Helpful Score: 4
What a depressing, but beautifully written book! The writing style is sophisticated and pure. You'll get the impression that the main character, Lily, is destined for a fatal crash, but you'll find yourself screaming at her to make the "right" choices and to defend herself when wrongly accused. Lily is so conflicted in what she thinks she wants and who she really is that you never know whether or not she finally resolves these issues within herself in the end. If you're a woman, you'll be thankful that you don't have the same limitations and ridiculous moral standards that were the societal norm in the early 1900's. Feel free to email with any questions. ~LeAnn
Helpful Score: 2
In spite of the title, this is a sort of tragedy, and it makes you realize (if you are a woman) how glad you are to be living now, and not in the days when a woman practically had to marry to have a life, and had to marry well--never mind love or compatibility--to continue the life to which she was accustomed, unless she was already rich.
This book served to while away some hours waiting in a tax-preparer's office, which were thus saved from their tedium, and I really enjoyed it. I have to warn other readers, though: You will find yourself wanting to scream at the heroine, "No, you goose! Can't you see that if you do that, you'll ruin all your chances?" Lily Bart is both too conscientious for her own good, and too careless. You find yourself beginning to like her.
If you don't want to know the end from the beginning, leave the introduction until afterwards.
This book served to while away some hours waiting in a tax-preparer's office, which were thus saved from their tedium, and I really enjoyed it. I have to warn other readers, though: You will find yourself wanting to scream at the heroine, "No, you goose! Can't you see that if you do that, you'll ruin all your chances?" Lily Bart is both too conscientious for her own good, and too careless. You find yourself beginning to like her.
If you don't want to know the end from the beginning, leave the introduction until afterwards.
Helpful Score: 1
Wharton's classic novel is a study of New York's high society in the late nineteenth century. The heroine, Lily Bart, finds herself victim of a society where appearances are far more important than reality. The constant search for the perfct husband reminds me a little of a Jane Austen novel without the happy ending.
It's a classic and was made into a film with Gillian Anderson.
Very good classic book. Required reading during college, but I read it many times.
Quality Paperback Book Club - 1 of 4 books by Edith Wharton writer of the rich upperclass Gilded Age.
Novel about a young American Society woman raised in NY with high standards whose life changes with the death of her parents. She lives for a time with her Aunt,and spends most of her time visiting the houses of the elite, going to parties, and looking for a husband who can afford her the life she wants to live. Reminded me somewhat of Georgette Heyer's novels, but a bit darker.
Published originally in 1905, made into a movie, this book provides a n accurate portrait of New York's aristocracy and the story of the beautiful Lily Bart and ill-fated attempt to rise to the heights of a heartless society.
I hear this is a love story that will leave you mad at every one in New York.
A scathing portrait of fashionable New York society at the turn of the last century. Lily Bart, the novel's central character,allows numerous marriage opportunities to slip from her grasp due to painful errors and impulses of the heart.
Neither of two friends thought this was a very good intro to Wharton, but I enjoyed the book very much. Such an insightful look at NY society of the period. On to e. Fromme!
This is a tragedy for all concerned. A good book for a book club discussion re the pressures of society. Jeanne Klug
Another of my Wharton faves, it's like glimpsing into an over-indulgent and spoiled era and watching what happens when things go right. And, when things go wrong.
The transformation of Lily Bart from a slightly careless but ambitious beauty into a helplessly unlucky woman fighting for her morality kept me engrossed. At the beginning of the novel, Lily is keenly focused on her goal of having as much of the things that please her as she wants. Because her own family is relatively poor, she depends on her wealthy Society friends to support her by inviting her to stay with them at their houses in exchange for her charm. Even so, she spends too much of her own money on her clothing and on card games with her friends, and although money shouldn't be a problem for her because she has all the skill and beauty she needs to land a wealthy husband, she thwarts until almost all of her prospective husbands drop away and her debt becomes too real for her to go on ignoring it. Then, through a series of poor choices, she imperils her standing in high society.
Lily's self-frustrating choices are the central puzzle of the novel. Although she experiences bad luck, she still had the opportunity and the skill to secure her future with a wealthy man and live her life contentedly, yet she seems to choose not to. And later when she was accused of impropriety, she has the means to overcome that obstacle and clear her name, and again she seems to choose not to. I think it's more than personal pride or stubbornness that forces Lily to steer herself into trouble and keeps her from saving herself time and time again: I think that, having been taught to equate luxury with morality, she does not want to believe the truth about the people she aspires so strongly to be with. She wants to be have money herself, and she wants to achieve these goals using her wit and charm, not by breaking up a marriage or through blackmail.
Lawrence Selden is the perfect complement to Lily Bart. He is too middle-class to be taken seriously as a husband for Lily Bart, he is too detached to become emotionally invested in her drama, and yet he profoundly influences her life. Early on, he half-jokingly questions her ambition to be well married, and marvels that she should really be completely happy just by being materially comfortable. Although she asserts that yes, she is certain that money will make her happy, she can't bring herself to commit to that belief. The security of her future requires her to be locked inside the highest social circle, but emotionally she prefers to be on the outside, insecure perhaps but free like Lawrence. I think she comes to envy him, and that, had she been born male instead of female, she might have been able to live a life of freedom like his. I also wondered if, had she not met him and had her marital ambitions challenged by him, she would have made different decisions. Without his outsider's view of her haunting her, would she have been able to attain her goals? Would she have stayed unexamined and therefore perfectly contented with luxury?
None of the books I have read in the last year or so has affected me much emotionally, but this book moved me more than I expected it to. I would definitely recommend it.
Lily's self-frustrating choices are the central puzzle of the novel. Although she experiences bad luck, she still had the opportunity and the skill to secure her future with a wealthy man and live her life contentedly, yet she seems to choose not to. And later when she was accused of impropriety, she has the means to overcome that obstacle and clear her name, and again she seems to choose not to. I think it's more than personal pride or stubbornness that forces Lily to steer herself into trouble and keeps her from saving herself time and time again: I think that, having been taught to equate luxury with morality, she does not want to believe the truth about the people she aspires so strongly to be with. She wants to be have money herself, and she wants to achieve these goals using her wit and charm, not by breaking up a marriage or through blackmail.
Lawrence Selden is the perfect complement to Lily Bart. He is too middle-class to be taken seriously as a husband for Lily Bart, he is too detached to become emotionally invested in her drama, and yet he profoundly influences her life. Early on, he half-jokingly questions her ambition to be well married, and marvels that she should really be completely happy just by being materially comfortable. Although she asserts that yes, she is certain that money will make her happy, she can't bring herself to commit to that belief. The security of her future requires her to be locked inside the highest social circle, but emotionally she prefers to be on the outside, insecure perhaps but free like Lawrence. I think she comes to envy him, and that, had she been born male instead of female, she might have been able to live a life of freedom like his. I also wondered if, had she not met him and had her marital ambitions challenged by him, she would have made different decisions. Without his outsider's view of her haunting her, would she have been able to attain her goals? Would she have stayed unexamined and therefore perfectly contented with luxury?
None of the books I have read in the last year or so has affected me much emotionally, but this book moved me more than I expected it to. I would definitely recommend it.
An immensely popular bestseller upon its publication in 1905, THE HOUSE OF MIRTH was Edith Wharton's first great novel. Set among the lelgant brownstones of New York City and opulent country houses like Bellomont on the Hudson, the novel creates a satiric portrayal of what Wharton herself called 'a socity of irresponsible pleasure-seekers' with a percision comparable to that of Proust.
And her brilliant and complex characterization of the doomed Lily Bart, whose stunning beauty and dependence on marriage for exonomic survival reduce her to a decorative object, becomes an incisive commentary on the nature and status of women in that society.
From her tragic attraction to bachelor lawyer Lawrence Selden to her desperate relationship with social-climbing Rosedale, Lily is all too much a procuct of the world indicated by the title, a phrase taken from Ecclesiastes: "The heart of fools is in the house of mirth." For it is Lily's very specialness that threatens the elegance and fulfillment she seeks in life. Along with the author's other masterpiece THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, this novel claims a place among the finest American novels of manners.
....taken from the back cover of the book
And her brilliant and complex characterization of the doomed Lily Bart, whose stunning beauty and dependence on marriage for exonomic survival reduce her to a decorative object, becomes an incisive commentary on the nature and status of women in that society.
From her tragic attraction to bachelor lawyer Lawrence Selden to her desperate relationship with social-climbing Rosedale, Lily is all too much a procuct of the world indicated by the title, a phrase taken from Ecclesiastes: "The heart of fools is in the house of mirth." For it is Lily's very specialness that threatens the elegance and fulfillment she seeks in life. Along with the author's other masterpiece THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, this novel claims a place among the finest American novels of manners.
....taken from the back cover of the book
Includes a new introduction by Anna Quindlen!
The book that established Edith Wharton's literary reputation. Lily Bart, the beautiful, intelligent 'poor relation' struggles to survive in turn of the (last century) New York society.
You know, I really, really liked The Age of Innocence (and the movie), but I just can't get into this one. It's such a famous book, and she's such a famous author; I'm sure this one'll get snatched off the iinternet in no time. (Notice the semicolon. I have read Eats, Shoots and Leaves.)
This has incorrectly come up as a board book. This is not a board book, it is a PAPERBACK!
