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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
First sentence: "Selden paused in surprise."
P. 99: "The stir of the pulses which his nearness always ????? was increased by a slight sense of constraint."
Last sentence: "He knelt by the bed and bent over her, draining their last moment to its lees; and in the silence there passed between them the word which made all clear."
From Wikipedia: The House of Mirth tells the story of Lily Bart, a woman who is torn between her desire for luxurious living and a relationship based on mutual respect and love. She sabotages all her possible chances for a wealthy marriage, loses the esteem of her social circle, and dies young, poor, and alone.
Lily is initially of good social standing and rejects several offers of advantageous marriage. She then damages her standing by accepting an invitation to Lawrence Selden's private rooms. Lily's social standing erodes further when her friend Judy Trenor's husband Gus gives Lily a large sum of money. Lily innocently accepts the money, believing that it is the return on investments he supposedly made for her. The rumors of this transaction, and of her mysterious visit to Gus in his city residence crack her social standing further.
To escape the rumours and gossip, she accepts an invitation from Bertha Dorset to join her and her husband, George, on a cruise of Europe aboard their yacht the Sabrina. Unfortunately, while aboard the yacht, Bertha accuses Lily of adultery with George in order to shift societal attention from Bertha's own infidelity with poet Ned Silverton. The ensuing scandal ruins Lily, leading her friends to abandon her and Aunt Peniston to disinherit her.
Lily descends the social strata, working as a personal secretary until Bertha sabotages her position by turning her employers against her. Lily then takes a job as social secretary for a disreputable woman, but resigns after Selden comes to rescue her from complete infamy. She then works in a millinery, but produces poorly and is let go at the end of the season. Simon Rosedale, the Jewish suitor who had proposed marriage to her when she was higher on the social scale tries to rescue her, but she is unwilling to meet his terms: to use love letters she bought which prove the affair Bertha Dorset and Selden had years earlier. Lily refrains for sake of Selden's reputation, and secretly burns the letters when she visits Selden for one last time. Eventually Lily receives her $10,000 inheritance, which she uses to pay her debt to Trenor. Lily dies from an overdose, possibly accidental, of the sleeping draught to which she had become addicted. Hours later Selden comes to propose to her, but finds she has died. Only then is he able to be close to her in a way he never was able to when she was living and admit his true love for her.
This was the second book by Edith Wharton that I read, and I loved it as much, or perhaps even better, than Ethan Frome.
Lily is a snobbish, egotistic and even narcissistic person, but I couldn't help feeling sorry for her and admire her at the same time because, although she was tempted more than once to take the easy way out of her problems, she never did. This meant she was able to keep the little self-respect that was left to her after all her ordeals.
Wharton's language is beautiful, and evokes a time and period that is hard for someone of our liberal society to understand.
Other thoughts/reviews:
Savidge Reads: http://savidgereads.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/the-house-of-mirth-edith-wharton/
A bookworm's life: http://justabookworm.com/2013/02/14/the-house-of-mirth-by-edith-wharton/
Iris on Books: http://irisonbooks.com/2013/02/27/the-house-of-mirth-by-edith-wharton/
Girl ebooks Blog: http://girlebooks.com/blog/free-ebooks/the-house-of-mirth-by-edith-wharton/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Girlebooks+%28Girlebooks%29
Beauty is a Sleeping Cat: http://beautyisasleepingcat.wordpress.com/2014/05/18/edith-wharton-the-house-of-mirth-1905/
Reading, Writing, Working, Playing:http://janegs.blogspot.be/2014/07/the-house-of-mirth.html
P. 99: "The stir of the pulses which his nearness always ????? was increased by a slight sense of constraint."
Last sentence: "He knelt by the bed and bent over her, draining their last moment to its lees; and in the silence there passed between them the word which made all clear."
From Wikipedia: The House of Mirth tells the story of Lily Bart, a woman who is torn between her desire for luxurious living and a relationship based on mutual respect and love. She sabotages all her possible chances for a wealthy marriage, loses the esteem of her social circle, and dies young, poor, and alone.
Lily is initially of good social standing and rejects several offers of advantageous marriage. She then damages her standing by accepting an invitation to Lawrence Selden's private rooms. Lily's social standing erodes further when her friend Judy Trenor's husband Gus gives Lily a large sum of money. Lily innocently accepts the money, believing that it is the return on investments he supposedly made for her. The rumors of this transaction, and of her mysterious visit to Gus in his city residence crack her social standing further.
To escape the rumours and gossip, she accepts an invitation from Bertha Dorset to join her and her husband, George, on a cruise of Europe aboard their yacht the Sabrina. Unfortunately, while aboard the yacht, Bertha accuses Lily of adultery with George in order to shift societal attention from Bertha's own infidelity with poet Ned Silverton. The ensuing scandal ruins Lily, leading her friends to abandon her and Aunt Peniston to disinherit her.
Lily descends the social strata, working as a personal secretary until Bertha sabotages her position by turning her employers against her. Lily then takes a job as social secretary for a disreputable woman, but resigns after Selden comes to rescue her from complete infamy. She then works in a millinery, but produces poorly and is let go at the end of the season. Simon Rosedale, the Jewish suitor who had proposed marriage to her when she was higher on the social scale tries to rescue her, but she is unwilling to meet his terms: to use love letters she bought which prove the affair Bertha Dorset and Selden had years earlier. Lily refrains for sake of Selden's reputation, and secretly burns the letters when she visits Selden for one last time. Eventually Lily receives her $10,000 inheritance, which she uses to pay her debt to Trenor. Lily dies from an overdose, possibly accidental, of the sleeping draught to which she had become addicted. Hours later Selden comes to propose to her, but finds she has died. Only then is he able to be close to her in a way he never was able to when she was living and admit his true love for her.
This was the second book by Edith Wharton that I read, and I loved it as much, or perhaps even better, than Ethan Frome.
Lily is a snobbish, egotistic and even narcissistic person, but I couldn't help feeling sorry for her and admire her at the same time because, although she was tempted more than once to take the easy way out of her problems, she never did. This meant she was able to keep the little self-respect that was left to her after all her ordeals.
Wharton's language is beautiful, and evokes a time and period that is hard for someone of our liberal society to understand.
Other thoughts/reviews:
Savidge Reads: http://savidgereads.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/the-house-of-mirth-edith-wharton/
A bookworm's life: http://justabookworm.com/2013/02/14/the-house-of-mirth-by-edith-wharton/
Iris on Books: http://irisonbooks.com/2013/02/27/the-house-of-mirth-by-edith-wharton/
Girl ebooks Blog: http://girlebooks.com/blog/free-ebooks/the-house-of-mirth-by-edith-wharton/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Girlebooks+%28Girlebooks%29
Beauty is a Sleeping Cat: http://beautyisasleepingcat.wordpress.com/2014/05/18/edith-wharton-the-house-of-mirth-1905/
Reading, Writing, Working, Playing:http://janegs.blogspot.be/2014/07/the-house-of-mirth.html
challenging
reflective
sad
2.5 stars. The outdated language mad it difficult for me to figure out who was who and what exactly was going on. I did laugh in several spots. After I finished it, I listened to a podcast that summarized it and that helped me put everything together in a meaningful way. But that's a lot of work.
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“La plus ca change, la plus la meme chose”
How I wish I had finished “The House of Mirth” by Edith Wharton prior to our book club meeting! Summarily dismissed as being too wordy and consisting of a story in which not very much happened, I could only sit back and listen. Coincidentally our next book selection was Tom Wolfe’s “Bonfire of the Vanities”. On the surface these two books are worlds apart, but in fact they have much in common.
The House of Mirth takes place in New York City, 1905 and offers a slice of life that seemingly has disappeared…. that of the aristocratic New York society. The daily life of the privileged class is presented as an endless series of parties, long weekend gatherings, and afternoon teas, nothing that seems terribly stressful. But for Lily Bart, a young beautiful woman, without a fortune, but groomed to marry a fortune, she realizes too late that her only commodity is her reputation. As she herself states when her friend Gerty advises her “the important thing is that you should clear yourself—should tell your friends the whole truth,” to which Lily replies: “The whole truth? What is truth? Where a woman is concerned it is the story that is easiest to believe.”
The Bonfire of the Vanities also takes place in the city of New York, 80 years later. Bonds dealer Sherman McCoy, a member of the then current New York society, finds himself in exactly the same predicament, for different reasons, as did Lily Bart. As McCoy faces the ruin of his reputation he ruminates to his attorney: “I can’t explain the feeling. All I can tell you is that I’m already dead, or the Sherman McCoy of the McCoy family and Yale and Park Avenue and Wall Street is dead. Your self—I don’t know how to explain it”…. “ your self… is other people, all the people you’re tied to, and it’s only a thread.”
The writing style of these two books is extraordinarily different and each clearly represents the time period in which it was written. Wharton is wordy, but hidden in that articulate prose are the nuances of expression that, sadly, are lost forever in our “say what you mean to say” current unfiltered manner of expression. Wolfe, on the other, very accurately captures the dialects of the many subcultures of New York City in the 1980’s, sometimes to an extreme, and frequently tiresome.
Both of these novels were “cutting edge” when published. They should each be included in a short list of books which represent a momentary slice of life in a particular setting, along with "Huckleberry Finn" and "David Copperfield", to name a few.
How I wish I had finished “The House of Mirth” by Edith Wharton prior to our book club meeting! Summarily dismissed as being too wordy and consisting of a story in which not very much happened, I could only sit back and listen. Coincidentally our next book selection was Tom Wolfe’s “Bonfire of the Vanities”. On the surface these two books are worlds apart, but in fact they have much in common.
The House of Mirth takes place in New York City, 1905 and offers a slice of life that seemingly has disappeared…. that of the aristocratic New York society. The daily life of the privileged class is presented as an endless series of parties, long weekend gatherings, and afternoon teas, nothing that seems terribly stressful. But for Lily Bart, a young beautiful woman, without a fortune, but groomed to marry a fortune, she realizes too late that her only commodity is her reputation. As she herself states when her friend Gerty advises her “the important thing is that you should clear yourself—should tell your friends the whole truth,” to which Lily replies: “The whole truth? What is truth? Where a woman is concerned it is the story that is easiest to believe.”
The Bonfire of the Vanities also takes place in the city of New York, 80 years later. Bonds dealer Sherman McCoy, a member of the then current New York society, finds himself in exactly the same predicament, for different reasons, as did Lily Bart. As McCoy faces the ruin of his reputation he ruminates to his attorney: “I can’t explain the feeling. All I can tell you is that I’m already dead, or the Sherman McCoy of the McCoy family and Yale and Park Avenue and Wall Street is dead. Your self—I don’t know how to explain it”…. “ your self… is other people, all the people you’re tied to, and it’s only a thread.”
The writing style of these two books is extraordinarily different and each clearly represents the time period in which it was written. Wharton is wordy, but hidden in that articulate prose are the nuances of expression that, sadly, are lost forever in our “say what you mean to say” current unfiltered manner of expression. Wolfe, on the other, very accurately captures the dialects of the many subcultures of New York City in the 1980’s, sometimes to an extreme, and frequently tiresome.
Both of these novels were “cutting edge” when published. They should each be included in a short list of books which represent a momentary slice of life in a particular setting, along with "Huckleberry Finn" and "David Copperfield", to name a few.
Definitely well written and still relevant.
This Wharton classic is the quintessential novel of manners, the story of a woman caught up in the trappings of society, unable to free herself from her obsession with money and class. Lily Bart is one of early 20th century's great female protagonists. She is strong-willed and determined, but not smart enough to see her own downfall before losing the love of her life and her status in society.
Reminded me a lot of Nana by Emile Zola. While I think the inner commentary of hysteria in the Victorian era to be interesting, the narrative structure was dry, the scene descriptions all but invisible, and the characters unlikable.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes