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Edith Wharton hailed from the social prominent family whose wealth and social standing that gave us the Term:” Keeping up with the Jones-es”. This was in the highest of high society New York where trends had not yet replaced traditions. In this book, Old New York are collected four of her novellas that address stress points between a social order that was above all else ordered, fixed in its tastes, moral outlook and inflexible in its expectations. Each story is associated with a decade. Suggesting that time is passing, but this social order barely notices.
The first, with an O’ Henry twist, by way of EW is False Dawn. Rich daddy wants art. Not for Arts sake, but because walls filled with the approved names is socially desirable. Well Daddy can afford what he wants, right?
Next is Old Maid. Considered the best known and most liked. Two sisters allow themselves to drift from being highly desirable marriageable women, to the pitiful status of Old Maids. The one sister is raising as an orphan, a girl who is secretly the child of the other. Over time the biological mother must deal with putting the emotional and practice needs of her unaware daughter in front of her desire for the motherly love reserved for her parenting sister. Much of this drama is deftly handled with the full value of its attending emotions. The success of the climax is dependent, over much, on the pre wedding night chat wherein the mother of the bride to be, has a few brief minutes in which to impart to the can only be virginal and unsuspecting daughter, what to expect in the marriage bed. The literal fact of this chat is something enormously foreign to a modern reader, even a modern, upper crust society New Yorker. In this, the modern reader is asked to remember that there is also the purely emotional aspect of this intimate moment between mother and daughter.
Moving to the decade labeled as the 1860’s, The Spark there is a bit of a problem with the dates. The events that so effected (Sparked) the personality of its male character, did take place during the American Civil War. The time period of this novella’s events had to have been sometime after 1869. The ending of this story is much in line with the kinds of reversals made famous by O’Henry but it could only have been in Edith Wharton’s Old New York.
The last Novella, is titled New Years. On the surface an ultimate in our list of stories centered on what Wharton called “subtle revolts against the heartlessness of social routine” is a tad forced and too dependent on the reads willingness to suspend disbelief. A woman is an adulterer, but can we or New York honestly pass judgement given aspects of that which can never be spoken?
Edith Wharton writes well. She can be viciously subtle in the application of much needed satire. She can change moods in succeeding sentences. That is, she has fine control of her art and tight focus on where she is leading her reader. I am not sure if I have exhausted my interest in this slice of New York, and only in this time, but I trust Ms. Wharton make of any additions to this shelf a great read.
The first, with an O’ Henry twist, by way of EW is False Dawn. Rich daddy wants art. Not for Arts sake, but because walls filled with the approved names is socially desirable. Well Daddy can afford what he wants, right?
Next is Old Maid. Considered the best known and most liked. Two sisters allow themselves to drift from being highly desirable marriageable women, to the pitiful status of Old Maids. The one sister is raising as an orphan, a girl who is secretly the child of the other. Over time the biological mother must deal with putting the emotional and practice needs of her unaware daughter in front of her desire for the motherly love reserved for her parenting sister. Much of this drama is deftly handled with the full value of its attending emotions. The success of the climax is dependent, over much, on the pre wedding night chat wherein the mother of the bride to be, has a few brief minutes in which to impart to the can only be virginal and unsuspecting daughter, what to expect in the marriage bed. The literal fact of this chat is something enormously foreign to a modern reader, even a modern, upper crust society New Yorker. In this, the modern reader is asked to remember that there is also the purely emotional aspect of this intimate moment between mother and daughter.
Moving to the decade labeled as the 1860’s, The Spark there is a bit of a problem with the dates. The events that so effected (Sparked) the personality of its male character, did take place during the American Civil War. The time period of this novella’s events had to have been sometime after 1869. The ending of this story is much in line with the kinds of reversals made famous by O’Henry but it could only have been in Edith Wharton’s Old New York.
The last Novella, is titled New Years. On the surface an ultimate in our list of stories centered on what Wharton called “subtle revolts against the heartlessness of social routine” is a tad forced and too dependent on the reads willingness to suspend disbelief. A woman is an adulterer, but can we or New York honestly pass judgement given aspects of that which can never be spoken?
Edith Wharton writes well. She can be viciously subtle in the application of much needed satire. She can change moods in succeeding sentences. That is, she has fine control of her art and tight focus on where she is leading her reader. I am not sure if I have exhausted my interest in this slice of New York, and only in this time, but I trust Ms. Wharton make of any additions to this shelf a great read.
