Old New York - False Dawn (The 'Forties') by Edith Wharton (March 28, 2004)
False Dawn is the first book in Wharton's Old New York quartet. Set in the 1840s, the novella is a story of a young art collector Lewis Raycie. Lewis is sent to Europe by his father on the Grand Tour to finish his education. His father gives him the duty of beginning a family art collection of old Masters, which he plans to display in the Raycie Gallery.
He leaves New York, dedicated to return to his love Beatrice "Treeshy" Kent and thrilled to have such an important duty. The reader learns that Lewis’ tastes are in contrast with his father’s early on when he expresses that he thinks his neighbor Edgar Poe is a "Great Poet."
In Europe, Lewis meets John Ruskin, who shows him beautiful, and still un-appreciated artwork. Lewis makes friends with Brown, Hunt, Morris and Rossetti, and puts together a collection of art to bring home. Some of the paintings remind him of Treeshy, who is considered plain, but in these paintings she is the main heroine. His father wants a Raphael and has provided him with experts to locate them, but Lewis brings home paintings by at-the-time unknowns: among them, Piero della Francesca, Giotto and Mantegna.
He believes the pictures will speak for themselves, but his father is disgusted that his son has bought "nonsense." Lewis is disowned, and left with a small yearly allowance and his paintings. He marries Treeshy, and they inherit their Cousin Ebenezer’s New York home. They turn it into a "Gallery of Christian Art" and charge a small fee for admittance. Meanwhile they have a daughter Louisa. The Gallery is trashed by the newspapers, and still no one understands the artwork, but Lewis persists. His sister Mary Adeline helps them last through another year.
Two decades later, the artwork is discovered in an attic. Finally it is recognized as a great and unbelievable collection that is worth millions. Unfortunately, none of the Raycies are alive to see the collection’s fame.
The name-dropping in Wharton’s story is entertaining and the ending is bittersweet. Lewis leaves on the Grand Tour to become a man, and he does. Though he does not end up the man father wants him to be, he becomes a man all the same.
