The House Of Mirth

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Summary: The House of Mirth: Reviewing a classic
Review: Edith Wharton's, The House of Mirth provides an intelligent portrayal of the "Gilded Age", reflected in the extravagant lifestyle of those daily participating in what was New York society. Readers are introduced to Lily Bart, a witty, smart and manipulative member of the higher class. After enduring serial tragedies in her life she finds herself in a financial predicament,unaccepted in her society. With the use of her beauty and charm, she adroitly finds her way back into the better side of economic wellness, seeping through the elegant façade of her surroundings. Her arrangements soon return to harm her instead of benefiting her.
This novel is an extremely smart and eye-opening look into the daily aspects of women and men's roles during the turn of the century (1905). Marriage played an essential part of women's lives, while society condoned men never marrying. For women, marriage was a way of escaping financial ruin or social shame-men being their saviors. Lily Bart the lead character in this novel transcends society's views on female roles and leads a self-governing life while maintaining social accord. False relationships and soon failing economic arrangements drive Miss Bart into never-ending poverty. She finds herself struggling to support the extravagant demands that her lifestyle requires; yet that she so vehemently refuses to depart. Miss Lily Bart's strong love for "the finer things in life" eventually clouds her increasingly harsh days and rapidly deteriorates into oblivion.



Rating:
Summary: The enigma of Lily Bart
Review: Can anyone truly tell me under what category our enigmatic Lily Bart should be placed? She's such....well.. an enigma, that she's difficult to put a finger on (no pun intended). Is she an antihero, a bona fide heroine, or somewhere stuck in the middle? In any event, at times I shook my head in disgust at some of her less than wise decisions, while I applauded and cheered as she undergoes a striking, yet tumultuous, epiphany of sorts that makes her all the more endearing and palpably real to the reader.

Seemingly infinite wealth, preeminent social status, and unmitigated decadence form the shaky foundation of Edith Wharton's fictional and frictional, yet highly plausible, house -- a house that, ironically enough, is conspicuously devoid of mirth. There exists, however, a method to Wharton's madness. As the bible verse(Ecl 7:4) states from which she nabbed the title, "...the heart of fools is in the house of mirth." As Lily is inexorably extricated from this house of miserable frivolity, I found it increasingly difficult to nonchalantly label Lily a failure, but rather as a heroine of noble courage.

The sheer genius of Wharton's amazingly fluid and enormously readable prose deftly concludes with "the word which made all clear" for Lily Bart and Lawrence Selden. The beauty of this is that Wharton does not lower herself and overtly spell it out to the reader as so many hackneyed authors do; instead, she places her blind faith in the astuteness of the reader to discern for oneself.

Note: for those ordering the large print version, it is well worth it for the contemporary reviews written in 1905 as well as Edith Wharton's correspondences to Charles Scribner, but do not, however, read the intro by Elizabeth Hardwick before the text due to the fact that she inexcusably reveals the denouement in her so-called "introduction."

Rating:
Summary: Good piece of classical literature
Review: For those individuals who complain about poorly developed characters, this is the book for you. Lily Bart, and most of the other characters in this novel, are well fleshed out. Athough Lily Bart is a classically flawed character, you understand her motivations and those of the other individuals reacting to her. The novel is quite readable and although I am not sure that it should have made the list of the top novels of the 20th century, it is certainly a worthwhile classic to read. It does not end happily; as Anna Quindlen states in the intro, you really can hear a heartbreak at the end of a novel.

Rating:
Summary: A True Classic
Review: I read The House of Mirth for the first time in high school and it quickly became one of my favorite books. I have reread it often. It is a sad story, a story that can (and probably did) happen anytime, anywhere. Lily Bart deserved better. As for Selden, I have always believed that he was too hard on her. Selden was no better than the people who turned their backs on Lily.

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Summary: Mirth? I think not...
Review: Review of "The House Of Mirth"
Stephanie Grumbacher

Edith Wharton's classic, "The House of Mirth", while written well, was flawed in several ways. Wharton's over-dramatic tale of a social climbing girl who needed to grow up lacked emotion altogether. Lily Bart, who is considered a heroine in nineteenth century literature, drags on in unhappiness for 310 pages without ever stopping to think logically about her money or use of time, ending up poor and lonely. She is what women of 2004 would look down upon with disgust: fragile and weak. Yet the book pulls the reader in by trying to understand why Bart would do the things she does. The book becomes seemingly unbearable by Bart's actions, but addicting in a way that you want to see if Lily will come to her senses.

What the novel lacks in description it makes up for in its accurate portrayal of high profile society in the 1800's. Socialites like Bertha Dorset, who used their popularity and "rank" to keep her hold on people. Simon Rosedale thought that his money could get him whatever he wanted, including Lily. As for the dynamic in Lawrence Seldon and Bart's relationship, it lacked depth altogether. It seemed Lily only had one love, that being herself. "The House of Mirth", while an interesting look into the past, was overly drawn out and almost painful to read at points.

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Summary: The sad story of Lily Bart
Review: The House of Mirth is set in the glittering, society-conscious world of New York City shortly after the turn of the century. Lily Bart is a young, single woman who moves easily among the moneyed set even though she herself is just the poor relation of a wealthy, widowed aunt. Lily lives on the generosity of her friends, spending long weekends at their estates playing bridge, distracting husbands whose wives are having affairs or simply serving as a beautiful ornamentation for their dinner parties and lavish get-togethers.

As the story opens, Lily is finding it increasingly difficult to cope with the financial demands that even this kind of lifestyle places upon her. And though she recognizes the shallowness and superficiality of the people in her social set, theirs is the lifestyle that Lily is accustomed to, the one she was raised in and the one in which she wants to remain at all costs. After a series of bad choices and the betrayal of those she thought to be her close friends, Lily is brought down time and again until she is literally on the bottom rung of society's ladder. It is her basic desire to always adhere to a higher code of morality that will ultimately contribute to Lily's final downfall and tragic, untimely end.

This novel is a harsh commentary on the New York society scene of Edith Wharton's era and the ruthlessness with which its members could either embrace or discard one of their own. Lily is her own worst enemy and while she seems to be inherently of better character than her society friends she is not above looking with disdain at those outside her social circle and repeatedly turns away from opportunities that would bring her true happiness and fulfillment. By the time she realizes the enormity of the mistakes and miscalculations she has made there is nothing she can do to alter the tragic course her life will take. A colorful and well-written novel but overall very sad and depressing.

Rating:
Summary: Hmmm...
Review: This book is notable because it gives the reader an inside look at the ultra-rich old-money upperclass of a century ago.

The main character, Lily Bart, I found totally unlikeable. One can't feel sorry for someone who has had boundless opportunities to get a better deal in life than all but a few, but she squanders all of her opportunities because none meet her ideal of perfection.

What she's looking for is a life of being ultra-rich where she can boss around an army of servants and never have to do any work, and her only acceptable route for getting there is to marry someone that rich. But it's not enough that her husband merely be filthy rich, but that the money be old money and not new money, that he be good looking and intelligent. This, of course, is all too much for anyone to ask for. So she rejects the man who has old money and is good looking but is as dumb as a brick. She rejects the man who is smart and filthy rich but is fat and ugly and, oh my god, Jewish! And she rejects the man who is good looking and smart, but merely an upper middle class lawyer who can never buy her two mansions full of servants.

Lily is also horrified at the notion of actually EARNING money. The process by which men become super-rich repulses her (which is why only inherited money is pure).

You don't necessarily have to like the main character in order for a book to be a good book. But I found the book hard reading, mostly due to all the names that are thrown at the reader which soon become very hard to keep track of, and the oblique manner in which so many of the books major plot points are described, making it easy for the casual reader to get completely lost.

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Summary: Don't accept imitations
Review: This is the original "Sex and the City" and a century and the alleged sexual revolution have not lessened its sting. Any single woman of the present day can recognize some of herself in Lily Bart--the optimism, the refusal to settle, the accumulating horrors of growing old in the sexual marketplace. Even the economic details aren't far off--it's a nasty struggle to make it on your own in New York, and a lot of women seem to count on an "ATM" (see "Bergdorf Blondes") or rich boyfriend to make ends meet. As the years pass, this becomes less of an option, and all of us fear the modern version of the drudgery that Lily endures toward the end. A thought-provoking if somewhat depressing story, full of lavish period detail and Wharton's trademark precise and elegant prose. Read it and weep.

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Summary: House of Girth
Review: What I *love* about this book are the characters. The characters in this book are so spiteful and malicious that you can't help but find yourself drawn into the tragic story of Lily Bart. After a series of unfortunate events, each more disastrous than the last, Lily finds that she has fallen from the highest rung of society to the very lowest of the working class. This book is about the viciousness of so-called "friends" and the self-destruction that befalls a woman in the early 1900s who wishes to remain single and free but is pressured to marry before she's too old. As social commentary, this book is excellent, and it's fairly entertaining. A good read.