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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
dark
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Not my favorite. I was annoyed by the characters and how everyone spoke in circles instead of just saying what they meant or being honest about what happened instead of relying on gossip and assumptions. I suppose this was realistic of the time and class, but I found it exasperating. I did like the way the author brought to light the issues with classism and sexism.
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Edith Wharton just did not know how to write a bad book.
Seriously, I'm in awe of her. Every word is so deliberate, every scene so necessary, every feeling so unbelievably real. Honestly, at this point, I don't know how I managed to go so long without knowing that she was my literary soul mate.
House of Mirth follows a young debutante named Lily Bart. Lily must marry for money, like a lot of women in New York, but the advantage that she has is her undeniable beauty and charm. She can wrap men around her finger with ease, and yet she knows that doing so isn't the key to happiness. Does this lead to her sabotaging herself a little bit? Somewhat. But her situation remains unresolved mostly because she is too impulsive and naive to seal the deal. Sure, she can make a man fall in love, but can she make him pop the question?
I'm a firm believer that Edith Wharton is best served without any warning. Knowing too much about her plots takes away from the painful loveliness of them. It's best to let Wharton take you on the ride without trying to look to far ahead. I'm not going to give too much information about the plot. If you know anything about Edith Wharton, you probably know that the ending isn't going to be sunshine and kittens. Other than that, you should definitely go in blind.
This book was so amazing. I've read three novellas, one novel (I don't count Buccaneers because it is a travesty and also completed by a grave robber), and one collection of short stories by Edith Wharton up to this point, and all of them have been five stars. I think with the exception of one novella, this was my absolute favorite of her work. Take that for what you will.
Seriously, I'm in awe of her. Every word is so deliberate, every scene so necessary, every feeling so unbelievably real. Honestly, at this point, I don't know how I managed to go so long without knowing that she was my literary soul mate.
House of Mirth follows a young debutante named Lily Bart. Lily must marry for money, like a lot of women in New York, but the advantage that she has is her undeniable beauty and charm. She can wrap men around her finger with ease, and yet she knows that doing so isn't the key to happiness. Does this lead to her sabotaging herself a little bit? Somewhat. But her situation remains unresolved mostly because she is too impulsive and naive to seal the deal. Sure, she can make a man fall in love, but can she make him pop the question?
I'm a firm believer that Edith Wharton is best served without any warning. Knowing too much about her plots takes away from the painful loveliness of them. It's best to let Wharton take you on the ride without trying to look to far ahead. I'm not going to give too much information about the plot. If you know anything about Edith Wharton, you probably know that the ending isn't going to be sunshine and kittens. Other than that, you should definitely go in blind.
This book was so amazing. I've read three novellas, one novel (I don't count Buccaneers because it is a travesty and also completed by a grave robber), and one collection of short stories by Edith Wharton up to this point, and all of them have been five stars. I think with the exception of one novella, this was my absolute favorite of her work. Take that for what you will.
"She seemed a stranger to herself, or rather there were two selves in her, the one she had always known, and a new abhorrent being to which it found itself chained."
The House Of Mirth is a story of a downfall of 29-year-old Lily Bart, an impoverished member of the New York high society.
Georgeous, classy, fashionable and in want of a rich husband, Lily is not short of marriage offers, yet she seemes to get out of every single one of them, even the ones that would solve her financial problems and set her up for a role she was born to fulfill, the one of rich and respectable high-class lady.
Despite her desire for security and status, she is well aware that marriage for money won't make her happy.
Lily is somewhat an unlikeable character. She plays cards and loses money that she doesn't have, she makes some foolish decisions she'll eventually pay a very high price for. At first, I was wondering why she was so reckless and obviously heading for a fall. Then I came to realize that it was not entirely her own fault, she was simply raised to be beautiful and rich. Her mother had a high sense of entitlement and was obsessed with the way people saw her. She even viewed Lily and her beauty as an asset for potential earnings.
By the end of this book, I felt so much sympathy for Lilly and wondered if she really had a choice. I mean, she obviously did, she had many opportunities to change her status. Yet, no matter how superficial and foolish she seemed on the surface, we come to realize that deep inside her, despite her upbringing, she was a moral person who simply couldn't do what was required of her to become fully accepted in the world of morally corrupt social machine.
Mrs Fisher, perhaps one of the more perceptive characters in the book, gave the best account of Lily 's character:
"Sometimes," she added, "I think it's just flightiness — and sometimes I think it's because, at heart, she despises the things she's trying for. And it's the difficulty of deciding that makes her such an interesting study."
There is so much more to be said about this book. Alongside Lily, we meet many interesting characters that I didn't even mention. There's so much to unpack here that I didn't touch upon. Suffice it to say that Edith Wharton was a keen observer of the world she grew up in, and her writing style is incredible, as it is in the other novel I read by her, The Age Of Innocence.
I have nothing in common with the world Wharton describes, nor do I have much in common with our protagonist, yet this book managed to move me in certain ways that I can't explain. To me, that is the sign of a great work of literature. It may not be to everyone's liking, as nothing is, but it was definitely the book for me.
The House Of Mirth is a story of a downfall of 29-year-old Lily Bart, an impoverished member of the New York high society.
Georgeous, classy, fashionable and in want of a rich husband, Lily is not short of marriage offers, yet she seemes to get out of every single one of them, even the ones that would solve her financial problems and set her up for a role she was born to fulfill, the one of rich and respectable high-class lady.
Despite her desire for security and status, she is well aware that marriage for money won't make her happy.
Lily is somewhat an unlikeable character. She plays cards and loses money that she doesn't have, she makes some foolish decisions she'll eventually pay a very high price for. At first, I was wondering why she was so reckless and obviously heading for a fall. Then I came to realize that it was not entirely her own fault, she was simply raised to be beautiful and rich. Her mother had a high sense of entitlement and was obsessed with the way people saw her. She even viewed Lily and her beauty as an asset for potential earnings.
By the end of this book, I felt so much sympathy for Lilly and wondered if she really had a choice. I mean, she obviously did, she had many opportunities to change her status. Yet, no matter how superficial and foolish she seemed on the surface, we come to realize that deep inside her, despite her upbringing, she was a moral person who simply couldn't do what was required of her to become fully accepted in the world of morally corrupt social machine.
Mrs Fisher, perhaps one of the more perceptive characters in the book, gave the best account of Lily 's character:
"Sometimes," she added, "I think it's just flightiness — and sometimes I think it's because, at heart, she despises the things she's trying for. And it's the difficulty of deciding that makes her such an interesting study."
There is so much more to be said about this book. Alongside Lily, we meet many interesting characters that I didn't even mention. There's so much to unpack here that I didn't touch upon. Suffice it to say that Edith Wharton was a keen observer of the world she grew up in, and her writing style is incredible, as it is in the other novel I read by her, The Age Of Innocence.
I have nothing in common with the world Wharton describes, nor do I have much in common with our protagonist, yet this book managed to move me in certain ways that I can't explain. To me, that is the sign of a great work of literature. It may not be to everyone's liking, as nothing is, but it was definitely the book for me.
Read this book for Literature. I really enjoyed it, and it was very thought provoking.
Damn, I wasn't expecting the story to be so bleak.
I really enjoyed the writing in this book, but everyone was so unlikeable. Lucy, the main character, especially. She enjoyed playing the game so much, on some pretext in her mind that she had to play it, that even though her fate could have been a happy one she sabotaged herself by making dumb mistakes numerous times over. Of course, it doesn't help that both men and women just love gossiping and making assumptions, as long as it saves their own skin, even at Lily's expense.
It also would have been nice if they just talked to each other like normal people too instead of in innuendo and trying to be coy. So, overall, excellent writing, but I didn't care much for the characters.
I really enjoyed the writing in this book, but everyone was so unlikeable. Lucy, the main character, especially. She enjoyed playing the game so much, on some pretext in her mind that she had to play it, that even though her fate could have been a happy one she sabotaged herself by making dumb mistakes numerous times over. Of course, it doesn't help that both men and women just love gossiping and making assumptions, as long as it saves their own skin, even at Lily's expense.
It also would have been nice if they just talked to each other like normal people too instead of in innuendo and trying to be coy. So, overall, excellent writing, but I didn't care much for the characters.
It was okay. Not particularly groundbreaking, and I hated Selden, but I really felt for Lily's plight.
What a singularly tragic, bitter book filled with stunning prose this was—all the more remarkable because it was Wharton's debut before she went on to become the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. Despite the likes of (male, duh) writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald overshadowing her in her day, her portrait of the morally corrupt, judgmental social order in New York's upper class during the Gilded Age is razor-sharp, and in many ways superior to that of her male contemporaries.
The story follows impoverished but beautiful socialite Lily Bart, who, although she was raised and educated to marry well, is reaching her 29th year, an age when her youth is drawing to a close and the marital prospects are drying up. The House of Mirth traces Lily's slow descent from a privileged high society to a lonely existence at the fringes of it.
I don't know if it can rightfully be called a feminist novel, because Lily doesn't exactly lack agency or options (although each would place her in some sort of dependency, and they never really crystallize anyway, because of her flawed timing and indecisiveness), but it's certainly about the price one pays (particularly as a woman) for straying too far from the unwritten laws of society.
The tragedy of Lily Bart's character is that she can't help being the way she is, she was brought up to be that way, and the endless bad luck she brings onto herself stems from her inability to compromise her integrity at the right time. It's precisely that dignity that leads to her self-sabotaging at the beginning of the novel and later brings about her downfall, until it comes down to a choice between material ruin and giving up her self respect. It's what makes her character arc so fascinating and heart-breaking: You recognize the options she has just as clearly as she does, and you want her to grasp for them... but you understand why she hesitates and ultimately rejects them. Her deep sense of morality, as well as her flaw of wanting it all—love and money—are what thwarts her success on the marriage market despite the slew of eligible admirers until it's too late. Despite her flaws and battered self-worth she manages to stand tall and keep a hold on her ideals, which come to cost her very dearly.
Despite the dated setting, I found that the novel still resonated with me today. When you strip the circumstances away, it's essentially a story about the struggle between who we are, and what society tells us we should be.
The story follows impoverished but beautiful socialite Lily Bart, who, although she was raised and educated to marry well, is reaching her 29th year, an age when her youth is drawing to a close and the marital prospects are drying up. The House of Mirth traces Lily's slow descent from a privileged high society to a lonely existence at the fringes of it.
I don't know if it can rightfully be called a feminist novel, because Lily doesn't exactly lack agency or options (although each would place her in some sort of dependency, and they never really crystallize anyway, because of her flawed timing and indecisiveness), but it's certainly about the price one pays (particularly as a woman) for straying too far from the unwritten laws of society.
"She was like some rare flower grown for exhibition, a flower from which every bud had been nipped except the crowning blossom of her beauty."
The tragedy of Lily Bart's character is that she can't help being the way she is, she was brought up to be that way, and the endless bad luck she brings onto herself stems from her inability to compromise her integrity at the right time. It's precisely that dignity that leads to her self-sabotaging at the beginning of the novel and later brings about her downfall, until it comes down to a choice between material ruin and giving up her self respect. It's what makes her character arc so fascinating and heart-breaking: You recognize the options she has just as clearly as she does, and you want her to grasp for them... but you understand why she hesitates and ultimately rejects them. Her deep sense of morality, as well as her flaw of wanting it all—love and money—are what thwarts her success on the marriage market despite the slew of eligible admirers until it's too late. Despite her flaws and battered self-worth she manages to stand tall and keep a hold on her ideals, which come to cost her very dearly.
Despite the dated setting, I found that the novel still resonated with me today. When you strip the circumstances away, it's essentially a story about the struggle between who we are, and what society tells us we should be.
"What Lily craved was the darkness made by enfolding arms, the silence which is not solitude, but compassion holding its breath."
