The Spark

Old New York #3

by Edith Wharton

One of four books constituting Edith Wharton's "Old New York" series. The other volumes are: "False Dawn--The Forties"; "The Old Maid--The 'Fifties"; and "New Year's Day--The 'Seventies."

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Short Stories, American

109 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1924

About the author

Edith Wharton emerged as one of America’s most insightful novelists, deftly exposing the tensions between societal expectation and personal desire through her vivid portrayals of upper-class life. Drawing from her deep familiarity with New York’s privileged “aristocracy,” she offered readers a keenly observed and piercingly honest vision of Gilded Age society.

Her work reached a milestone when she became the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, awarded for The Age of Innocence. This novel highlights the constraining rituals of 1870s New York society and remains a defining portrait of elegance laced with regret.

Wharton’s literary achievements span a wide canvas. The House of Mirth presents a tragic, vividly drawn character study of Lily Bart, navigating social expectations and the perils of genteel poverty in 1890s New York. In Ethan Frome, she explores rural hardship and emotional repression, contrasting sharply with her urban social dramas.

Her novella collection Old New York revisits the moral terrain of upper-class society, spanning decades and combining character studies with social commentary. Through these stories, she inevitably points back to themes and settings familiar from The Age of Innocence. Continuing her exploration of class and desire, The Glimpses of the Moon addresses marriage and social mobility in early 20th-century America. And in Summer, Wharton challenges societal norms with its rural setting and themes of sexual awakening and social inequality.

Beyond fiction, Wharton contributed compelling nonfiction and travel writing. The Decoration of Houses reflects her eye for design and architecture; Fighting France: From Dunkerque to Belfort presents a compelling account of her wartime observations. As editor of The Book of the Homeless, she curated a moving, international collaboration in support of war refugees.

Wharton’s influence extended beyond writing. She designed her own country estate, The Mount, a testament to her architectural sensibility and aesthetic vision. The Mount now stands as an educational museum celebrating her legacy.

Throughout her career, Wharton maintained friendships and artistic exchanges with luminaries such as Henry James, Sinclair Lewis, Jean Cocteau, André Gide, and Theodore Roosevelt—reflecting her status as a respected and connected cultural figure.
Her literary legacy also includes multiple Nobel Prize nominations, underscoring her international recognition. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature more than once.

In sum, Edith Wharton remains celebrated for her unflinching, elegant prose, her psychological acuity, and her capacity to illuminate the unspoken constraints of society—from the glittering ballrooms of New York to quieter, more remote settings. Her wide-ranging work—novels, novellas, short stories, poetry, travel writing, essays—offers cultural insight, enduring emotional depth, and a piercing critique of the customs she both inhabited and dissected.

Reviews

[Rebecca Russavage · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is SO interesting! And so…thoughtful. Edith, you old dog, you even made sure to fold into this male story the mention of Mrs. Ward as the foremost novelist of the time.

[Hayley · Rating 2 out of 5]

This short story was a disappointment. Not quite sure what the purpose of the story was nor was there much of a plot.

[Meg · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really didn’t understand this one. A man, who fought in the civil war, marries a younger woman who is the daughter of a disgraced man. And while his father-in-law is not welcome in the house for years, the man takes him in at the end of his life and cares for him while his wife and children leave so as to not be tainted by his old scandal. When caring for the old man, he tells his friend about another old man during the war who came to his bedside when he was in the hospital and espoused wisdom. He lamented that he didn’t know the man’s name. Years later, he discovered that the old man from the war was a famous poet (named Walt, could it be Walt Whitman?) who wrote a book of poetry and he was somehow disappointed or embarrassed by this discovery. Odd.

[#DÏ4B7Ø Chinnamasta-Bhairav]

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To SEE a WORLD in a Grain of Sand,
And a HEAVEN in a Wild Flower,
Hold INFINITY in the palm of your hand
And ETERNITY in an Hour"
~ William Blake ~

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“Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. And between the two my life flows.” Nisargadatta Maharaj

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Form is Emptiness; Emptiness is form.
Form is not different than Emptiness;
Emptiness is not different than form
~ Heart Sutra ~

Like the ocean and its waves,
inseparable yet distinct

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" I and The Father are one,
I am The Truth,
The Life and The Path.”

Like a river flowing from its source,
connected and continuous

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Thy kingdom come.
Let the reign of divine
Truth, Life, and Love
be established in me,
and rule out of me all sin;
and may Thy Word
enrich the affections of all mankind

A mighty oak tree standing firm against the storm,
As sunlight scatters the shadows of night
A river nourishing the land it flows through

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[False · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Spark, a novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edith Wharton, is a timeless story of love and loss set in the late 19th century. It follows the life of Ezra Strudwick, a young and ambitious entrepreneur, who is faced with the challenge of juggling his career and his love life. As his ambitions unravel, he must face his own weaknesses and the consequences of the decisions he makes. Through the dramatic events that unfold, readers are taken on a journey of self-exploration, learning the importance of appreciating life’s moments and staying true to one’s heart. This captivating novel is an exploration of the human condition, a must-read for anyone looking for a romantic and thought-provoking read.

The Spark: The 'Sixties is the third novella in her Old New York tetralogy, stories revolving around upper-class New York society in the 1840s, 1850s, 1860s, and 1870s. The Old New York novellas serve as prequels to Wharton's masterpiece The Age of Innocence.

[Claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third novella in the "Old New York" series and it was a bit of a disappointment for me after reading the second one-"The Old Maid". The story is basically a psychoanalysis of Hayley Delane, an upper-crust, wealthy banker in 1860's New York. It covers his relationship with his philandering wife—Leila Gracy Delane, her wild father—Bill Gracy, and various wealthy friends including a young man, the narrator, who likes Hayley Delane but tries to figure out just what kind of man he is.
The narrator's ruminations became redundant and annoying to me.

[Rana Al-alwani · Rating 2 out of 5]

• الشرارة
( الستينيات )

تتحدث النوڤيلا عن هَيْلِي دِلين ، و علاقته بزوجته ليلا غريسي .
على لسان الشاب القاص لأحداث ما جرى بينهما حتى النهاية .
جاءت حبكتها ضعيفة و غير مفهومة في بعض الأحيان و مشتتة في أحيان أُخرى ، على رغم قصرها لم تُعجبني كثيرًا


ثالث روايات رباعية نيويورك القديمة لــ إيدث وورتن ، الكاتبة الأمريكية من مواليد مدينة نيويورك ( 24 يناير 1862م - 11 أغسطس 1937م )
نُشرت هذه النوڤيلا للمرة الاولى عام 1924م .
هذه التجربة الأولى لي مع كتاباتها ، التي اتسمت بوصفها المحايد لمجتمع أثرياء نيويورك الأُرستقراطي الراقي ، فكيف لا و هي سليلة عائلة تنتمي لهم ؟!!!



أَعطيت تجربتي ⭐️ ١/٢

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my favorite of these, but still pretty good. My favorite line was this one:

“People, I had by this time found, all stopped living at one time or another, however many years longer they continued to be alive.”

[Cory · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe I like this story so much because of my fascination with the Civil War since childhood, which as it's mellowed has bent into interest in what was happening in the hearts and minds of the people who lived through it and remembered (and forgot) it. Or maybe it's actually a really good story.

[Leora Ifrailova · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Life has a way of overgrowing its achievements as well as its ruins.”

[Satu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely novella with interesting characters. I was a bit lost at first, but when I started again from the beginning I got into the world.

[Anthony · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one was somewhat hard to follow and the premise was boring.

[Andy Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting. Not very tight for a novella. The thread is a young man narrator who has a love or hero worship for an older married man. The qualities of the older man are gradually revealed. At first he seems a bit of a simple soul trying to deal with a flirtatious younger wife and her wastrel father. But most readers will no doubt soon come to admire his kindness and sense of honour upheld even against contrary conventions of the day as the story moves through its different phases. I probably didn't quite get the reference to him having met Walt Whitman and to his poetry at the end.

[Vel Veeter]

In this novella, a young man is more or less obsessed with an older man (in a friendly slash mentorly kind of way). He is pained when the older man’s wife yells at his object of obsession, but he slowly starts to realize he doesn’t know as much about the man as he once thought. But this is comedic story, so it’s not a dark secret. Instead, he finds out that this older man had fought in the Civil War, a fact that shocks him because he never ever talks about ti. Indeed, he was wounded at Bull Run/Manassas, spent time in a Washington DC hospital, but now is mostly known to be a socialite and a polo player. That he never ever talks about his past alarms and intrigues the younger man.

This is a kind of funny story about stories, and how the stories themselves can be kind of disappointing if the person who lived them isn’t that into them themselves.

“This is not a story-teller’s story; it is not even the kind of episode capable of being shaped into one. Had it been, I should have reached my climax, or at any rate its first stage, in the incident at the Polo Club, and what I have left to tell would be the effect of that incident on the lives of the three persons concerned.

It is not a story, or anything int he semblance of a story, but merely an attempt to depict for you–and in so doing, perhaps make clearer to myself–the aspect and character of a man whom I loved, perplexedly but faithfully, for many years.”

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I read and re-read more Edith Wharton, I am coming to the conclusion that she was angry about many things. And rightfully so: I don't mean that as a criticism. It's good to see a woman so angry and articulate.

[Txe Polon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A diferencia de las otras obras que configuran esta serie, se trata de una historia un tanto sosa en la que Edith Wharton no termina de imprimir ni su maestría en la caracterización de los personajes, ni su tono irónico que tanto deleita en otras de sus obras.

[LB · Rating 2 out of 5]

While a great fan of Ms Wharton's novels, I am under the impression, after reading several of her shorter works, that those are not her strongest suit. Somehow this story lacks the poignancy and the punch of her better works. It's a little slow and dull, and doesn't seem to convey a real message.

[Julia Florek Turcan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars just for the jab at Walt Whitman. Heh.