description: Set among the elegant brownstones and opulent country houses of turn-of-the-century upper-class New York, Edith Wharton's first great novel is a precise, satiric portrayal of what the author herself called "a society of irresponsible pleasure-seekers." Her brilliantly complex characterization of the doomed Lily Bart, whose stunning beauty and dependence on marriage for economic survival reduce her to a decorative object, is an incisive commentary on the status of women in that society. Lily is all too much a product of the world indicated by the title, a phrase taken from Ecclesiastes: "The heart of fools is in the house of mirth." From her tragic attraction to bachelor lawyer Lawrence Seldon to her desperate relationship with the social-climbing Rosedale, it is Lily's very specialness that threatens the fulfillment she seeks in life. Time after time, Lily fails to make the ultimate move, to abandon the possibility of a greater love and enter into a mercenary union. This masterful novel from one of literature's greatest voices is a tragedy of money, morality, and missed opportunity.
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: Craig Black