The House of Mirth (Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism)

Rating:
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.

Rating:
Summary: An American novel of manners
Review: The House of Mirth is Wharton's first big novel, and it isn't as good as some of her later works. Nevertheless, Lily Bart, the central character, is well crafted as a woman who cannot reconcile her emotional desires with her deep-seated hatred of what she calls "dinginess" -- financial poverty. The book meticulously depicts her long, slow social downfall as she runs out of money and becomes the victim of malicious rumors spread by her enemies. Ultimately, she cannot marry the man she really loves because he is not rich enough.

The House of Mirth certainly has plenty of juicy elements -- sex scandals, blackmail, gambling, unrequited love, exotic trips to France, etc. It is also a great character study, particularly of Lawrence Selden, who is portrayed as an outside observer looking in on the social world of New York, much like the reader is doing. The social world of the novel is based on the most minute details of all social graces; the book has to be read pretty carefully if you want to get the most from it. Just as all the characters analyze every detail of every other character's actions, so too must the reader. Don't try to use this book as brain candy on a long plane flight. If you've got the time, it's well worth reading, despite some of the cheesy plot twists towards the end.

Rating:
Summary: What catty, evil characters this book has...
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.