Talk:The House of Mirth

message: I'm pretty new to Wikipedia so I don't want to go about deleting stuff I shouldn't, but this article is so full of high school analysis of the characters--isn't this a bit inappropriate? Shouldn't a brief and impersonal overview of the characters be enough rather than in-depth and opinionated analyses? I'm not sure the article really needs parts like, "Aside from personality and appearance, Lawrence really isn't much of a catch." OK Chickadee (talk) 22:27, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I am reworking the character section to put in a more in-depth description of each character based on expert critics' analyses of the essential characteristics of each character important to the development of the plot. I have stayed away from personal editorializing and use Mrs. Wharton's descriptions as well to sift who the character is.  The hardest one is Lilly because she is so multidimensional and conflict-ridden.
I have added detail to the plot so that it will not seem like a book report which it still does. Are there any objections to the changes in the character descriptions I have made so far?
I have integrated what critics have said about different aspects of the novel through citations and a series of notes that also bear citations.
Boccherini1942 (talk) 08:16, 24 April 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Amateur analysis 

message: This is one of my favorite Wharton novels, and I'm glad to see it getting more attention on Wikipedia. Would providing a more detailed synopsis of each chapter or each of the two books in the novel be appropriate or allowed? For example:
Ch. 1. The novel begins on a hot Monday afternoon in early September, 1900, in New York City. Grand Central Station is crowded with travelers and commuters. Lawrence Selden spots his friend Lily Bart in the crowd and wonders why someone in her position is not still vacationing in the country. Other travellers linger to look at the radiant Lily. The two have known each other for 11 years, and Lily is now 29. Lily is in transit from Tuxedo to visit the Trenors at their estate in Bellomont. 
The two friends stroll out of the station and head northward on Madison Avenue. As they are in Selden's neighborhood, he invites her up to his apartment at The Benedick. It is somewhat risky for Lily to be seen entering a man's apartment, but she characteristically gives the indiscretion no thought for the moment. There, over tea and cake, Lily longs for the freedom men have compared to the constraints suffered by marriageable women like herself. Since her parents' death, Lily lives in the city with her wealthy paternal aunt, Mrs. Peniston, and her unmarried cousin, Grace Stepney. In this conversation, Lily is preoccupied with her marriage prospects, and in a somewhat flirtatious way states that Selden would not be interested in marrying her, and that is the reason why he does not visit her at her aunt's. He replies that perhaps it is because she does not want to marry him that he doesn't feel induced to visit. Lily replies that she already has enough suitors, and what she wants is a friend in Selden. She continues that people are saying that she ought to marry. Selden replies, "Isn't marriage your vocation? Isn't it what you're all brought up for?" Lily runs through her recent marriage prospect: a man named Dillworth, who was discouraged from pursuing Lily by his mother and moved to India. 
While she smokes in Selden's apartment, Lily peruses his library and asks pointed questions about Americana, rare books on America such as one of her suitors collects. Selden knows she is seeking information about Percy Gryce, a wealthy single man who stood to inherit the well-known Gryce collection of Americana. After further discussing the requirement for women like Lily to marry, she leaves him for her train to the Trenor's.  
On the way downstairs, she finds a charwoman scrubbing the staircase. The woman (Mrs. Haffen, who appears again in Bk. 1, Ch. 9), notices her and assumes she is the woman having an affair with Selden. Lily brushes past her, and as she reaches the sidewalk encounters an acquaintance, Mr. Simon Rosedale, who asks what she was doing visiting The Benedick. She tells him she was visiting her dressmaker. He informs her that he owns the building and didn't know there were any dressmakers renting from him. She refuses his offer to accompany her to the station and quickly hails a hansom to take her to the train. 
Is this too much detail? Would it be better to break it into two parts to match the novel? 
Thanks
:Hi, are you still here? It is too much.Sklifnir (talk) 21:43, 29 April 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Hi,  I have taken all the essential parts of what was suggested and put into one opening paragraph with citations.
Boccherini1942 (talk) 08:20, 24 April 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Improve Chapter/Book Synopses