description: The House of Mirth tells the story of Lily Bart, aged 29, beautiful, impoverished and in need of a rich husband to safeguard her place in the social elite, and to support her expensive habits - her clothes, her charities and her gambling. Unwilling to marry without both love and money, Lily becomes vulnerable to the kind of gossip and slander which attach to a girl who has been on the marriage market for too long. Wharton charts the course of Lily's life, providing, along the way, a wider picture of a society in transition, a rapidly changing New York where the old certainties of manners, morals and family have disappeared and the individual has become an expendable commodity.
language: English
title: The House of Mirth
titlecomplete: The House of Mirth
characters: Simon Rosedale, Gerty Farish, Carry Fisher, Julia Peniston, George Dorset, Bertha Dorset, Lily Bart, Lawrence Selden, Simon Rosedale, Judy Trenor, Gus Trenor, Percy Gryce, Bertha Dorset, George Dorset, Gerty Farish, Ju, Gus Trenor, Lawrence Selden, Lily Bart, Percy Gryce, Judy Trenor
genres: 20th Century, American, New York, Historical Fiction, Historical, Novels, Literature, Classic Literature, Classics, Fiction
ratings_count: 95492
places: New York City, New York, New York (State)
publisher: Unknown