Rating: 
Summary: Slow at times, but solid
Review: This book shares the story of a truly conflicted young woman, Lily Bart. Her character is vivid and keeps you reading through passages where Wharton almost tries to drive you away with her verbosity. Not the best book I've ever read but decent none the less.
Rating: 
Summary: A great classic...
Review: I thought the book was very much like Jane Austin's works which is probably one of the reasons I liked it. It gives a great picture of society at that time and I enjoyed Wharton's writing style. I wouldn't call Lily Bart a tragic heroine. I wanted her to find happiness, but I didn't pity her. Even as she tried so desperately to get into a society she condemned. I also enjoyed other characters, sometimes more that Lily Bart. I thought Wharton did a good job developing some of the other characters as well (Miss Farish, Seldon..)
Rating:
Summary: Wharton's best!
Review: I think this is comparable to Anna Karenina, a tragic heroine who only fails because she at once plays by and with the rules of her society. I enjoyed reading other reviewers' troubles with it as a truly fine novel must disturb and implicate its readers. Lily Bart is one of the all time great fictional characters. I also want to recommend to fans of this book Nathaniel West's "Day of the Locust."
Rating: 
Summary: Why are we supposed to care?
Review: I can not recommend books that do not have protagonists I can like or understand. Lily's character has values that I reject and is unable to even live within them, so I do not find her unhappy end to be very affecting. If Wharton wanted to rail on Lily's society, why did she try to make us pity a member of it whose main redeeming wuality was her appearance?
Rating:
Summary: Better than Henry James, Still topical
Review: One of the only books i've bought at amazon.com that I actually read all the way through and liked. Couldn't put it down. The mimimalization of women by society still exists in this fashion. Hard to believe she died in 37. She is one of the best writers I've read in a while. Better than Henry James
Rating:
Summary: "Interesting Subject Matter"
Review: "The House Of Mirth" by Edith Wharton and Anna Quindlen is a much spicer novel than most readers would expect it to be. This story has it all. The rise and fall from grace, scandal, intrigue, social stature, lost love, broken hearts, and etc... I really enjoyed this novel very much! If you enjoy getting lost in a good book "The House Of Mirth," is the book to top! (Interesting Subject matter makes this a Must Read Novel to be sure!)
Rating:
Summary: Don't hate me, but...
Review: I really disliked this book, and I think I'm one of the only people on Amazon.com who isn't going to give this book praise. Not only did I find Lily Bart an annoying heroine (her only goal during the entire book is to get married, hopefully to a rich person) but I also found Edith Wharton's writing convoluted and overly complex. Wharton could've said some things in a simpler, more direct English but she chooses to write in a highfalutin fashion, using SAT-type words and overly convoluted sentence structures. In my opinion, Wharton comes across as just another early 20th century woman writer who tries way too hard to impress others with her complicated writing. The book, while depicting the social strata of early 20th century New York very well, is just another book by a self-impressed female writer about a very weak female character. Now, I am a female myself, and I frankly have no time for these female authors and their books about wimpy girls. Forget about Wharton. I'd much rather read something by Dickens, Hemingway, or Fitzgerald.
Rating:
Summary: A Brilliant Novel Of A Brittle Society And A Tragic Heroine.
Review: Edith Wharton's "The House Of Mirth" is a sad, but brilliant commentary on the closed, repressive society of the rich, upper class, New York nobility, at the dawn of the 20th century. It is also the story of the downfall of one woman, who attempts to live by her own rules, with no sponsor and no money of her own. Her parents are dead and she lives with relatives.Lily Bart is one of society's most eligible women, at the height of her powers, when the novel opens. Though she has little money, she has family connections, good breeding and the hope of coming into an inheritance. Beautiful and very charming, Lily has been brought up to be an ornament, as were most women of her class at that time. She is a gilded bird with a noble heart, but clearly she is not aware of the restrictions of her cage. Part of Lily's tragedy is that she does have character, spirit, and a conscience. However, she does not know how to align these attributes, with her ornamental avocation, and her ambitions to marry a wealthy man of good birth. As expected, Lily is popular with both bachelors and married men. Most of the bachelors propose marriage at on time or another. The only man she has real affection for is her dear friend, Lawrence Seldon, a barrister, whose lack of income makes him entirely unsuitable as a husband. Lily had developed a gambling habit to support her lifestyle, and supplement her allowance. An unfortunate losing streak has put her into debt. In her naivete, she forms an unsavory business alliance with a married man. Later, she is unjustly accused of having an affair with him and their business arrangement also come to light. Her family cuts her off without a penny. Society friends and connections reject their former darling, trying to extricate themselves from any repercussions Lily's indiscreet behavior may have on their reputations. Former friends turn vicious. The irony is that Lily has never committed any of the sins she is accused of. Several of her friends have, and frequently...but their sins are committed with the utmost discretion. Lily's crime is indiscretion. Her beaus disappear, as do her marriage prospects. The hypocrisy of her class becomes more apparent to her, as she searches for a means to survive, with all the familiar doors closed in her face. Lily seeks employment as a seamstress in the New York City slums, and lives there also, in a humble room with no refinements. Having no formal training and no real ambition, (her ambivalence about work is obvious), she sinks into deep depression and begins to decline. Laudanum helps her to sleep, and she becomes dependent on the drug. Lily's descent, from society's beautiful darling to a disheveled, desperate woman living in a shabby hotel room, addicted to drugs, is disturbing reading, to say the least. Her decline seems inevitable, especially after we read of her many poor and self-destructive decisions. She seems to sabotage herself. However, Lily Bart is ultimately the victim of a cruel society that sacrifices anyone who does not conform to its expectations. After reading "House Of Mirth," for the first time several years ago, Lily's character has remained clear in my mind. I think of her from time to time with great poignance and a sense of personal loss.
Rating: 
Summary: Cold Winter of Marginalized Women
Review: Wharton's darker view of out-of-step women in very different social circumstances is depicted in Ethan Frome and this famous novel, The House Of Mirth. Lurking in the gilded world of Lilly Bart are many twists and turns that torment the incautious souls. Like her counterpart, Mattie in E.F., Lilly is lulled by the power of her own beauty and flames a rebelliousness that ignites a spark to fast-drying opportunities. Though she waivers between eligible men who guaranteed lifelong protection, her passive resistance to the iron-clad social constraints, her failure to respect the rules, placed her at odds with the fates. The world retaliates against rebellious people. Lilly, unfortunately, had not that iron shield of deep resolve or strength of ideals, to bolster her in her ambivalence. This novel has many of the same elegant settings, grand estates and social affairs of Wharton's other works. In this story however, they exist like the dark sky, site of her falling star. Breathless, classic and mythic.
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.
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