Old New York

2020 Reprint of the 1924 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition and not reproduced with Optical Recognition software. Old New York (1924) is a collection of four novellas by Edith Wharton revolving around upper-class New York City society in the 1840s 1850s 1860s and 1870s. The decades indicated in the subtitles to the stories make them prequels so to speak to The Age of Innocence. All five might as well be cut from the same bolt of cloth sharing settings characters social insight a similar knowing eye for a telling detail and the occasional prop (a canary coach an ormolu clock).Originally published in 1924 these tales are vintage Wharton dealing boldly with such themes as infidelity illegitimacy jealousy the class system and the condition of women in society. Included in this quartet are False Dawn which concerns the stormy relationship between a domineering father and his son; The Old Maid the best known of the four in which a young womans secret illegitimate child is adopted by her best friend -- with devastating results; The Spark about a young mans moral rehabilitation which is sparked by a chance encounter with Walt Whitman; and New Years Day an O. Henryesque tale of a married woman suspected of adultery. Old New York is Wharton at her finest.