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The House of Mirth

Edith Wharton

Start date: March 1, 2020

Finish date: March 31, 2020

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Jun 14, 2018 Chrissie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audible-uk, france, hf, classics, feminism, usa, relationships, 2018-read, love, nyc

The House of Mirth chronicles two years in the life of Lily Bart. She is twenty-nine years old. She is of the upper-crust New York society at the end of the 19th century, frequently referred to as the Gilded Age. Mark Twain penned the phrase, characterizing the period as one that glittered on the surface but was corrupt underneath. Lily has neither mother nor father and her expensive tastes mean she is running out of money. Her stunning beauty is her trump card, her ticket to marriage.

Wharton t ...more

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Apr 03, 2020 Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... rated it liked it

Shelves: classics, american-lit, read-in-2020, class

The House of Mirth is a tragic story about a beautiful young woman raised in luxury. Miss Lily Bart has been raised to be the wife of a man of social standing in New York society. She has not skills beyond what is expected for a woman in this role. Lily is vain and self-centered. She was a victim of society, but it felt as though she brought it upon herself most of the time. Although her character is complex and flawed, which I generally love, I didn't connect with her at all. I needed to have e ...more

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Feb 26, 2022 Tom Britz rated it liked it · review of another edition

This novel was so frustratingly bad it took forever, so it seemed to read. I never came to like any of the characters, they all came across as gossipy boors. They all thought themselves better than anyone else, as if money itself was the barometer of social respectability.
Even the main character, Lily, spent the whole book asking for a swift kick in the ass. All throughout reading this I kept thinking of the parable of Two Boats and a Helicopter, often told as a joke, most often about a devoutl ...more

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