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Feb 16, 2010

Jason rated it:

Lily Bart, the protagonist of Edith Wharton's stunning first novel, is introduced to the reader as a young woman traveling within high society. While her blood and wealth may place her on the fringe of that society, her "pale" beauty (as it is continuously characterized throughout the novel) elevates her within its ranks. Lily is marriage material. And within Manhattan's high society at the turn of the century, women are meant to marry; and in order to marry women are meant to maintain More...

11 comments like (35 people liked it)

Dec 29, 2007

Shannon rated it:

This book has inspired my next tattoo. That is some fine literature. (And I am sure that if Edith Wharton were alive today, she would appreciate the tribute.)

I have this theory that the mark of great literature is that no matter how many times you read it, you can always plausibly hope, as a reader, that things might turn out differently in the end. Not that the actual ending is wrong; it's just that the character of Lily Bart is so alive for me, I seriously believe she might make a More...

2 comments like (17 people liked it)

Aug 22, 2007

Ashley rated it:

I started this book earlier in the year, but couldn't really get into it. As it turns out, the book gets really interesting at about the exact same place I stopped reading before. I'd recommend this book for all of the "Jane Austen Haters" out there (and I keep stumbling onto them for some reason), because the ending would probably please you. It's not as pretty as it would be if Austen wrote this. I've heard this book described as a brilliant commentary on upper class society, but More...

3 comments like (8 people liked it)

Aug 15, 2011

Paula rated it:

Dear Ms. Wharton,

I recently finished your book, The House of Mirth and am once again left disappointed. I so very much want to love your books. Your style of writing is beautiful and real, but the characters, oh the characters! I feel like I get to know them so well, and feel such hope for them, only to be crushed down at the end!

Let us not start with Lily Bart as that would be jumping in rather hastily. First, let's discuss the handsome Lawrence Selden, that book-loving, More...

15 comments like (6 people liked it)

Mar 26, 2011

Eric rated it:

I completely soured on this by the end of Book I and start of Book II. I really don't want to finish it, but I might when in a better mood. The melodrama of Gus Trenor's attempt on Lily's virtue and of Lily's flight to Gerty really disgusted me; that's not the Wharton I like, the lofty and relentless social anatomist of The Age of Innocence. It was horrible to see Wharton's cool, classic prose break down into the exclamation marks and fervid dashes of a Gothic romance. In addition to the mawkish More...

11 comments like (7 people liked it)

Mar 29, 2008

Maggie rated it:

I need to clarify here. Did I love it? No. Would I read it again. Probably. Would I recommend it to others? Probably. Did I recognize that it was beautifully written? Of course. The nuances of every thought, every move were so beautifully told. Do I realize the important part the book played in advancing the lives of women. Well yes. I guess I just wasn't fully engaged in the book. It didn't take me away. I just kept thinking "Oh you stupid woman." I also just may have i More...

1 comment like (12 people liked it)

Jun 25, 2008

Martine rated it:

I love books about people who perish for staying true to their principles, regardless of what these principles are. I also love books which make me wonder what I would have done in the hero/heroine's situation -- whether I would have given in to temptation or let my better self prevail. So I love Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, which delivers on both counts, and then some.

The House of Mirth chronicles the rise and fall of Lily Bart, a stunningly beautiful late-nineteenth-century More...

0 comments like (11 people liked it)

Apr 22, 2008

Laura rated it:

So depressing I had to read two Nancy Drew mysteries afterward to cheer up. This is Edith Wharton’s other masterpiece, a Gilded Age tragedy of the beautiful and charming Lily Bart, who is trained only to be an ornamental wife — a big problem if you care who you marry and you’re dependent on relatives for money. Although essentially honorable, Lily does have her share of weaknesses and more than her share of bad luck. Assisting her inevitable downward trajectory is a society full of opportunistic More...

1 comment like (14 people liked it)

Oct 02, 2007

michael spencer rated it:

9/26: An introduction and a few pages in, and already one should knows whether they will love it or hate it; I am of the former. What wit!

9/27: Indeed, sarcasm begins with Edith. Hilarious! It makes one wonder how many people actually read her work thinking she was somehow in favor of this lifestyle - which just supposes to make the reader's laughter more frequent.

10/1: Wharton obviously spent a lot of time paying attention to symbolism, character development and how to u More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 05, 2009

Jenn rated it:

I absolutely loved this book. I remember really enjoying Ethan Frome in High School, and, while I haven't read The Age of Innocence, I love the film, which gives such wonderful life to Wharton's words. When I started reading The House of Mirth, I kept hearing the narration in the voice of the Narrator from the Age of Innocence film. Then I began to realize how different this novel was. While the Age of Innocence shows how stifling the social aspects of upper crust New York society can be, t More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 17, 2010

SarahC rated it:

I often like stories where the characters are patchwork colors rather than black and white. Lily Bart is like that for me. The exquisitely beautiful Lily is in a defined situation-- raised to be a leading competitor in the marriage market, setting her sights on the upper crust of early 20th century New York society. Her parents have both died after a decline in the family fortune and she is living under the charge of a less-than-caring aunt. From that starting point, we watch Lily, a strong, s More...

5 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 20, 2011

Dana rated it:

Okay, I didn't finish it, I'm on page 41, I'm just not sure I can or want to continue reading. Wharton feels such contempt for all of her characters. A sort-of friend describes Lily as

...a captured dryad subdued to the conventions of the drawing-room; and Selden reflected that it was the same streak of sylvan freedom in her nature that lent such savour to her artificiality.

Ouch. Of one potential victim slash husband:

She had been bored all the afternoon by Pe More...

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Oct 16, 2008

Tyler rated it:

Superbly written naturalism. The words fit together in sentences like gemstones in a jewelry setting.

5 comments like (7 people liked it)

Oct 16, 2011

Jen3n rated it:

I read this ages ago and recently picked it up again on a whim. I remembered vaguely not enjoying it, but couldn't remember why. Well, now I remember.

Lilly Bart, the protagonist on the novel, if that's what you want to call her, is so shockingly stupid as to make one wonder who she continued remembering to breathe long enough to get into trouble with Gus or become "dingey." Christ on a bike: this book should have been subtitled "Or How An Apparently Unbelievably Pre More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 27, 2011

Alasse rated it:

This book reminded me of when I used to tutor a particular 15-year-old boy. I'd arrive and he'd be snacking and watching this dreadful MTV reality show called “My Super Sweet Sixteen”. I used to spend a lot of time over there, so I caught enough bits and pieces of it to feel thoroughly revolted.

Those of you in the USA have probably seen it – it follows over-privileged kids as they organize and throw their lavish 16th birthday parties. But what I find scary about it aren't the 6-figur More...

4 comments like (9 people liked it)

Aug 11, 2009

Sherien rated it:

Edith Wharton is such an amazing author! Her works up until this minute haven’t disappointed me. Everything about her idea/theme, how she portrays her characters, how she describes the scenes in such detailed-beautiful language, how she pours out her character's mood and expression, and how she gives a twist and ironic edge in the actions and conflict is all so...so...amazingly crafted!

Again, Wharton tells a story about the society she comes from: the New York High society with all i More...

6 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 03, 2008

Amelia rated it:

There were elements of this book I enjoyed, but I really couldn't force myself to get into it. For all that Lily Bart was a somewhat interesting character, I couldn't force myself to care overly much about her-- until maybe the last 3 chapters (and those last three chapters are probably why I'm not rating this as two stars). Also, the plot seemed to just go in a circle through the entire novel-- Things are about to go well for Lily. Lily finds a way to sabotage things for herself. UST with S More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 24, 2008

Kim rated it:

This book stunned me. I had no idea that Edith Wharton was so brilliant. I remember reading Ethan Frome in high school and thinking it was just way too depressing. I love reading authors as an adult and finding their prose luminous and wise...it makes you realize how little you knew as a teenager. Maybe we shouldn't even read classics in high school...I digress.
The thing that struck me about Wharton is her ability to dissect the female mind with a cold and objective accuracy. She has an al More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 20, 2008

Misfit rated it:

"The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth" Ecclesiastes 7:4 KJV. Hence begins the story of Lily Bart, raised from birth with no other purpose in life than to be a beautiful ornament to society. Lily is left with little money of her own and must rely on family and friends until she can make an advantageous marriage. Unfortunately, she makes some poor choices in life which diminish her social status, which eventually leads her to More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 30, 2008

Jee rated it:

Undecided

It's hard to feel any sympathy for, or identification with, Lily Bart. Moving among the nouveau riches of New York City, she aspires to marry someone wealthy. In her better moments, she wishes to transmute the money into something finer in life, to create beauty. But, more often, she wants the money in order to lead a life of ease, to escape from her horror of shabbiness. Unfortunately, Lily seems to own the knack of sabotaging her own well-laid marital schemes. Her eventual More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 27, 2008

Anna rated it:

I had the great delight of hosting a friend over the weekend. We knew each other throughout college, lived down the hall from one another, and constantly figured in the other's socializing--but somehow, the two of us never grew close. That's what happens when you move within a circle of mutual friends for years.

Well, by Sunday, we agreed that our friendship had grown startlingly stronger. And I'll wager that this happiness is, in part, due to Edith Wharton.

I've had a copy More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Mar 25, 2008

Debbie rated it:

A great book! And one of the most beautifully written in my opinion. Every sentence Edith Wharton pen's is poetry-some of the analogies and metaphores she uses just floor me! I think I have half of the book underlined/highlighted.
Set amongst the affluent society of the New York upper-class during the turn-of-the-century, she tells the story of Lily Bart; A young woman of 29 set on marrying a rich husband. Lily is in a constant battle with herself, torn between the luxurious lifestyle of More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 29, 2007

sera rated it:

I was inspired to pick up this book when a 50 year old female director that I worked with in NYC did not know who Edith Wharton was. Mind you, this woman is rolling in dough, top of her respective game. I guess I thought that people who make it in NYC, especially in that age group, have a clue about art and the world. Boy, was I totally wrong.

The irony of the situation is that this book is all about NYC high society in the 1800's. Sure enough, the people that inhabit the world More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 19, 2007

Alexa rated it:

It's amazing how contemporary this book still feels today. Lily Bart, a privileged young woman, finds herself dependent on the kindness of friends once her family fortune is ruined. She longs for independence, but her social position and her desire to maintain the lifestyle she once knew keep her from living life on her own terms. Her desperate need to remain in society, combined with her distaste for some of its strictures, eventually leads to her downfall.

Although today's women ca More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 27, 2011

Kathleen rated it:

MY. FAVORITE. BOOK. EVER. So complicated, yet so simple. I have read this book more than ten times and loved it more each time. Still extremely relevant, as Lily Bart struggles against the limitations on women's choices and refuses to accept compromises until it is too late. Triumphant.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 25, 2009

kira rated it:

The five consecutive episodes I watched of The Real Housewives of New York City a few days before I finished this book really enhanced my reading experience. Seriously. I think it would be fascinating to write a paper on the socialite experience in NYC at the turn of the century and today.
Anyway, I think this is the first Wharton novel I've read. Love her.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 29, 2012

Margaret rated it:

I read Ethan Frome about a year ago, and loved it. This was similar in a lot of ways. I really enjoy the way Wharton deconstructs the behavior and thoughts of her characters in the absence of much actual action. The House of Mirth gets deducted points for it's incredibly sappy ending.It makes me think I should give Henry James another shot. I tossed a short story collection of James after The Turn of The Screw failed to be even slightly creepy to me. But hey, I'm older, wiser, and for some reaso More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 10, 2011

Christine added it

This is a difficult book to get through. It is long, with elaborate descriptions and many superficial characters. Of course, this was all done purposefully by Edith Wharton, and is meant to reveal a lot about the intricacies of society at that time.Of course, the problem is always balancing the sympathy and the condemnation of a society who values appearances and status over morals or thoughts about the greater good. Wharton, however, does a good job of balancing these two feelings. Lily is the More...

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Mar 27, 2009

Stephen rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 13, 2009

Sarah rated it:

This story took much longer than I kept expecting it to. What I mean is that as I read the book, I kept expecting the author to wrap up the situation and end the tale. I was constantly surprised by how much contintued to unravel (and I kept marveling at how many pages I had yet to read). The book wasn't unpleasant and I didn't wish for it to end sooner than it did--the main character, Miss Lily Bart, was on a path that I couldn't imagine could continue.

What I truly appreciated a More...

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