Book Anatomy · The Age of Innocence
The Age of Innocence: Prose style
17 lenses on prose style for The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. Count lenses are exact for our text. AI lenses are our reading and cite only quotes that passed a word for word check.
Jump to: H1 H2 H3 H4 H5 H6 H7 H8 H9 H10 H11 H12 H13 H14 H15 H16 H17
H1. Readability score per chapter. Count
Flesch reading ease for the whole book is about 65 (higher is easier; 60 to 70 is plain English).
Reading ease per chapter, chapter by chapter
H2. Vocabulary range. Count
9,390 different words. On average 54 in every 100 words are new within a 500 word stretch. 4,465 words appear only once.
H3. Signature words: what this author uses far more than others. Count
york, ellen, madame, countess, jackson. See the full lens on the book page.
H4. Adverb and adjective rates. Count
About 16.15 words ending in 'ly' and 10.3 likely adjectives per 1,000 words. (rough estimate from word lists)
'ly' words per 1,000, chapter by chapter
H5. Share of weak verbs such as "was" and "had". Count
'Was', 'were', 'had', 'is' and 'are' make up 3.5% of all words.
H6. Passive voice rate. Count
About 6.1% of sentences use a passive form such as 'was taken'. (rough estimate from word lists)
H7. Variety of sentence openings. Count
The five most common first words start 29% of sentences: the, he, she, archer, i.
| First word | Sentences |
|---|---|
| the | 362 |
| he | 351 |
| she | 298 |
| archer | 296 |
| i | 271 |
| but | 237 |
| it | 202 |
| and | 105 |
| oh | 85 |
| ah | 82 |
H8. Rhythm: how much sentence length varies. Count
Sentence length varies by 0.79 of its mean on average (higher means a more varied rhythm).
Variation per chapter, chapter by chapter
H9. Similes and metaphors: how many, and of what kind. Both
164 likely similes ('like a', 'as ... as'): 1.59 per 1,000 words. (rough estimate from word lists)
Ch 1, para 5: The second reason for his delay was a personal one. He had dawdled over his cigar because he was at heart a dilettante, and thinking over a pleasure …
Ch 2, para 5: Old Mrs. Mingott's foreign daughters had become a legend. They never came back to see their mother, and the latter being, like many persons of active mind and …
Ch 2, para 7: Mrs. Manson Mingott had long since succeeded in untying her husband's fortune, and had lived in affluence for half a century; but memories of her early straits had …
Ch 3, para 6: But folly is as often justified of her children as wisdom, and two years after young Mrs. Beaufort's marriage it was admitted that she had the most distinguished …
Ch 3, para 7: Mr. Beaufort's secret, people were agreed, was the way he carried things off. It was all very well to whisper that he had been "helped" to leave England …
Ch 3, para 25: Evidently she was always going to understand; she was always going to say the right thing. The discovery made the cup of his bliss overflow, and he went …
Wharton uses extended metaphors of entrapment, voyage, and landscape throughout. Key examples: marriage as 'uncharted seas' (c6), society as an invisible cage, Europe versus America as freedom versus constraint. Similes compare Ellen to Diana (c21) and describe Mrs. Mingott's flesh as 'a flood of lava' (c4).
Chapters: Ch 6, Ch 21, Ch 4
marriage was not the safe anchorage he had been taught to think, but a voyage on uncharted seas (Ch 6, para 2)
In her white dress, with a pale green ribbon about the waist and a wreath of ivy on her hat, she had the same Diana-like aloofness as when she had entered the Beaufort ball-room on the night of her engagement. (Ch 21, para 22)
The immense accretion of flesh which had descended on her in middle life like a flood of lava (Ch 4, para 3)
H10. Senses used: sight, sound, smell, touch, taste. Both
Share of sense words. sight 62%, sound 21%, touch 14%, taste 2%, smell 1%. (rough estimate from word lists)
| Sense | Words |
|---|---|
| sight | 788 |
| sound | 261 |
| touch | 184 |
| taste | 25 |
| smell | 12 |
Sight dominates: gazes, blushes, visual encounters. Sound appears in opera scenes and dialogue. Touch is intimate: the fan touching his knee (c8), kisses. Smell and taste are minimal. The novel privileges visual observation as a form of social surveillance.
Chapters: Ch 1, Ch 8, Ch 13, Ch 19
just touching his knee with her plumed fan. It was the lightest touch, but it thrilled him like a caress (Ch 8, para 33)
a warm pink mounted to the girl's cheek, mantled her brow to the roots of her fair braids (Ch 1, para 8)
there was about her the mysterious authority of beauty, a sureness in the carriage of the head (Ch 8, para 8)
H11. Repetition, lists of three and other patterns. Both
76 lists of three in the pattern 'a, b and c': 0.74 per 1,000 words. (rough estimate from word lists)
Wharton repeats key phrases: 'women ought to be free' (c5), yellow roses (c9 to 13), Ellen's refusals. Lists of three appear in social gatherings and character descriptions. Parallel scenes structure the plot: multiple visits, dinners, and moments of near-confession.
Chapters: Ch 5, Ch 9, Ch 13, Ch 18, Ch 29
Women ought to be free--as free as we are (Ch 5, para 55)
Women should be free--as free as we are (Ch 6, para 3)
When I sent your lilies yesterday afternoon I saw some rather gorgeous yellow roses and packed them off to Madame Olenska. Was that right? (Ch 10, para 6)
H12. Old words that may trip modern readers. Count
Old forms that may trip a modern reader: art, hither, whence, thither.
| Word | Times |
|---|---|
| art | 10 |
| hither | 1 |
| whence | 1 |
| thither | 1 |
H13. Showing against telling, with examples. AI
Wharton shows character through action and dialogue rather than summary. Newland's internal conflict emerges through his choices: sending roses, visiting Ellen, asking her to flee. May's knowledge of his feelings is revealed through her calm acceptance rather than stated directly.
Chapters: Ch 9, Ch 18, Ch 30, Ch 32
just touching his knee with her plumed fan. It was the lightest touch, but it thrilled him like a caress (Ch 8, para 33)
I can't love you unless I give you up. (Ch 18, para 101)
Of course you understand that I know all that people have been saying about Ellen, and heartily sympathise with my family in their effort to get her to return to her husband. (Ch 26, para 74)
H14. How much description comes before action. Both
Description is woven into action rather than preceding it. Wharton describes Ellen's appearance as Newland observes her, or Mrs. Mingott's house as he enters it. Settings emerge through characters' movements and reactions, not static exposition.
Chapters: Ch 1, Ch 4, Ch 8, Ch 12
there was about her the mysterious authority of beauty, a sureness in the carriage of the head (Ch 8, para 8)
Madame Olenska, heedless of tradition, was attired in a long robe of red velvet bordered about the chin and down the front with glossy black fur. (Ch 12, para 13)
A visit to Mrs. Manson Mingott was always an amusing episode to the young man (Ch 4, para 2)
H15. Filter words such as "saw", "felt", "heard". Count
Filter words ('saw', 'felt', 'heard' and so on): 6.52 per 1,000 words.
| Word | Times |
|---|---|
| thought | 128 |
| knew | 111 |
| felt | 111 |
| seemed | 104 |
| saw | 100 |
| heard | 61 |
| wondered | 26 |
| noticed | 17 |
| watched | 11 |
| realised | 2 |
H16. Shifts in tone. AI
Tone shifts from satirical observation of society (c1 to 7) to romantic intensity (c8 to 18) to despair (c29 to 33) to resigned acceptance (c34). Early chapters mock social conventions; later chapters deepen into tragedy. The final chapter adopts a melancholic, philosophical tone.
Chapters: Ch 1, Ch 8, Ch 29, Ch 34
H17. How the comedy works. AI
Comedy arises from social hypocrisy and rigid conventions. Sillerton Jackson's gossip, the van der Luydens' anxious propriety, and society's shock at Ellen's choices provide ironic humour. The gap between what characters say and what they mean creates comic tension.
Chapters: Ch 5, Ch 6, Ch 7, Ch 26
Mr. Sillerton Jackson applied to the investigation of his friends' affairs the patience of a collector (Ch 5, para 2)
It is the principle that I dislike (Ch 7, para 34)
I've never quite forgiven your cousin Madame Olenska for being the first person to countenance Mrs. Struthers. (Ch 26, para 21)
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