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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
I didn't hate this book, but I also didn't particularly like it. I'm not a fan of books without some kind of intriguing plot. It definitely wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Basically, I just don't like the genre and the period of literature and to be honest, the fact that I didn't hate it is as pretty much of a compliment as I can make.
MC: starts with hysterical screeching about her inability to find a man who would be her sugar daddy so she could continue to be bridge playing waste of oxygen with debts as a byproduct. Everyone else is just as useless, only doesn't have so many lines to develop their uselessness to the full extend 'cause: ThE SoCiETy BaD. (insert citation to every book about high society ever) Then gets slapped with the good ol'demonetisation, only said previously named byproduct is left. Also some dude. But like, not rich enough so whatevs. Woe is me ensues for the next xyz pages.
Me, living through the 2020s, reading this: Ama gonna forget you quicker than the Beirut authorities certain warehouses filled with 500 metric tons of fertilizers.
and no. I don't care the slightest bit if there was a critique of the author's times and women's role, satire or irony.
Me, living through the 2020s, reading this: Ama gonna forget you quicker than the Beirut authorities certain warehouses filled with 500 metric tons of fertilizers.
and no. I don't care the slightest bit if there was a critique of the author's times and women's role, satire or irony.
dark
medium-paced
it is some good romance- delishus- but i will never have enough sympathy for anybody with money or good prospects and i will never relate enough to their characters I am so sorry but she just really did not need to be that sad :(
I can't say I enjoyed this all that much, but I hated the second half much less than the first half. I need to re-read at some point when I can appreciate it for what it is, not just another book I need to get through before midterms.
Is 2020 not depressing enough? Well, then, have I got a book for you!
The Age of Innocence is one of my all-time favorite novels. But, surprisingly enough, I haven't read anything else by Edith Wharton. Looking to remedy that, I packed up The House of Mirth for my lakeside vacation (vacation?! In 2020?!). Yes, and I even have the negative COVID test to prove it.
ANYWAY.
In case you were wondering, The House of Mirth is decidedly NOT an appropriate vacation read.
Lily Bart, the story's protagonist, is 29, and beginning to feel her age. Though she is as lovely as ever, she sees the door for a "good" marriage beginning to creak shut. Her father was financially ruined just after Lily "came out" in society, and Lily has lived under a domineering, stodgy-yet-wealthy aunt ever since, toggling between looking for a rich husband (what she "should" want) and trying to actually be happy in this life (what she, despite better reason, wants).
Wharton cuts like a goddamn razor when it comes to the upper echelons of New York high society. The people floating around up there are fake, vapid, cruel, manipulative. While Lily doesn't fit in when it comes to the contents of her coffers, she is beautiful, and she comes from "good stock," so those claiming to be her friends take her along to parties and on grand vacations, simultaneously judging and talking about her, still unmarried, and conspicuously having friendships with married men (something that, were she to be married too, would not be an issue).
Lily knows she should marry one of the several wealthy men circling her. However, all of them repulse her as much as their money allures her. To complicate matters further, it seems as though Lily might actually be falling in love... with the objectively NOT wealthy Lawrence Selden. Selden sees who she really is, and he still cares for her. Though he sees her beauty, it's not just her beauty that entices him. This excites her, and also terrifies her. To marry Selden is to give up on the finer things in life that she, despite herself, feels she needs.
And that's where we get to the really depressing part of the book. You feel for Lily, you really do. She is trapped in a lesser position in society, simply because she was born Woman. Any attempts to try and secure wealth independently is met with either scorn or suspicion. The idea of marrying for love is laughable; Lily, like most women, is looking for the most financially secure suitor. That said, Wharton does a frustratingly fantastic job at painting the contradictions within Lily. She wishes she could move around in the financial world like the husbands of her friends. But, in the next breath, she verbally abuses the working women around her: cleaning women, laundresses, etc. While she is aware of her misfortunes, she is blissfully blind to the women around her who have it so much worse. Lily's forays into being a secretary, hat trimmer, etc., don't even endear her to the working women around her. Despite railing against the condition of being Woman at this time, any women "below" her are simply Other, and Lily is incapable of acknowledging the larger societal issues at play when it comes to the role of Woman. This crystallizes toward the end of the novel, when Lily is taken in by Nettie Struther, a poor woman that Lily once helped when she was volunteering with the only good character in the book, Evie. Lily is at her absolute lowest: living alone in a boarding house, sitting in the rain, realizing the futility of her situation. She is incapable of playing the cruel game her "friends" play, and so she has officially lost that game. Nettie takes Lily to her home, where she is warm and cozy and dry with her baby and her husband. Nettie has taken her "less-than" life, and has made something comfortable, albeit it plain. Lily is even repulsed by this. She cannot see Nettie's happiness; she only sees how small her home is, how much she lacks.
Thus, reading this book, I absolutely hated Lily. I felt sorry for her still, yes, but I couldn't stand how, because of her social standing, Lily was incapable of broadening her frame. And that is Wharton's genius. She is able to use Lily as a magnifying glass into all that rot within high society. Yet, even though Lily is Other from that group, her desire to be among them makes her suck, too. It's a ladder of suck, and Lily is perched on a pretty high rung.
In the struggle between who we actually are and what society wants us to be, it is possible to slip between the cracks of the two, and destroy yourself more completely than if you had just chosen. I need a drink just thinking about it, but commend Wharton for how she unfolded that for us in Lily.
Brava.
The Age of Innocence is one of my all-time favorite novels. But, surprisingly enough, I haven't read anything else by Edith Wharton. Looking to remedy that, I packed up The House of Mirth for my lakeside vacation (vacation?! In 2020?!). Yes, and I even have the negative COVID test to prove it.
ANYWAY.
In case you were wondering, The House of Mirth is decidedly NOT an appropriate vacation read.
Lily Bart, the story's protagonist, is 29, and beginning to feel her age. Though she is as lovely as ever, she sees the door for a "good" marriage beginning to creak shut. Her father was financially ruined just after Lily "came out" in society, and Lily has lived under a domineering, stodgy-yet-wealthy aunt ever since, toggling between looking for a rich husband (what she "should" want) and trying to actually be happy in this life (what she, despite better reason, wants).
Wharton cuts like a goddamn razor when it comes to the upper echelons of New York high society. The people floating around up there are fake, vapid, cruel, manipulative. While Lily doesn't fit in when it comes to the contents of her coffers, she is beautiful, and she comes from "good stock," so those claiming to be her friends take her along to parties and on grand vacations, simultaneously judging and talking about her, still unmarried, and conspicuously having friendships with married men (something that, were she to be married too, would not be an issue).
Lily knows she should marry one of the several wealthy men circling her. However, all of them repulse her as much as their money allures her. To complicate matters further, it seems as though Lily might actually be falling in love... with the objectively NOT wealthy Lawrence Selden. Selden sees who she really is, and he still cares for her. Though he sees her beauty, it's not just her beauty that entices him. This excites her, and also terrifies her. To marry Selden is to give up on the finer things in life that she, despite herself, feels she needs.
And that's where we get to the really depressing part of the book. You feel for Lily, you really do. She is trapped in a lesser position in society, simply because she was born Woman. Any attempts to try and secure wealth independently is met with either scorn or suspicion. The idea of marrying for love is laughable; Lily, like most women, is looking for the most financially secure suitor. That said, Wharton does a frustratingly fantastic job at painting the contradictions within Lily. She wishes she could move around in the financial world like the husbands of her friends. But, in the next breath, she verbally abuses the working women around her: cleaning women, laundresses, etc. While she is aware of her misfortunes, she is blissfully blind to the women around her who have it so much worse. Lily's forays into being a secretary, hat trimmer, etc., don't even endear her to the working women around her. Despite railing against the condition of being Woman at this time, any women "below" her are simply Other, and Lily is incapable of acknowledging the larger societal issues at play when it comes to the role of Woman. This crystallizes toward the end of the novel, when Lily is taken in by Nettie Struther, a poor woman that Lily once helped when she was volunteering with the only good character in the book, Evie. Lily is at her absolute lowest: living alone in a boarding house, sitting in the rain, realizing the futility of her situation. She is incapable of playing the cruel game her "friends" play, and so she has officially lost that game. Nettie takes Lily to her home, where she is warm and cozy and dry with her baby and her husband. Nettie has taken her "less-than" life, and has made something comfortable, albeit it plain. Lily is even repulsed by this. She cannot see Nettie's happiness; she only sees how small her home is, how much she lacks.
Thus, reading this book, I absolutely hated Lily. I felt sorry for her still, yes, but I couldn't stand how, because of her social standing, Lily was incapable of broadening her frame. And that is Wharton's genius. She is able to use Lily as a magnifying glass into all that rot within high society. Yet, even though Lily is Other from that group, her desire to be among them makes her suck, too. It's a ladder of suck, and Lily is perched on a pretty high rung.
In the struggle between who we actually are and what society wants us to be, it is possible to slip between the cracks of the two, and destroy yourself more completely than if you had just chosen. I need a drink just thinking about it, but commend Wharton for how she unfolded that for us in Lily.
Brava.
Ok, this was a WHOLE lot better than the last book I read for class, but the characters were so 2D that I didn't really connect to them. Edith Wharton is a pretty good author, but I think she thought so, too. There were lots of unnecessary analogies.
I read long ago in college and recalled Lily Barts name and little else. Upon this re-read, what finely crafted work.
And still to many parallels to today. I had thought of a friend to recommend reading this, but thought the similarities too strong and that she might find this depressing.
Librivox
And still to many parallels to today. I had thought of a friend to recommend reading this, but thought the similarities too strong and that she might find this depressing.
Librivox
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes