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Lily Bart must choose between her desire for a husband with wealth and standing, and her desire for respect and love. After rejecting several offers of marriage, she ultimately betrays her heart and destroys her reputation. With “The House of Mirth,†Wharton transforms the novel of manners into an incisive and disturbing portrait of the strictures imposed upon women in the upper class of 1890’s New York society."The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth," warns Ecclesiastes 7:4, and so does the novel by Edith Wharton that takes its title from this call to heed. New York at the turn of the century was a time of opulence and frivoli! ty for those who could afford it. But for those who couldn't and yet wanted desperately to keep up with the whirlwind, like Wharton's charming Lily Bart, it was something else altogether: a gilded cage rather than the Gilded Age.
One of Wharton's earliest descriptions of her heroine, in the library of her bachelor friend and sometime suitor Lawrence Selden, indicates that she appears "as though she were a captured dryad subdued to the conventions of the drawing room." Indeed, herein lies Lily's problem. She has, we're told, "been brought up to be ornamental," and yet her spirit is larger than what this ancillary role requires. By today's standards she would be nothing more than a mild rebel, but in the era into which Wharton drops her unmercifully, this tiny spark of character, combined with numerous assaults by vicious society women and bad luck, ultimately renders Lily persona non grata. Her own ambivalence about her position serves to open! the door to disaster: several times she is on the verge of ! "good" m arriage and squanders it at the last moment, unwilling to play by the rules of a society that produces, as she calls them, "poor, miserable, marriageable girls.
Lily's rather violent tumble down the social ladder provides a thumbnail sketch of the general injustices of the upper classes (which, incidentally, Wharton never quite manages to condemn entirely, clearly believing that such life is cruel but without alternative). From her start as a beautiful woman at the height of her powers to her sad finale as a recently fired milliner's assistant addicted to sleeping drugs, Lily Bart is heroic, not least for her final admission of her own role in her downfall. "Once--twice--you gave me the chance to escape from my life and I refused it: refused it because I was a coward," she tells Selden as the book draws to a close. All manner of hideous socialite beasts--some of whose treatment by Wharton, such as the token social-climbing Jew, Simon Rosedale, ! date the book unfortunately--wander through the novel while Lily plummets. As her tale winds down to nothing more than the remnants of social grace and cold hard cash, it's hard not to agree with Lily's own assessment of herself: "I have tried hard--but life is difficult, and I am a very useless person. I can hardly be said to have an independent existence. I was just a screw or a cog in the great machine I called life, and when I dropped out of it I found I was of no use anywhere else." Nevertheless, it's even harder not to believe that she deserved better, which is why The House of Mirth remains so timely and so vital in spite of its crushing end and its unflattering portrait of what life offers up. --Melanie RehakThis collection was designed for optimal navigation on Kindle and other electronic devices. It is indexed alphabetically, chronologically and by category, making it easier to access individual books, stories and poems. This collect! ion offers lower price, the convenience of a one-time download! , and it reduces the clutter in your digital library. All books included in this collection feature a hyperlinked table of contents and footnotes. The collection is complimented by an author biography. Table of Contents List of Works by Genre and TitleList of Works in Alphabetical OrderList of Works in Chronological OrderEdith Wharton Biography Novels:The Age of InnocenceThe Bunner SistersThe Custom of the CountryEthan FromeThe Fruit of the TreeThe Glimpses of the MoonThe House of MirthThe ReefSanctuarySummerThe TouchstoneThe Valley of Decision Non-Fiction:Fighting FranceIn Morocco Short Stories Collections:Crucial InstancesThe Descent of Man and Other StoriesThe Greater InclinationThe Hermit and the Wild WomanTales of Men and Ghosts Short Stories:AfterwardThe Angel at the GraveAutres TempsThe Best ManThe Blond BeastThe Bolted DoorThe ChoiceComing HomeThe Confessional"Copy" A DialogueA CowardA Cup of Cold WaterThe Daunt DianaThe DebtThe Descent of ManThe DilettanteThe Duchess at Pra! yerThe EyesExpiationFull CircleThe Fulness of LifeThe Hermit and the Wild WomanHis Father's SonThe House of The Dead HandIn TrustA JourneyKerfolThe Lady's Maid's BellThe Last AssetThe LegendThe LetterThe LettersThe Long RunMadame de TreymesThe Mission of JaneThe Moving FingerMrs. Manstey's ViewThe Muse's TragedyThe Other TwoThe PelicanThe PortraitThe Pot-BoilerThe PretextThe QuicksandThe ReckoningThe RecoveryThe RembrandtSouls BelatedThe Triumph of NightThe Twilight of the GodA Venetian Night's EntertainmentThe VerdictXingu Poetry:Artemis to Actaeon, and Other VersesBotticelli's Madonna in the LouvreThe SonnetThis collection was designed for optimal navigation on Kindle and other electronic devices. It is indexed alphabetically, chronologically and by category, making it easier to access individual books, stories and poems. This collection offers lower price, the convenience of a one-time download, and it reduces the clutter in your digital library. All books included in th! is collection feature a hyperlinked table of contents and foot! notes. T he collection is complimented by an author biography. Table of Contents List of Works by Genre and TitleList of Works in Alphabetical OrderList of Works in Chronological OrderEdith Wharton Biography Novels:The Age of InnocenceThe Bunner SistersThe Custom of the CountryEthan FromeThe Fruit of the TreeThe Glimpses of the MoonThe House of MirthThe ReefSanctuarySummerThe TouchstoneThe Valley of Decision Non-Fiction:Fighting FranceIn Morocco Short Stories Collections:Crucial InstancesThe Descent of Man and Other StoriesThe Greater InclinationThe Hermit and the Wild WomanTales of Men and Ghosts Short Stories:AfterwardThe Angel at the GraveAutres TempsThe Best ManThe Blond BeastThe Bolted DoorThe ChoiceComing HomeThe Confessional"Copy" A DialogueA CowardA Cup of Cold WaterThe Daunt DianaThe DebtThe Descent of ManThe DilettanteThe Duchess at PrayerThe EyesExpiationFull CircleThe Fulness of LifeThe Hermit and the Wild WomanHis Father's SonThe House of The Dead HandIn TrustA JourneyKe! rfolThe Lady's Maid's BellThe Last AssetThe LegendThe LetterThe LettersThe Long RunMadame de TreymesThe Mission of JaneThe Moving FingerMrs. Manstey's ViewThe Muse's TragedyThe Other TwoThe PelicanThe PortraitThe Pot-BoilerThe PretextThe QuicksandThe ReckoningThe RecoveryThe RembrandtSouls BelatedThe Triumph of NightThe Twilight of the GodA Venetian Night's EntertainmentThe VerdictXingu Poetry:Artemis to Actaeon, and Other VersesBotticelli's Madonna in the LouvreThe SonnetThis book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery."The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth," warns Ecclesiastes 7:4, and so does the novel by Edith Wharton that takes its title from this call to heed. New York at the turn of the century was a time of opulence and frivolity for those who could a! fford it. But for those who couldn't and yet wanted desperat! ely to k eep up with the whirlwind, like Wharton's charming Lily Bart, it was something else altogether: a gilded cage rather than the Gilded Age.
One of Wharton's earliest descriptions of her heroine, in the library of her bachelor friend and sometime suitor Lawrence Selden, indicates that she appears "as though she were a captured dryad subdued to the conventions of the drawing room." Indeed, herein lies Lily's problem. She has, we're told, "been brought up to be ornamental," and yet her spirit is larger than what this ancillary role requires. By today's standards she would be nothing more than a mild rebel, but in the era into which Wharton drops her unmercifully, this tiny spark of character, combined with numerous assaults by vicious society women and bad luck, ultimately renders Lily persona non grata. Her own ambivalence about her position serves to open the door to disaster: several times she is on the verge of "good" marriage and squanders it at! the last moment, unwilling to play by the rules of a society that produces, as she calls them, "poor, miserable, marriageable girls.
Lily's rather violent tumble down the social ladder provides a thumbnail sketch of the general injustices of the upper classes (which, incidentally, Wharton never quite manages to condemn entirely, clearly believing that such life is cruel but without alternative). From her start as a beautiful woman at the height of her powers to her sad finale as a recently fired milliner's assistant addicted to sleeping drugs, Lily Bart is heroic, not least for her final admission of her own role in her downfall. "Once--twice--you gave me the chance to escape from my life and I refused it: refused it because I was a coward," she tells Selden as the book draws to a close. All manner of hideous socialite beasts--some of whose treatment by Wharton, such as the token social-climbing Jew, Simon Rosedale, date the book unfortunate! ly--wander through the novel while Lily plummets. As her tale! winds d own to nothing more than the remnants of social grace and cold hard cash, it's hard not to agree with Lily's own assessment of herself: "I have tried hard--but life is difficult, and I am a very useless person. I can hardly be said to have an independent existence. I was just a screw or a cog in the great machine I called life, and when I dropped out of it I found I was of no use anywhere else." Nevertheless, it's even harder not to believe that she deserved better, which is why The House of Mirth remains so timely and so vital in spite of its crushing end and its unflattering portrait of what life offers up. --Melanie RehakThis book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
The tragic fall of one of the most heartbreaking characters in American literature, a beautiful socialite wh! o loses her footing in the savage social-climbing world of 19th century New York high society
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Lily Bart has no fortune, but she possesses everything else she needs to make an excellent marriage: beauty, intelligence, a love of luxury, and an elegant skill in negotiating the hidden traps and false friends of New York's high society. But time and again Lily cannot bring herself to make the final decisive move: to abandon her sense of self and a chance of love for the final soulless leap into a mercenary union. Her time is running out, and degradation awaits. Edith Wharton's masterful novel is a tragedy of money, morality, and missed opportunity.
Since its publication in 1905
The House of Mirth has commanded attention for the sharpness of Wharton's observations and the power of her style. A lucid, disturbing analysis of the stifling limitations imposed upon women of her generation, Wharton's tale of Lily Bart's searc! h for a husband of position in New York Society, and betrayal ! of her o wn heart, transformed the traditional novel of manners into an arrestingly modern document of cultural anthropology. With incisive contemporary analysis, the introduction by a leading scholar of American literature updates this increasingly important work.The original CliffsNotes study guides offer expert commentary on major themes, plots, characters, literary devices, and historical background. The latest generation of titles in this series also feature glossaries and visual elements that complement the classic, familiar format.
CliffsNotes on The House of Mirth takes you into the waning years of the Gilded Age and the moral bankruptcy of New York City's elite class. Edith Wharton's story of a woman â€" whose beauty causes men to desire to possess her and women to be jealous of her â€" reflects the complicated struggle of the individual against the social strictures of a powerful, and triumphant, moneyed class.
This concise supplement to the satirically critical! The House of Mirth, helps you understand the overall structure of the novel, actions and motivations of the characters, and the social and cultural perspectives of the author. Features that help you study include
- Chapter-by-chapter summaries and commentaries
- A character map that outline key characteristics and relationships
- Insightful character analyses
- A critical essay about the opulence and emptiness of the Gilded Age
- A review section that tests your knowledge
Classic literature or modern modern-day treasure â€" you'll understand it all with expert information and insight from CliffsNotes study guides.
