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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.
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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."
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Summary: Fascinating look at 1900 NY
Review: Excellent view of life in the early 1900's among the New York rich, and by contrast the lives of ordinary people. Especially interesting was Wharton's descriptions of the different levels of upper class society, depending on how the people made their money and how they spent it. I read it in two days; couldn't put it down! It reads amazingly well for a book written at that time; you would expect convoluted, dense sentences but her writing style is clear. I felt as if I understood Lily Bart in the end and found her a sympathetic character, in spite of her scheming.
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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.
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Summary: An American Classic
Review: High school students are often assigned Ethan Frome, and the Age of Innocence gained many readers because of the movie, but this is the Edith Wharton book that everyone should read. In many ways, this is similar to a Jane Austen book in which a member of the upper echelon of society has money problems and needs to marry well in order to stay at the same level of society. Forces and other people are contriving against her, but there seems to be at least one man who would be a good match for reasons of love. The first twist here is that the good match is not financially well off and therefore won't be able to support the heroine as she wants to be supported. Lily Bart was orphaned many years ago, and her family had been financially ruined before that. However, she is accustomed to beautiful things and wants to continue to live at the top level of society. Unfortunately, her heart and soul long for more than these creature comforts. She yearns for excitement, intellectual and emotional honesty and probably true love, although she is confused about that. As she has gotten towards her late 20s, her prospects are dwindling and the only person who has the resources to support her and is already a part of polite society is Percy Gryce, a singularly boring man. Lily rebels against Gryce just as she is about to marry him when she has a couple of heartfelt conversations with Lawrence Selden, a person she decides she might love, but who makes clear that he is not rich enough to support her as well as she should be supported. Her choices other than Gryce are slim. There is Simon Rosedale, who is portrayed as an upwardly mobile person and therefore undesirable. He is also Jewish, which Wharton never overtly says is a problem with him for Lily, but probably figures into Lily's calculus (Wharton mainly talks about his Jewishness in the context of saying that Rosedale is more patient and able to face disappointment than others in his position because of what his people have dealt with over the centuries). I have to admit that, unlike Ethan Frome and The Age of Innocence, it took me a while to get into this book. Perhaps, I picked up this book to read a story of Old New York and manners and was not ready for such an intense character study. But once I got to page 100, the last 250 pages went by in a flash. It is beautiful and eminently interesting. You will be interested in every twist in the story. A couple of words of caution. If you buy this edition with the Anna Quindlen introduction, DON'T READ THE INTRODUCTION FIRST. It gives away too much in the first page--when I stopped reading it until after I finished--and the rest of the introduction gives away the rest of the plot. Finally, as with Jane Austen books, the actions of the male characters are often either inscrutable or irrational. It may be that men actually acted like this in the early 20th Century (or 19th for Austen). But I think it more likely that Wharton is misconstruing the male characters in ways that male authors almost always do with female characters. But this is a minor flaw, especially since Lily is so central to this book.
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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: MY FRIEND LILY BART
Review: I stumbled upon a review of the recent film of THE HOUSE OF MIRTH in the TLS and, in order to have the novel firmly fixed in my mind (that is, before the lush, seductive images of film forever eradicated Wharton's novel from me) I dragged my copy off the shelf for a re-read. It had been 16 years since I last read of Lily Bart and her life, and I didn't realize how much I had missed her. For me, this is one of the great reading experiences, one of a handful that make reading a book the deeply moving and human exchange that it is. Despite the distance of wealth, property, time and manners, Wharton manages to make Lily's world and life palpable to anyone who will listen. The clash of money, morals, personality and circumstance is infinitely developed and played out in front of a never fading natural world. Once again, I was deeply moved by Lily Bart and at the end, felt I had lost someone myself.
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Summary: Where the heart of the fools is
Review: It is a strange society. Everybody is being watched, every single move, words; they dress code reveals a lot: women with big hats, men with fancy suits and top hats. This is the society they are trapped into. It is very hard to get into it, and easy to be dumped out of. This is the world where Edith Wharton's characters from 'The House of Mirth' inhabit: the early XX Century New York. Actually this is the world where Wharton herself lived in. Lily Bart is a marriageable orphan who is trying to marry a rich man. Her first victim is Percy Gryce, a very rich and insecure man, guided by his mother. When this attempt fails, her friendship with Laurence Selden almost leads to a match, but rumors of her being friends with married man, only brings her ruin and social exclusion. A series of unfortunate events --among them losing money in gambling-- and a very mean 'friend' called Bertha Dorset lead Lily to the ruin. More than anything, 'The House of Mirth' is a study of the social condition of the New Yorker wealthy women in the early XX century. Rather than being a heroine, Lily is a human being struggling with her problems. She is neither rich nor strong enough to be independent, so that marriage is the only way of keeping a comfortable life, unlikely man. Early in the novel, Lily and Selden are discussing marriages and she says that 'a girl must, a man may if he chooses'. This states clear the difference of men and women, the lack of freedom, and the way people have to live under the social establishment if they want to succeed. Writing as an insider --and so she was-- Wharton is able to give a faithful and acid view of that society. Inspired from a verse in the Bible, she titled the novel with a wonderful contradiction; there is neither a 'house', nor 'mirth' in the novel. They both are very abstract ideas that we get from the book. '[Lily Bart was] so evidently the victim of the civilization which had produced here, that the links of her bracelet seemed line manacles chaining her to her fate'. I believe the writer felt this same way --maybe that's why she moved to Europe and lived there for many years. Personal connections to the book aside, Edith Wharton has written one of the best American books of the XX Century. Her prose is brilliant, and her story engaging.
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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.
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