The Age of Innocence Book 2, Chapter 20 Summary

Summary

Newland and May Archer, back in London after their honeymoon, obey a social obligation to dine with Mrs. Carfry and her sister, Miss Harle—English acquaintances the Archer women met while travelling in Europe. The narrative opens with a flashback describing how the Carfrys attached themselves to the Archers after Mrs. Archer (May's relative) kindly helped with an illness in an Alpine lodging; that accidental service grew into an affectionate transnational intimacy. At breakfast in their lodging-house the newlyweds discuss what May should wear and whether they should accept the dinner invitation; Newland persuades her and they take a hansom to South Kensington.

At Mrs. Carfry's the party is small and quiet: Mrs. Carfry, Miss Harle, a shawled lady, a genial Vicar and his invalid nephew, plus a small dark French tutor introduced as M. Rivière. May's shy beauty charms everyone but her provincial conversational references chill the talk, and the formal dinner lacks sparkle. After the ladies go upstairs the Vicar leaves and the men remain over wine; Newland finds an invigorating conversation with M. Rivière, who speaks passionately about intellectual liberty, literary life in Paris, and the value of 'good conversation.' Rivière mentions his struggles to earn a living and half-answers the absurd question of whether there might be openings for him in New York. Newland, fascinated and moved, briefly considers inviting him to dine again, but May's dismissive, 'Wasn't he dreadfully common?' and her bewilderment about Rivière's desire for New York make Newland hesitate—he sees this as a sign that his impulses and affinities might be quietly thwarted by the settled, conventional life marriage already begins to impose.

Key events

1. Flashback: how Mrs. Carfry and Miss Harle became attached to the Archer family after help in Botzen.
2. Newland and May discuss London dress and accept Mrs. Carfry's dinner invitation.
3. At the Carfry home the small dinner party is stilted; May's beauty contrasts with her shyness.
4. Newland has an animated, sympathetic conversation with M. Rivière, the French tutor.
5. Rivière speaks of literary life, poverty, and vaguely asks about prospects in New York.
6. May's cold dismissal of Rivière as 'common' convinces Newland not to pursue further contact.
7. Newland reflects on marriage's smoothing effect and how May's conventionality curtails his impulses.

Analysis

This chapter advances both character development and thematic contrast by juxtaposing Newland's hunger for intellectual companionship with May's unselfconscious conventionality. Structurally it serves as a mirror of Newland's inner life: the Carfry dinner is a social surface where the novel's tensions—between interior aspiration and outward decorum, cosmopolitan curiosity and provincial respectability—play out. M. Rivière is a compact foil to May: cosmopolitan, passionately literary, and precariously employed, he embodies the intellectual liberty Newland admires but finds incompatible with his social world. The scene also deepens the novel's ongoing theme of social ritual as both protection and constraint; the Archers' travel etiquette, May's anxiety about dress, and the small, controlled domestic hospitality of the Carfrys show how manners codify distance and domesticate differences.

Symbolically, the hansom ride and the foggy London air suggest Newland's passage from the clarity of personal impulse into the murk of social expectation. Narrative technique alternates free indirect discourse and measured description to give us Newland's interior reactions without abandoning the novel's ironic, social register. Foreshadowing is subtle: Newland's readiness to invite Rivière and his subsequent self-censoring gesture signal recurring moments when his private desires will be checked by the practicalities and tastes of his domestic life. The chapter thus tightens the novel's central conflict between inner life and outward conformity while deepening reader sympathy for Newland's intellectual hunger.

Important quotes

“Wear, dearest? I thought a trunkful of things had come from Paris last week.”

Newland ArcherNewland teases May about what she should wear to Mrs. Carfry's dinner, revealing their different concerns—his practical calm, her nervousness about fashion.

“Voyez-vous, Monsieur, to be able to look life in the face: that's worth living in a garret for, isn't it?”

M. RivièreM. Rivière insists that intellectual liberty and good conversation justify material poverty, startling Newland with his passionate valuation of ideas over security.

“Wasn't he dreadfully common?”

May ArcherMay dismisses M. Rivière after the dinner, and her reaction signals the social and aesthetic gulf between her values and Newland's sympathies.

Characters in Book 2, Chapter 20

• Newland Archer
• May Archer
• Mrs. Carfry
• Miss Harle
• Vicar
• Carfry nephew
• M. Rivière
• Mrs. Archer
• Janey Archer
• Ned Winsett
• Duke of St. Austrey
• Worth