After finishing Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence, I was contemplating its strengths and finding the words to describe it, and the one word that stuck out to me was 'balance'. Yes, I was impressed by Wharton's ability to balance this story of a young man from the New York upper-class families developing an emotional affair with his fiance's cousin, Ellen Olenska, while also revolving around the latter's attempt of reassimilation within the New York's upper-class scene after a failed marriage in Europe. In this balance, we are given a tour of the conflicting heart of its protagonist, whilst reaching into the intricate depths that form and structuralise this New York scene. It is through the author's clever way of restraining from over-description, allowing the directness of its story to move the readers along but also illuminating into new avenues and trains of thought. Through the subtle and intentional direction of its narrator, we (the readers) are constantly in a state of growth and discovery, and yet Wharton refuses to sensationalise developments and revelations in order to retain a sense of composure, mimicking the mechanics of this upper-class society. This was definitely a balanced and smooth experience.