The House of Mirth (Norton Critical Editions)

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 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 Rehak

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Very Moving, 2010-03-08
I cannot comment on this particular edition, but felt compelled to review the novel anyway, in the hope that others will read it.

I didn't think I would feel sympathy for Lily, but I don't think I've ever wanted to help a character in any novel as much as I wanted to save Lily. I didn't exactly fall in love with her; frankly she is not my cup of tea. But I desperately wanted to see her happy.

For days I was affected by the end. I was very, very moved.

That said, I do not accept Edith Wharton's sense of determinism; nor do I accept the basic plot, with its scarcity of men. Lily is the most beautiful woman in New York and there are only two or three obnoxious men she can choose from? I found that hard to swallow. I also found it difficult to accept that (even for an unaccomplished woman) it was either a life of frivolity with the rich set, or a life of impoverished loneliness. Even in 1905 there were more alternatives. Lily, for example, could have learned her lesson that the rich were leading shallow lives, and still have found happiness on a lower social scale with a hard working doctor, or a military officer, etc. She also could have left New York and struck out West.

I love the writing of Edith Wharton. And I've read most of her works. But I don't buy the determinism; and I think it was a little strained in this novel.

But Lily is unforgettable.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Protagonist, Blame Thyself, 2010-03-07
High American society, New York, turn of the 19th century: Lily Bart, an associate of the well-heeled who often attends their social functions, has no fortune of her own. What to do? Marry into money. This should be easy enough for Lily as she's found to be beautiful by many of the men who orbit about her, but she seems to have no interest in them. She longs for the trappings of aristocratic life but is unwilling to accept the sacrifices attendant to marrying simply for position. Letting one too many opportunities slip by, and being embroiled in a couple of social faux pases along the way, she eventually finds that she's been dumped by polite society, facing penury in a boarding house.

House of Mirth is of course beautifully written, though the plot moves quite slowly with few truly dramatic punctuations. Lily is a largely unsympathetic character whose motives are not easy to understand and whose actions are often frustrating. Indeed, many of the misfortunes that befall her seem to be of her own making.




0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

sad portrayal, 2010-01-04
It took me all of my adult life to get around to reading this book, and I am glad I finally did, even though it was a terribly depressing story. Wharton's stunning, if dramatic, portrayal of Lily Bart's downfall was well-written and authentic. It was a critical social commentary on the lives and morals of the wealthy of that era....how they lived and schemed, their manipulations and gossiping, and how they can bring someone down.

Lily is 29, unmarried, with no money, dependent on others to provide her with a roof over her head. I think Wharton makes the reader feel Lily's increasing panic as her life get worse and worse, as her efforts to keep her head above water get more and more difficult.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Momentarily obscuring objectivity for romance, 2009-12-16
In favor of reading this novel and in support of The House of Mirth's power to translate emotion and feeling from the world it represents to an empathetic reader, I admit, that, for the first time ever while reading a book, I cried.

This edition is also particularly nice. The print is a good size and the weight of the book is not cumbersome despite its hard cover. More Everyman editions will be added to my library, for sure.


0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Much Ado About Nothing, 2009-11-01
I could only stand reading one third of this book. I found the writing difficult to follow--maybe it requires a higher SAT than mine, I dont know. But, convoluted high-style writing aside, I found the plot unbelievable and rather trivial. I mean, if Lily was the hottie she was supposed to be in the book, then men being what they are, would have been standing in line with a "purple heart on." She wouldnt need much of an IQ either--some men are intimidated by that. If she was a 10, as I gathered in the book, then all she had to do was be nice to any guy and they would melt like butter, even ones with money. When I could see this not happening, building momentum, I lost interest. And the maid who tried making a deal was pretty unrealistic as well. In today's time, she would be making a deal of a different kind--haha--just kidding. Also, the author makes too much of a big deal on appearances. Some people with money dont particularly like to advertise it. Conversely, people who don't try to pretend they have it by over-dressing. Once again, a book in the literarture genre comes up short, at least for me.

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