Newland Archer, at first critical of Ellen’s bohemian lifestyle, and her seemingly wilful ignorance of the rules and customs of his Old New York, is soon captivated by Ellen’s warmth, spirit, and her generous and loving heart. Will he cast off the life for which he’s been groomed, or sacrifice happiness for duty and the greater good of the social order? (Summary by Brenda Dayne)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Age of Innocence
• Author credits: Edith Wharton
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 34
• Listed recording duration: 12:32:32

Catalogue topics

• novel
• New York
• marriage
• society

Opening tracks: first 24 of 34

1. Chapter 01 — 19:14
2. Chapter 02 — 15:25
3. Chapter 03 — 17:29
4. Chapter 04 — 12:56
5. Chapter 05 — 21:47
6. Chapter 06 — 19:20
7. Chapter 07 — 15:03
8. Chapter 08 — 17:39
9. Chapter 09 — 27:41
10. Chapter 10 — 21:52
11. Chapter 11 — 18:30
12. Chapter 12 — 26:49
13. Chapter 13 — 16:18
14. Chapter 14 — 16:39
15. Chapter 15 — 24:23
16. Chapter 16 — 22:03
17. Chapter 17 — 21:24
18. Chapter 18 — 26:46
19. Chapter 19 — 26:33
20. Chapter 20 — 28:02
21. Chapter 21 — 31:27
22. Chapter 22 — 18:51
23. Chapter 23 — 22:25
24. Chapter 24 — 12:59

Listen to this recording

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.