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cameliarose 's review for:
Old New York: Four Novellas
by Edith Wharton
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).