The House of Mirth

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An immensely popular bestseller upon its publication in 1905,The House of Mirth was Edith Wharton’s first great novel.Set among the elegant brownstones of New York City and opulentcountry houses like gracious Bellomont on the Hudson, the novelcreates a satiric portrayal of what Wharton herself called “asociety of irresponsible pleasure-seekers” with a precisioncomparable to that of Proust. And her brilliant and complexcharacterization of the doomed Lily Bart, whose stunning beauty anddependence on marriage for economic survival reduce her to adecorative object, becomes an incisive commentary on the nature andstatus of women in that society. From her tragic attraction tobachelor lawyer Lawrence Selden to her desperate relationship withsocial-climbing Rosedale, Lily is all too much a product of theworld indicated by the title, a phrase taken from Ecclesiastes:“The heart of fools is in the house of mirth.” For it is Lily’svery specialness that threatens the elegance and fulfillment sheseeks in life. Along with the author’s other masterpiece, TheAge of Innocence, this novel claims a place among thefinest American novels of manners.