#357 Edith Wharton's New York

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers

Places & Travel, History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.7 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2021

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

New York's upper class families of the late 19th century lived lives of old-money pursuits and rigid, self-maintained social restrictions -- from the opera boxes to the carriages, from the well-appointed parlors to the table settings. It was leisure without relaxation. In this episode we examine the story of Edith Wharton -- the acclaimed American novelist who was born in New York City and raised inside this very Gilded Age social world that she would bring to life in her prose. She was a true "insider" of New York's wealthy class -- giving the reader an honest look at what it was like to live in the mansions of Fifth Avenue, to attend an elite dinner soiree featuring tableaux vivants and to carry forth an exhausting agenda of travels to Hudson River estates, grand Newport manors and gardened European villas. We can read her works today and enjoy them simply as wonderful fiction -- and incredible character studies -- but as lovers of New York City history, we can also read her New York-based works for these recreations of another era. Is it possible to glimpse a bit of Edith Wharton's New York in the modern city today? Tom and Greg are joined by Wharton lecturer and tour guide Carl Raymond, a historian who has traced her footsteps many times on the streets of New York (and through the halls of her country home The Mount in Lenox, MA.) Also: Join us on April 13, 2013 for a virtual celebration of Gilded Age dining, hosted by Carl, Greg and Tom. boweryboyshistory.com Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, this is Carl Raymond, the host of the Guilded Gentleman History Podcast.
0:05.1	When I appeared as a guest on this show with Tom and Greg back in March of 2021, we hadn't
0:09.8	launched the Guilded Gentleman, a spin-off show of the Barry Boy's History Podcast.
0:15.0	The Guilded Gentleman focuses on the Guilded Age, but also the Bella Puck of France and
0:19.6	England's late Victorian and Edwardian eras.
0:23.0	The life and work of Edith Wharton is one of my passions and one that I dip into regularly
0:27.2	on my show.
0:28.6	I invite you to enjoy all the episodes of the Barry Boy's History Podcast and to join
0:33.6	me as well on the Guilded Gentleman, wherever you find your favorite podcasts.
0:41.4	Episode 357 of the Bowry Boys.
0:44.4	Edith Wharton's New York.
1:04.7	This is Tom Myers.
1:29.6	And in that respect, she was an insider because she was giving us the reader an honest look
1:35.7	at what it was like to dine in the mansions of Fifth Avenue and attended dinner suarez
1:41.4	featuring tablo vivance and carry forth an exhausting agenda of travels to Hudson River
1:49.5	estates on the weekends, Newport during the summer, Europe Greg in the spring.
1:56.3	We can read these works today and soak them in as wonderful fiction and incredible character
2:04.7	studies, but as lovers of New York City history, we can also read her New York based works
2:10.5	for those recreations of another era.
2:14.0	And at Case in Point, listen to how Edith Wharton started her 1920 novel, The Age of Innocence,
2:21.1	by taking us inside the Old Academy of Music, which was down on 14th Street in the 1870s.
2:29.8	On a January evening of the early 70s, Christine Nielsen was singing and foused at the Academy
	...

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