The House of Mirth
A bestseller when it was published nearly a century ago, this literary classic critiquing New York City’s Gilded Age elite established Edith Wharton as one of the most important American writers in the twentieth century—now with a new introduction from Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jennifer Egan.
Wharton’s first literary success—a devastatingly accurate portrait of New York’s aristocracy at the turn of the century—is considered by many to be her most important novel, and Lily Bart her most unforgettable character.
Impoverished but well-born, the beautiful and beguiling Lily realizes a secure future depends on her acquiring a wealthy husband. But with her romantic indiscretion, gambling debts, and a maelstrom of social disasters, Lily’s ill-fated attempt to rise to the heights of society ultimately leads to her downfall.
From the conventionality of old New York to the forced society of the French Riviera, from old money to the nouveaux riches, Wharton weaves a brilliantly satiric yet sensitive exploration of manners and morality. The House of Mirth reveals Wharton’s unparalleled gifts as a storyteller and her clear-eyed observations of the savagery beneath the well-bred surface of high society.
Wharton’s first literary success—a devastatingly accurate portrait of New York’s aristocracy at the turn of the century—is considered by many to be her most important novel, and Lily Bart her most unforgettable character.
Impoverished but well-born, the beautiful and beguiling Lily realizes a secure future depends on her acquiring a wealthy husband. But with her romantic indiscretion, gambling debts, and a maelstrom of social disasters, Lily’s ill-fated attempt to rise to the heights of society ultimately leads to her downfall.
From the conventionality of old New York to the forced society of the French Riviera, from old money to the nouveaux riches, Wharton weaves a brilliantly satiric yet sensitive exploration of manners and morality. The House of Mirth reveals Wharton’s unparalleled gifts as a storyteller and her clear-eyed observations of the savagery beneath the well-bred surface of high society.
BUY THE BOOK
These clubs recently read this book...
Community Reviews
Oh, I so understood Lily Bart. So sincere, seemingly strong, yet so naive and misunderstood, and sabotaged by her own naivete. I was rooting for her all the way, even when I knew she was on a downward spiral with no happy way out.
Lily lives on the fringes of Manhattan's "high society" of the late 19th century. She was well born but not rich and lives on a modest allowance from her aunt. She's torn between rejecting all that the elite, high society members stand for and her own need to sustain membership in that group. Her beauty is legendary, and her aunt has high hopes for a good and profitable marriage for her. But from one disastrous social misstep to the next, these chances are ruined, and her standing in society along with it.
Her old friend Lawrence Selden seems to hover around the fringes too and they both share the desire to retreat from the life but are unable to come to terms with their feelings for each other...
Lily lives on the fringes of Manhattan's "high society" of the late 19th century. She was well born but not rich and lives on a modest allowance from her aunt. She's torn between rejecting all that the elite, high society members stand for and her own need to sustain membership in that group. Her beauty is legendary, and her aunt has high hopes for a good and profitable marriage for her. But from one disastrous social misstep to the next, these chances are ruined, and her standing in society along with it.
Her old friend Lawrence Selden seems to hover around the fringes too and they both share the desire to retreat from the life but are unable to come to terms with their feelings for each other...
There are some vague spoilers here—nothing specific, but about the general trend of the narrative.
This is only the second Wharton novel I’ve read, but I suspect it may her finest work. The best word I can think of is “immersive”—there is depth to the characters, and more than that, every relationship was layered with motives, restraints, and expectations. I was absorbed. Tension permeates Lily’s world, and the more time you spend there, the more you see the peril at every turn. Any single decision has the potential to be The Moment when Lily’s life unalterably changes, and we watch these changes accumulate. There’s no twist or turn that isn’t, in some way, Lily’s doing. Lily herself is both exasperating and heartbreakingly real, which makes her slow unraveling all the more powerful.
I will say, it drags a bit in Part Two; it starts to feel like Lily will just continue along an interminable line of bad decisions. But it regains its momentum, and the full development of Lily’s character makes the closing chapters all the more powerful.
The tragedy of the novel is no surprise, of course. But more than a personal story, it’s a powerful critique of the society itself: the cruelty of social hierarchies, the rigidity of class boundaries, and the impossible expectations imposed on women. Wharton is skillful in capturing it all, and in developing an engaging story of it.
By the way, one real surprise was Rosedale. The anti-Semitism in both Wharton’s descriptions and Lily’s judgments (as well as those of New York society) were troubling, echoing the casual bigotry I noticed in The Age of Innocence. But he turned out to be one of the most complex, real, unexpectedly fascinating characters I’ve come across in a long time.
Wharton brings us into the world of the most elite social ladder one can be apart of in the early 1900's. American wealth is at an all time high and in NY old money is reigning over an incredibly small group of members. Every decision made dictates the quality of life their reputations create. This novel depicts just how brutal the cost of wealth can be for those born into massive fortune and the weight they carry just to survive within their own social circles.
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.