The House of Mirth - Background and Resources

[Deborah, Moderator]

Please post any background information or resources for our June book here.

[Casceil]

Does anyone know of a particularly good annotated edition? I'm very spoiled by my annotated Northanger Abbey.

[Deborah, Moderator]

Casceil wrote: "Does anyone know of a particularly good annotated edition? I'm very spoiled by my annotated Northanger Abbey."

I feel the same way. I ordered a Norton critical edition that is annotated. I haven't received it yet, but will give you my opinion upon receipt.

[Casceil]

Thank you.

[Lily]

Deborah wrote: "... I ordered a Norton critical edition that is ann..."

In general, Norton editions are excellent. Usually not true "annotations," but excellent reviews, including from the days of original publication, and lots of background material Unfortunately, the type font is often rather small for me these days. But one can combine with ebook for the text itself and use only the commentary.

What has Bloom done with Wharton? In general, I also enjoy his interpretive collections, usually a number of knowledgeable essays by literary critics on the text.

Also fun would probably be to use the index in Hermione Lee's biography Edith Wharton to look at the sections that deal with the creation of The House of Mirth. (I did some similar background on Thomas Hardy last year when reading Jude and finally felt like I began to crack that novel a bit.)

[Lily]

http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/vie...

I will return to this 35p thesis on Lily. It should not be read before completing the book if you care at all about spoilers. (I have read THoM at least once, probably twice.) I haven't decided how useful this paper is going to be, but, so far, at least worth reading.

The works cited suggest there may be a Cambridge Companion that would be a useful accompaniment. Perhaps The Cambridge Companion to American Realism and Naturalism: From Howells to London, would have to look more closely to be certain.

A The Cambridge Companion to Edith Wharton edited by Millicent Bell is available. I have liked her work on Henry James.

The table of contents on this looks interesting, too:
The Cambridge Introduction to Edith Wharton by Pamela Knights.

[Lily]

Carol J. Singley has a couple of books on Wharton:

Edith Wharton: Matters of Mind and Spirit

A Historical Guide to Edith Wharton

Their TOCs can be seen at their Amazon entries.


Also Edith Wharton edited by Harold Bloom may be in some library collections. While there is one specifically for The Age of Innocence, apparently none exists for The House of Mirth.

[Madge UK]

Great links Lily, thanks.

Critic Elizabeth Hardwick wrote that in HoM Wharton exposes "the best and the richest society of New York" to be "pimps cruising in Cadillacs." !

From my Annotated Kindle edition:

'The title comes from Ecclesiastes 7:4 'The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.' The manuscript had originally been titled "A Moment's Ornament", a reference to
Wordsworth's poem "She was a Phantom of Delight." Wharton's working title for the book was "The year of the Rose."

'The House of Mirth is the fourth book by Edith Wharton, published in 1905. It sold 140,000 copies between October and the end of December, adding to Wharton's existing fortune. The House of Mirth was written while Edith Wharton lived at The Mount, her home in Lenox, Massachusetts. Although The House of Mirth is composed in the style of a novel of manners, set against the backdrop of 1890s New York upper-class society, it is considered American literary naturalism. Wharton places her tragic heroine, Lily Bart, in a society that she describes as a "hot-house of traditions and conventions".'

'The book received a favorable review in the New York Times, saying it was, 'A novel of remarkable power'... There followed months of letters to the Times, arguing over the book. Some readers were enthusiastic fans, while others felt that the book unfairly impugned the city's social elite.'

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americannovel...

[Madge UK]

Common Themes and Elements in Naturalism

Objective presentation of subject; almost like scientific investigation/esperimentation

Rejection of supernatural explanations for situations or events

Heavily influenced by the scientific theories of the time, particularly Darwin's.

Nature seen as essentially ambivalent to man at best, hostile to man at worse

Human beings are part of nature and subject to its laws--no spiritual force or soul separates them from other animals

Man seen as an animal driven by instinct

Man as a product of his environment

Man as a product of his heredity

Behavior is determined more by instinct than by reason

Determinism/Social Determinism

Nihilism

Fatatilism

Chance, Fate, Destiny

lack of free will

importance of science, biology, sociology, Darwinism

Nature as a dominant image contributing heavily to character and themes

[Vicky]

In case anyone is interested, here are the illustrations to the first edition of the book: http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/whar...

I wasn't all that familiar with the clothing of the period, they helped.

[Madge UK]

Thanks Vicky, very evocative.

[Casceil]

Thanks, Vicky. The illustrations are very interesting.

[Lynnm]

MadgeUK wrote: "Common Themes and Elements in Naturalism

Objective presentation of subject; almost like scientific investigation/esperimentation

Rejection of supernatural explanations for situations or events

H..."

Thanks for this, Madge. Nice list of the themes.

[Lynnm]

Casceil wrote: "Does anyone know of a particularly good annotated edition? I'm very spoiled by my annotated Northanger Abbey."

Casceil - I was in my University library the other day and saw the annotated Northanger Abbey...what a beautiful edition. Not only the annotations but the artwork as well.

I wish I had found it before I read the book, but alas, I didn't realize they had it until we were almost finished.

[Lily]

Vicky wrote: "In case anyone is interested, here are the illustrations to the first edition of the book: http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/whar... ..."

Nice. Thank you, Vicky.

[Mary Lou]

Vicky wrote: "In case anyone is interested, here are the illustrations to the first edition of the book: http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/whar...

I wasn't all that familiar with the clothing o..."

What jumped out at me aside from the fashion was that Lily seemed to have a haughty expression in most of these illustrations. I've only read the first few chapters and don't know what to expect from Lily, so I don't know if this was intentional, or just the artist's style.

[Marie]

Those illustrations are amazing!! I love Edwardian/Gilded Age fashion.

[Teresa]

If you see the film with Gillian Anderson, it is really well done, I thought.

[Mary Lou]

Teresa wrote: "If you see the film with Gillian Anderson, it is really well done, I thought."

I'll look for it - thanks!

[Lily]

"Suffocating in Society And Unable to Escape"
By MICHIKO KAKUTANI

"The theme that would preoccupy Edith Wharton throughout her life was the idea of society and its power to shape (and destroy) individual lives. As the survivor of a stifling, upper-class childhood, and a socially correct but emotionally and sexually barren marriage, Wharton was familiar firsthand with the suffocating wages of convention. And in the course of an exceptionally long and productive career, she would turn this painfully acquired knowledge into enduring fiction."

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/06/boo...
(May require subscriber password to access; not sure.)

[Deborah, Moderator]

Lily wrote: ""Suffocating in Society And Unable to Escape"
By MICHIKO KAKUTANI

"The theme that would preoccupy Edith Wharton throughout her life was the idea of society and its power to shape (and destroy) ind..."

I'm bone weary so didn't try the link (yet). So well said Lily

[Lily]

The following is an excerpt of the commentary on THoM in Jane Smiley's 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel:

(view spoiler)[“Wharton does not condemn or satirize Lily’s world, but neither does she glamorize it. She does not question Lily’s preference for this world, but she does present the world coolly, inviting the reader to observe that, while it is a world full of beautiful things and places, delightful treats and privileges, it is also cold and destructive, a world where it is easier to damage than to do good, easier to exclude than to connect. Therefore the reader is left to question whether there was ever any hope for Lily, since her preferred environment is one in which her sensibility cannot be satisfied.

“Lily’s problem is not being disposed of against her wishes, but disposing of herself against her wishes. Wharton indicates that the problem is not solved by female freedom of choice, only complicated by it. Without parents to push her, Lily can’t act. Having passed the age of ignorance and becoming an astute observer of those around her, she is too far gone—paradoxically, it is not she who is past being desirable, but her surroundings, mansions and privileges and all, that are past being desirable enough to compel the fatal choice among the various less than ideal mates.

“The House of Mirth also raises an interesting formal question. Although Lily’s fall is dramatic and compelling, it is not especially representative and therefore not especially meaningful. Her unique qualities of beauty and circumspection combined with the special nature of her milieu—great wealth and impeccable breeding—mean that her story is not susceptible to being generalized. Lily’s interest for Wharton, and for Lawrence Selden, is that she is unique on the surface and unique underneath. It is only in her psychological profile—her nascent identity as a case study—that she becomes like others, like people who may be reading about her, for example. But a novel is different than a case study in that it looks past surface distinctions to the similarities underneath. Therefore, though Lily is interesting to witness, she is hard to learn from. Every novel of fatal decline has intrinsic dramatic excitement (à la Thérèse Raquin), but Lily’s decline is so specialized that The House of Mirth falls just short of greatness.” pp 126-7 (hide spoiler)]

Not a review with which I necessarily agree, but strong enough and interesting enough that I quote it here. This book of Smiley's includes her comments on some 100 novels as well as twelve chapters discussing various aspects of novels. It takes space (a tome), but I am sorely considering adding it to my reference works collection. (I am currently using a library copy.)

[Deborah, Moderator]

Lily wrote: "The following is an excerpt of the commentary on THoM in Jane Smiley's 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel:

“Wharton does not condemn or satirize Lily’s world, but neithe..."

Interesting. Thanks for sharing it. I disagree with the lack of greatness comment :)

[Lily]

Deborah wrote: "Interesting. Thanks for sharing it. I disagree with the lack of greatness comment :) ..."

Most welcome. I guess one of the places I disagree with Smiley is the ability to "learn" from the story of Lily Bart. For me, the basic learning always has been, life may have its artificial demands ("rules"), but don't be self destructive on top of them. Maybe that is over simplifying the story too much -- although carrying out such is not always easy.

[Kat]

Lily wrote: "The following is an excerpt of the commentary on THoM in Jane Smiley's 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel:

“Wharton does not condemn or satirize Lily’s world, but neithe..."

I find Smiley's 2nd. paragraph, about female choice complicating things, very interesting. But in the next par. her assertion that the events befalling characters must be representative to be meaningful seems to me almost bizarre. Perhaps she says earlier things in her book that would clarify this for me.

It makes me think about the distinction the critic Northrup Frye makes between realist novels, which he says are about specific individuals, and "romances" (he includes Moby Dick and Wuthering Heights, among other novels, in this category) which are about "representative" characters who are standing in for a larger group. I'm sure he would or did find Mirth to be in the former classification.

[Lily]

Kat wrote: "...which are about 'representative' characters who are standing in for a larger group...."

I have been finding Smiley's commentaries on the 100 novels she includes in 13 Ways... to be fascinating insights into HER as a writer as well as fun reviews of books both read and unread in my own reading oeuvre (as many of you know, I have read too much to care much about spoilers; I sometimes like to know about the gist of books I may never have a chance to read in their entirety). I noted her comments in this piece on "representative characters" because several of us commenting on the 21st Century board believe she has used such characters in her current trilogy which opens with Some Luck.

[Lily]

Kat wrote: "...in the next par. her assertion that the events befalling characters must be representative to be meaningful seems to me almost bizarre...."

I agree. Smiley's reasoning there seemed a bit convoluted -- which I find not unique to this commentary, yet part of the fascination of perusing her reviews, partly because these sort of stop one's reading and stimulate one's arguing with her!

This sentence did catch one essence of the Lily Bart story as I read it:

“Lily’s problem is not being disposed of against her wishes, but disposing of herself against her wishes."

I did not feel I should replicate the entire review here, but an earlier line that caught my ear was:

(view spoiler)["However much the reader may deplore Lily's downward spiral (which Wharton depicts in graphic detail), and however much the reader may wish for Selden to rescue her, it is clear from the first time she enters his apartment that he is incapable of really connecting with Lily or with anyone else. Her circumspection finds its echo in his core selfishness." (hide spoiler)] That is a harsher assessment of Selden than my own reading has been.

(I do encourage others to take a look at some of Smiley's reviews of those 100 novels if at all so inclined. I am enjoying them.)

[Lily]

As I was reading Smiley's review of Vanity Fair this morning, it struck me what an interesting compare and contrast Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley offer to Lily Bart.

[Lily]

This review of A Lady of Good Family: A Novel by Jeanne Mackin isn't particularly favorable, but the book about a niece of Edith Wharton may still be of interest to some of you, especially any one (Deborah?) who has visited The Mount.

"Toward the beginning of 'The Beautiful American,' Jeanne Mackin’s absorbing 2014 novel of American expats in France from the 1920s through World War II, her heroine asks, 'Do they matter, simple facts?' She could be summing up the dilemma of the historical novelist: How closely must fiction inspired by real people and events — as Mackin’s novels have been — hew to the bones of the ­historical record? How much can the writer invent without betraying the reader’s trust? And, conversely, how much must the writer invent in order to transform history, in all its messiness, into fiction with a satisfying narrative arc and fully developed characters?

"Mackin’s latest, 'A Lady of Good Family: A Novel,' manages to suffer from both too ­little and too much invention. Set largely in 1895, the novel imagines a passage in the life of Beatrix Jones Farrand, a pioneering landscape architect who was the niece of Edith Wharton. Farrand designed gardens for the Morgan Library and the White House, and her ideas about public space still inform the profession."

The entire article goes on to have some additional comments on the fusion and boundaries between fiction and non-fiction.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/05/boo...

[Kat]

Lily wrote: "

This review of A Lady of Good Family: A Novel by Jeanne Mackin isn't particular..."

Fascinating!