New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-10-14

Mrs. whartons new book is another sign OF
the times. In these days of exposures, with
business and politics coming under ruthless
scrntiny. il is perhaps inevitable that fashiona-
bic life should have its turn. The House OF
Mirth" might well be the report of kind Of
social commission It embodies case and
one can almost see the heroine, Lily Bart, IN
the witness box; one can almost hear the prose-
cutting attorney demanding that this or that bit
Of evidence be admitted to the records as Ex-
hibit A" We can imagine the book being called
g satire but only with accuracy If the same
word may fairly be applied to a judges charge
TO the jury. At the same time, Mrs Wharton
is too skilful to let her novel degenerate into
g tract. The story. a story is 1mpeccanle.
Though the author is not the first in the heId'
she is the first to make really powerful and
brilliant book out of the material ohered by
American fashion TO the novelist. The House
of Mirth' is full of social documents" and we
dare say that much Of its certain popularity
VIII be due to its vivid pictures of the little
world of wealth and pleasure But If it leaves
a deeper and more lasting impression than Tor
example THE Valley of Decision, the only
other thing which Mrs Wharton has done on so
large a scale it viii be because it exhibits her
in full possession of the art of fiction This is
a sterling piece of craftsmanship, a tale which
interests the reader at the start and never let's
him rest till the end is reached
Its heroine is presumably a type Lily Bart
has individual traits but she is above all things
q daughter of her place and time. girl of mod
er7r New-York born and bred to enjoy herself
But neither her father nor her mother has any
notion Of terrifying her character against pos
sfble misfortune and when Mr. Bart dies. q
ruined man. his Widows reflections on the well
fare OF their daughter run in this wise; only
one thought consoled her and that was the con-
temptation of Lily's beauty. She studied it with
a kind of passion. though it We're some
weapon she had slowly fashioned for her Ven
geance. It was the last asset in their fortunes
the nucleus around which their life was to be
rebuilt" That life was itself devoid of any re-
iations calculated to save Lily from her train
ing. Her parents had been rootless, blown
hither and thither on every wind of fashion.
without any personal existence to shelter them
from its shifting gusts. She herself had grown
up without any spot of earth being dearer
TO her than another there was no centre OF
early pieties of grave endearing traditions, TO
which her heart could revert and from which it
could draw strength for itself and tenderness
70. others" Thus handicapped when her mother
dies, Lily Bart goes TO live with rich old aunt
a Mrs Pension. The latter's house and her
life are models of dull propriety, but Lnys
asset" endures, and with money enough avail
able TO keep her going in her own set, at least
until her at;stere kinswoman dies and leaves her
a fortune she starts in pursuit of her natural
Trey-a rich husband. She is Diana the huntress
in modern ball gown. armed with the deadly
weapons Of wit and beauty
II this were all Mrs. wharton's story would
soon be told. but from some mysterious source
Lily has acquired the instinct of revolt 1t is
not her beauty alone that marks her out from
her familiars and wins their homage. She makes
;e cd in
on her friend Selden's view of the matter. He
was aware that the qualities distinguishing her
from the herd of her sex were chiefly external;
though a fine glaze Of beauty and fastidious-
ness had been applied to vulgar clay. Yet the
analogy left him dissatisfied. for coarse texture
will not take a high flnish-and it not pos
sible that the material fine. but that cir
cumstance had fashioned it into futile shape?"
Seden's dubiety is shared by the reader. who
never knows at a given moment what Lily is
going TO do or be in the next. She herself is
frequently at a loss to decide She has glimpses
of higher ideal. Sometimes family. sometimes
clearly-and with rush of emotion that almost
amounts to conviction-she sees the truth Of
that verse in Eccesastes from which the title
of this novel is taken. But if she realizes that
the heart Of fools is IN the house of mirth' she
is too much the creature of her surroundings
to throw prudence to the winds and fly from
that comfortab bic mansion. She likes being
good" she says of Gerty Parish. the humble foil
to her loneliness and splendor. and like being
happy" Elsewhere the author says:
She had a vision of Miss Farish's craplped fat
with its cheap conveniences and hideous wall
papers No; she was not made for mean and
shabby surroundings. for the sQualid compromises
o. p9gyeTtyo, Her whole being dilated in at
required, the only climate she could breathe in
There is nothing for her to do. then. but to
make the best she can Of her monde-and what
monde 1t is This is a novel of manners even
more than it is a novel of character and Iily's
associates as Mrs Wharton paints them, I'M
hinchingy and at fun length make appalling
company. It is not that they do nothing but
amuse themselves, overfeed intrigue. gamble
and gossip-since these are the employments of
more people In the twentieth century than any
single stratum Of society could accommodate
but that they selfish and so heartless as
almost to dehumanize themselves and their
transactions. Their common impulse is to-
ward the service Of their caste. We hear il said
that human nature is the same in all ages. but
society is not. and the human nature encoun-
tered in The House of Mirth' is. to al unprec-
edented degree. the slave of society, swayed by
passion for conformity which transcends the
passions of love and hate Adventures are to
the adventurous. and while one of Balzac's
women would make much Of dining at the can
onical hour, she would make more of meeting a
ciandestine appointment. Lily and her friends
ara" oacK from the sharper tests. They are all
for appearances and the world well lost and
though Lilys whole history is Influenced bv an
indiscretion committed in the first chapter her
struggle is never with an heroic issue hut ALWAYS
on a pedestrian level Perhaps I might have
resisted a great temptation" she says. but the
little ones would have pulled me down" They
do pull her down, and what makes her as pitia-