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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
challenging
sad
slow-paced
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Overall, the book was good, but it’s hard to rate because it’s four different stories. Two I liked way more than the other two so I went with 3 stars. The writing was beautiful though and I highly recommend listen to the Downton Abbey soundtrack while reading this!
The style and setting in Old New York is similar to The Age of Innocence. It is about life in New York high society from 1840s to 1890s. Readers of The Age of Innocence will find familiar names in this collection, such as Mrs. Manson Mingott (The Old Maid), a Van der Luyden (The Old Maid) and Sillerton Jackson (New Year's Day).
There are plenty of self-mockery of New York high society where Wharton herself was a member. For example:
"Even his baldness, which was in proportion to the rest, looked as if it received a special daily policy; and on a hot day his whole person was like some wonderful example of the costliest irrigation" (Mr. Raycie in False Dawn, a egotistical, tyrannical father and a snobbish art-collector)
"They sat side by side in the meditative rigidity of fashionable persons listening to expensive music" (New Year's Day. I nearly knocked off my coffee.)
"Mrs. Mant's sympathy seemed more cruel than her cruelty." (New Year's Day)
Edith Wharton paints meticulous details of her characters through their looks and clothes, their movements and thoughts. Almost all characters, including the secondary ones are very much lifelike and different to each other. Her greatest strength is probably the emotional intense social scenes. I enjoyed the confession and confrontation between the two mothers at the end of The Old Maid, as well as the final conversation between two adulterers in New Year's Day.
I like all four stories. The Old Maid is probably my favourite. Another favourite is New Year's Day, which is a The Gift of the Magi (O. Henry) type of story, only darker.
I like her way of mixing fictional characters with real historical figures. There are John Ruskin, Lewis Racie's English friend (False Dawn) and Walt Whitman, Hayley Delane's Cilvl War hospital companion (The Sparks).
There are plenty of self-mockery of New York high society where Wharton herself was a member. For example:
"Even his baldness, which was in proportion to the rest, looked as if it received a special daily policy; and on a hot day his whole person was like some wonderful example of the costliest irrigation" (Mr. Raycie in False Dawn, a egotistical, tyrannical father and a snobbish art-collector)
"They sat side by side in the meditative rigidity of fashionable persons listening to expensive music" (New Year's Day. I nearly knocked off my coffee.)
"Mrs. Mant's sympathy seemed more cruel than her cruelty." (New Year's Day)
Edith Wharton paints meticulous details of her characters through their looks and clothes, their movements and thoughts. Almost all characters, including the secondary ones are very much lifelike and different to each other. Her greatest strength is probably the emotional intense social scenes. I enjoyed the confession and confrontation between the two mothers at the end of The Old Maid, as well as the final conversation between two adulterers in New Year's Day.
I like all four stories. The Old Maid is probably my favourite. Another favourite is New Year's Day, which is a The Gift of the Magi (O. Henry) type of story, only darker.
I like her way of mixing fictional characters with real historical figures. There are John Ruskin, Lewis Racie's English friend (False Dawn) and Walt Whitman, Hayley Delane's Cilvl War hospital companion (The Sparks).
Forgotten how much I'd enjoyed Edith Wharton. Her writing is often slyly amusing, humorous in unexpected places (sometimes easy to miss), and these novellas all contain O. Henry-esque twists.
In "False Dawn", a domineering father dispatches his disappointing son to Europe on a two-year tour with one directive: to assemble a respectable art collection, which must naturally include an old master or two, as budget allows. Once abroad, the son develops an appreciation for art that is not (yet, he is sure) appreciated by others and builds his collection of these unknown works instead--so much to his father's dismay that he is written entirely out of the old man's will. Only time, more than any of them have, will tell whether the paintings are worth anything.
"The Old Maid" is a complicated story of the friendship--or appearance of it--between two cousins, one of them a married woman who seems to have everything and one of them seemingly destined for a lonely life.
"The Spark" is the least linear of the four novellas, with our narrator describing his admiration for an older acquaintance of his who does not boast about his admirable actions in the Civil War; suffers the indignities of his wife's serial affairs with only one--and, thus, all the more impressive, in our narrator's mind--outburst of anger; and offers true Christian charity to his wife's scandalous, ne'er-do-well husband despite its impact on his own social reputation. The twist in this story is almost an afterthought: the older gentleman remembers fondly a man who lifted his spirits in a Civil War hospital but can't remember a thing about him...until chance reveals that the humble aide is now a famous person. This one wasn't my favorite: though an excellent character study, the mystery felt tacked on, like Wharton felt a last-minute need for the story to exist, though her narrator does caution the reader at the beginning that this will be the case.
Finally there is "New Year's Day". A married woman's affair is exposed when a hotel fire forces her and her lover to evacuate...right across the street from a house where the cream of high society New York are enjoying the spectacle during a New Year's party. But, of course, the reality is more complicated than the appearance. Upon her long-suffering husband's death, when her lover comes for her hand in marriage,
It probably won't surprise anyone that I enjoyed "The Old Maid" and "New Year's Day" best. They had such depth of emotion, such complicated motives and feelings, which Wharton conveys with lovely language. Maybe I did also care about the characters more because, as women, the stakes felt so much higher. In "False Dawn", society's caprice in siding with the angry father rather than the wronged son is clearly at fault, as it is in "The Spark" when society turns is back (and then turns back to again) the object of the story. In both stories, it is possible to imagine an alternative in which things work out better than they would have otherwise. In the two women-centered stories, however, there is much less of a feeling that there was a better outcome for any of them, only worse outcomes.
All in all, these novellas were an excellent reminder of why I loved reading Edith Wharton in school and why I hoped to read more of her work. I'll keep on hoping...but there are so many other books on my shelves, at work, and at the library!
In "False Dawn", a domineering father dispatches his disappointing son to Europe on a two-year tour with one directive: to assemble a respectable art collection, which must naturally include an old master or two, as budget allows. Once abroad, the son develops an appreciation for art that is not (yet, he is sure) appreciated by others and builds his collection of these unknown works instead--so much to his father's dismay that he is written entirely out of the old man's will. Only time, more than any of them have, will tell whether the paintings are worth anything.
"The Old Maid" is a complicated story of the friendship--or appearance of it--between two cousins, one of them a married woman who seems to have everything and one of them seemingly destined for a lonely life.
Spoiler
When the latter reveals that her chance at a married life means she might lose her beloved secret child, her cousin enacts what she considers justice, adopting the child as her own while avoiding scandal, ending her cousin's marriage prospects as punishment for her loose ways, but allowing the woman to live with her family on the condition that she will never admit that she is the child's mother. The tension between the two women--one a mother by birth, the other a mother by adoption, both under one roof--is a constant source of inner turmoil, especially as the girl's parentless state threatens to limit her own prospects of marital happiness. Both women must decide what it means to be a mother, and how much of a mother they are willing to let the other be."The Spark" is the least linear of the four novellas, with our narrator describing his admiration for an older acquaintance of his who does not boast about his admirable actions in the Civil War; suffers the indignities of his wife's serial affairs with only one--and, thus, all the more impressive, in our narrator's mind--outburst of anger; and offers true Christian charity to his wife's scandalous, ne'er-do-well husband despite its impact on his own social reputation. The twist in this story is almost an afterthought: the older gentleman remembers fondly a man who lifted his spirits in a Civil War hospital but can't remember a thing about him...until chance reveals that the humble aide is now a famous person. This one wasn't my favorite: though an excellent character study, the mystery felt tacked on, like Wharton felt a last-minute need for the story to exist, though her narrator does caution the reader at the beginning that this will be the case.
Finally there is "New Year's Day". A married woman's affair is exposed when a hotel fire forces her and her lover to evacuate...right across the street from a house where the cream of high society New York are enjoying the spectacle during a New Year's party. But, of course, the reality is more complicated than the appearance. Upon her long-suffering husband's death, when her lover comes for her hand in marriage,
Spoiler
she confesses that the affair had been purely mercenary. In fact, she had loved her husband dearly. As his illness cost him his livelihood, his distress over his inability to financially her only made him sicker--and she, terrified of losing any more time with him, embarked on an affair so she could have enough gifts and trifles to maintain appearances and calm her husband's fears. After her husband's death, instead of salvaging her lifestyle by marrying her supposed lover, she chooses to remain single, devoted to her husband in his death as she was not, for his sake, at the end of his life. Our narrator, who witnessed the fire as a child and grew up knowing only the public side of the scandal, tells us how she lives out her later years in a buzzy social side-circle in order to distract herself until she can--she hopes, despite her sin--join her husband after death.It probably won't surprise anyone that I enjoyed "The Old Maid" and "New Year's Day" best. They had such depth of emotion, such complicated motives and feelings, which Wharton conveys with lovely language. Maybe I did also care about the characters more because, as women, the stakes felt so much higher. In "False Dawn", society's caprice in siding with the angry father rather than the wronged son is clearly at fault, as it is in "The Spark" when society turns is back (and then turns back to again) the object of the story. In both stories, it is possible to imagine an alternative in which things work out better than they would have otherwise. In the two women-centered stories, however, there is much less of a feeling that there was a better outcome for any of them, only worse outcomes.
All in all, these novellas were an excellent reminder of why I loved reading Edith Wharton in school and why I hoped to read more of her work. I'll keep on hoping...but there are so many other books on my shelves, at work, and at the library!
More of a 4.5 stars, but I'm rounding up because Queen Edith has murdered me yet again.
This woman. I just want to read everything she's written. Her stories set in Old New York are also deeply human with a healthy dose of wry humor and satire, usually poking fun at the nonsense of that rich New York society. These stories were excellent, each of the four set in the 1840s, '50s, 60's, and 70's, and they were riveting.
False Dawn , set in the 1840s, took me a minute to get into, but I feel like by the end of each story, including this one, Edith blew my mind and made me ruefully shake me head. A young man is about to embark on his yearlong European excursion, and his domineering father tasks him with bringing home high-quality art pieces. He ends up going a different route, and the aftermath is honestly quite sad, and then the story ends in an ironic way that made me feel melancholy!
The Old Maid , in the 1850s, was probably my favorite of the bunch. I couldn't look away. The very likable Delia Rolston receives a visit from her soon-to-be-wed cousin, Charlotte. Charlotte, in lots of distress, admits that she can't marry for a very spicy reason. We follow Delia and Charlotte into their old age, and in the final chapters, The thing is, not much can be done about it due to propriety and social pressures, so the story sort of fades away sadly, with I loved this whole story, and Delia's compassion, a whole lot.
The Spark , set in the 1860s, was my least favorite of the bunch but still highly readable, and the 1870s New Year's Day was written so attractively, I couldn't stop looking. This, too, ended in a bittersweet way, as is Wharton's specialty. I just loved this collection and I'm very glad I own it.
This woman. I just want to read everything she's written. Her stories set in Old New York are also deeply human with a healthy dose of wry humor and satire, usually poking fun at the nonsense of that rich New York society. These stories were excellent, each of the four set in the 1840s, '50s, 60's, and 70's, and they were riveting.
False Dawn , set in the 1840s, took me a minute to get into, but I feel like by the end of each story, including this one, Edith blew my mind and made me ruefully shake me head. A young man is about to embark on his yearlong European excursion, and his domineering father tasks him with bringing home high-quality art pieces. He ends up going a different route, and the aftermath is honestly quite sad, and then the story ends in an ironic way that made me feel melancholy!
Spoiler
The man's father disowns him, he married and makes an art gallery with these new pieces on the first floor. He is ridiculed and eventually sells the paintings, which of course in the end, long after his death, become highly sought after.The Old Maid , in the 1850s, was probably my favorite of the bunch. I couldn't look away. The very likable Delia Rolston receives a visit from her soon-to-be-wed cousin, Charlotte. Charlotte, in lots of distress, admits that she can't marry for a very spicy reason.
Spoiler
Charlotte watches over a bunch of orphans and her husband wants her to give that up, but she won't because on of the children is her very own! Delia takes in young Tina and eventually, her husband dies and she takes in Charlotte as well. The three live in harmony with Delia's daughter, but Tina views Delia as her mother and Charlotte as her old maid aunt.Spoiler
Tina is getting married and Charlotte finally releases her frustrations over Tina not knowing who her real mother is and looking to Delia as a mother figure.Spoiler
Delia asking Tina to promise to give her last kiss, before setting off on her honeymoon, to Charlotte.The Spark , set in the 1860s, was my least favorite of the bunch but still highly readable, and the 1870s New Year's Day was written so attractively, I couldn't stop looking. This, too, ended in a bittersweet way, as is Wharton's specialty. I just loved this collection and I'm very glad I own it.
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a collection of four novellas centered around New York aristocracy in the nineteenth century. Each novella represents a different decade (40s, 50s, 60s & 70s), and illustrates the whims and idiosyncrasies of a society preoccupied with morals and appearance.
I give it five stars solely because of the last two novellas (The Spark and New Year's Day.) The Spark tells the story of Hayley Delane--an upper crust man tolerated and humored by society despite his internal moral compass that often leads him to deviate from established norms. This compass was in large part influenced by a gentleman he met while wounded in the Civil War, and has a wonderful twist at the end. New Year's Day is another beautifully told story of a woman whose actions were judged by those who had no clue as to what circumstances warranted them in the first place.
I give it five stars solely because of the last two novellas (The Spark and New Year's Day.) The Spark tells the story of Hayley Delane--an upper crust man tolerated and humored by society despite his internal moral compass that often leads him to deviate from established norms. This compass was in large part influenced by a gentleman he met while wounded in the Civil War, and has a wonderful twist at the end. New Year's Day is another beautifully told story of a woman whose actions were judged by those who had no clue as to what circumstances warranted them in the first place.
i liked some of her other worms, but did not enjoy these stories