I loved these four stories of 1800's "Old New York" told in Edith Wharton's signature style. Each tale has just a slight twist that changes the whole story around!

She is just a lovely writer and an amazing storyteller. Can't wait to read more of hers!

Old New York consists of four novellas: False Dawn, The Old Maid, The Spark, New Year's Day. Wharton employs both irony and empathy to describe upper class New York society of the 1800's. Each novella is set slightly later that the previous story. All take jabs at the conventions of upper crust society. In "False Dawn" a son defies his father who has sent him to buy paintings by "The Masters." Instead he is steered towards lesser know artists by critics like John Ruskin. His father, mortified that he has bought such awful, unknown art changes his will and leaves the son only the paintings. "The Old Maid" has been immortalized in film with an excellent portrayal of Charlotte by Bette Davis. Charlotte has given birth out of wedlock and looks to her cousin to help her remain with her child. The novella differs from the movie but is just as compelling. "The Spark" is a portrait of a stolid society man, Hayley Delane, who fascinates the narrator who tries to understand this seemingly simple man. “New Year’s Day" is the final tale in this novel. It is story of a woman's love and how far she will go for that love. One of my favorite quotes from “New Year’s Day" seems to sum up Wharton's view of Old New York Society, "It was typical of my mother to be always employed in benevolent actions while she uttered uncharitable words".

I read this more than a month ago and my memory isn't that good with names and details but I can say that what I did like about this book was how she could put a really good story into a short story. Meaning each story in the book could have been a book but she was able to condense it with just the right essential details that it was like you got a whole book's worth into this nice short story. And in this book I believe there were four stories. I really enjoyed each and the fact that there was always an end and one of the stories that comes to mind is the one about the guy that bought all that artwork........I like how we got to know what happened to it generations later.

Wharton rarely disappoints. This is another anthology of novellas dedicated to the themes familiar to all Wharton readers - stifling constraints of Gilded Age New York society, utter dependence of women, etc.

The collection contains 4 stories, each set in a different decade of the 19th century. "False Dawn" deals with the consequences of being different, even in a trite matter of preference in art. "The Old Maid" is an interesting account of an aftermath of an illicit affair where two women are drawn into a very complex relationship raising an illegitimate child. "The Spark" explores (I think) an influence of a chance meeting on a man's character. "New Year's Day" is a story of a woman engaged in adultery whose reasons for being unfaithful are not quite what you expect them to be.

Unlike another anthology I recently read ("Roman Fever and Other Stories") this book is very uneven. "The Old Maid" and "New Year's Day" are the best, "False Dawn" a little underwhelming, but still good, and "Spark" is a definite disappointment (too unresolved and muddled). But nevertheless, Wharton, as always, delivers.

Reading challenge: #19.

A fine series of, as Wharton called them, novelettes. My edition is a re-issue by Virago Modern Classics with an Introduction by Marilyn French (I like Virago books because they either have a Foreword or Afterword, and more often than not help me understand more of what I just read! Dr. French was a feminist author who wrote ‘The Women’s Room’ and ‘From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women‘.)

I liked the second novelette, ‘The Old Maid’, the most. The two main protagonists are Delia Ralston and Charlotte Lovell, who are cousins.  Charlotte has a baby out of wedlock and in that day and age and that strata of society, that is anathema. On the eve of her wedding day, Charlotte has cold feet and wants to back out of the wedding because she can’t bear leaving her child behind in an orphanage. Delia decides on a course of action and indeed the wedding does not take place, but Delia, who is married and has two children, arranges the situation where she takes in the child and at the same time takes in Charlotte. To the child, Tina, Delia is her mother and Charlotte is Aunt Charlotte. On the eve of Tina’s wedding, Charlotte wants to reveal to Tina that she is her real mother. Delia is aghast and can’t believe why Charlotte would be so cruel for revealing such a secret and at such an inopportune time. I am inclined to agree with Delia but the situation is more complex than it appears. However, the situation is resolved nicely.  

One thing I really liked about the novelette was how Delia more than once was unhappy with Charlotte’s behaviors and/or plans, but forced herself to put herself in Charlotte’s shoes. I very much admired Delia for that, because she could have taken the easy way out and not done that...on at least two separate occasions. As a reader I was on a roller coaster...thinking Charlotte was not good, then after Delia puts herself in Charlotte’s shoes then I see Charlotte’s side of things and she is once again in my good graces, and this happens more than once in the story. What a well-written novelette! 5 stars from me.

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!

Another beautifully written example of Edith Wharton’s work.
Always a pleasure.
We recently watched a documentary of her life.
She was an amazing woman.

These are four novellas by Wharton that I somehow hadn’t read before; each telling a story (usually from the perspective of many intervening years) about a particular decade in “Old New York.” I enjoyed all of them, because her writing never disappoints, but my favorite was probably the last, “New Year’s Day.” It starts out seemingly as a standard tale of adultery among the upper class, but there is a twist. Wharton’s descriptions of the machinations of the insular world are perfect and the main character, Lizzie Hazeldean, is reminiscent of Lily Bart.

Four stories, all surprisingly interesting with surprise endings. A fun Edith Warton read.

I was browsing in the library and came across Old New York by Edith Wharton, a collection of four novellas. I've read Ethan Frome, which is very different from other Wharton works as it's set in a rural area in New England while most of the others are in New York society like this one.

Summary from back cover: "These tales are vintage Wharton, dealing boldly with such themes as infidelity, illegitimacy, jealousy, the class system, and the condition of women in society."

False Dawn: A young man is sent on a tour of Europe to collect art to bolster his family's reputation; when he returns his father disowns him for choosing poorly. However many years later it turns out to be a very valuable collection. I liked that the man's wife stood by him even through their years of poverty-I only wish his judgment could have been redeemed in his lifetime.

The Old Maid: This is also a Bette Davis movie; although I have not seen it, I enjoyed trying to picture her in this role. Possibly my favorite due to that. It's an especially heartbreaking story as a mother watches her daughter scorn her in favor of the adoptive mother, her cousin. I can't imagine having to watch your child everyday call someone else Mother and treat you as a poor spinster relative.

The Spark: This was my other favorite as the main character Hayley Delane is an interesting man. He ran away from school to enlist in the Civil War despite being underage and wealthy enough to buy his way out. Later he takes in his scandalous father-in-law as there is no one else to care for him. And it turns out that he is inspired by his meeting Walt Whitman during the war although he doesn't care for his poetry at all. I shared in the narrator's fascination with Delane and looked forward to finding out more about him as the story progressed.

New Year's Day: I really liked the twist in this one. A woman engages in an adulterous affair in order to scrounge up enough money to provide for her dying husband-everyone thought she was just a cheater but she didn't care because she kept her husband comfortable. She spends the rest of her life alone and comfortable in the knowledge that she did her best for her husband. It was a sweet love story although since the husband died in the beginning also tragic.

Overall: 4 out of 5. Actually all of these stories were to varying degrees depressing showing limitations placed on women and families by society. Despite that, they were enjoyable and readable. I was already planning on reading The Age of Innocence but now I am even more interested. The backcover also described the last story as O. Henryesque which makes me want to read some of his work now too.

I realize this wasn't so much a review as a description of the parts I liked but it is really good. I would recommend it as a nice bedtime reading or to someone who really likes Edith Wharton and has read her major works already.

This wasn’t her best writing, though perhaps not surprisingly the two stories about women were more readable and enjoyable than the two about men. I felt a lot of the time she crossed over the line of satire into true harshness or bitterness, whereas I’ve found her earlier works to be more balanced between incisive and witty.

The Old Maid was the best developed of the four stories; the plot was interesting and the layers of complicated emotions between the two women were well conveyed. I wasn’t aware of the Bette Davis movie adapted from this tale, but it reminded me of a different movie called To Each His Own, for which Olivia de Haviland won an Oscar. I’ll have to see if I can find the movie version of The Old Maid on some streaming service so I can watch it.

New Year’s Day was also intriguing. It dealt with a lot of the same issues as Age of Innocence, though without quite the same degree of sensitivity and finesse. I wondered if it might have been a precursor to or study for the Age of Innocence, but this collection was published later.

False Dawn had too much name dropping of famous artists, and the characters were too exaggerated to be believable. I got the distinct sense she wrote it not for the enjoyment of her readers but simply to show off her own knowledge of art history and to chastise her fellow society members for appreciating art in proportion to its current auction price. There was a haughty note of “I told you so” ringing through the whole story, but as readers we weren’t able to share in that triumph.

The Spark was just vague and rambling, and most of the characters were unpleasant. I never did get the point she was trying to make, if she had one.

This was a fast read, and fans of Wharton will find many favorite themes further explored in these stories including the judgmental nature of society and the unfair lot of women. However, I wouldn’t recommend it as a first introduction to her work, since her skill is better exhibited in her more well-known novels.

A wonderful portrayal of 19th century New York high society.