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The House of Mirth (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century)
A black comedy of manners about vast wealth and a woman who can define herself only through the perceptions of others. The beautiful Lily Bart lives among the nouveaux riches of New York City – people whose millions were made in railroads, shipping, land speculation and banking. In this morally and aesthetically bankrupt world, Lily, age twenty-nine, seeks a husband who can satisfy her cravings for endless admiration and all the trappings of wealth. But her quest comes to a scandalous end when she is accused of being the mistress of a wealthy man. Exiled from her familiar world of artificial conventions, Lily finds life impossible.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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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.
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