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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
Should come with an age appropriate rating so young girls do not to get disillusioned with life!
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
This was one of the most depressing books I have ever read. There was no bright moment in sight. Nowhere to 'rest your eyes' so to speak, from deep darkness.
Lily Bart is one of the most tragic heroines in literature. There was absolutely no way of a happy ending for her. She was doomed from the start. She wanted a life that never really belonged to her. She couldn't stand the thought of 'lowering' herself to anything less than the upper class, and that led to her downfall. Bart was naive and vain and sometimes just downright stupid. She sacrificed everything instead of taking that one happy opportunity that was right in front of her face.
The House of Mirth shows the cruelty of the upper class New York society at the beginning of the 20th century better than any non-fiction book could. Wharton crafted a beautifully tragic story showing that the upper class isn't what it's cracked up to be. She tore off the blinds and shows us the vile and ugliness.
I need to read a lighthearted book after reading this. I became almost depressed when I finished it.
Lily Bart is one of the most tragic heroines in literature. There was absolutely no way of a happy ending for her. She was doomed from the start. She wanted a life that never really belonged to her. She couldn't stand the thought of 'lowering' herself to anything less than the upper class, and that led to her downfall. Bart was naive and vain and sometimes just downright stupid. She sacrificed everything instead of taking that one happy opportunity that was right in front of her face.
The House of Mirth shows the cruelty of the upper class New York society at the beginning of the 20th century better than any non-fiction book could. Wharton crafted a beautifully tragic story showing that the upper class isn't what it's cracked up to be. She tore off the blinds and shows us the vile and ugliness.
I need to read a lighthearted book after reading this. I became almost depressed when I finished it.
Originally published on my blog here in June 2001.
There are many novels about breaking into high society; fewer about falling out of it. Wharton's tragic story is about how Lily Bart gradually loses her place in the New York smart set, sliding lower and lower until her death in a common boarding house. The basic problem is money; Lily's family are not really rich enough any more to maintain their position, and it is her beauty and social graces which have let her continue to be accepted even until the beginning of the novel.
The obvious solution to Lily's problems is marriage to a rich man, and she seems to have plenty of opportunities, even if at twenty nine she is considered a bit old to do so. The problem is that she can never quite bring herself up to scratch, so that she schemes and works to entrap a man only to pull out at the wrong moment, put off by a vision of a lifetime of boring conversation or whatever the bad points about him happen to be. She also has a tendency to get into completely innocent situations which are then disastrously misunderstood, for example alienating two of her closest friends who think she is having affairs with their husbands. (In one case, this is particularly unjust; Bertha Dorset invites her on a trip to Europe on the understanding that she will distract Bertha's husband from her own affair, only for Bertha to turn neurotically suspicious and jealous.)
The interest of the novel is in its inversion of the typical romantic society plotline, and it is the characterisation of Lily which makes it successful and tragic. It is not full of mirth by any stretch of the imagination. (The title sounds like it is a quotation, but the nearest I could find, which reflects the spirit of the novel, is from an anonymous poem, On the Life of Man: "What is our life? a play of passion, / Our mirth the music of derision, / Our mothers' wombs the tiring houses be, / Where we are dressed for this short comedy".)
There are many novels about breaking into high society; fewer about falling out of it. Wharton's tragic story is about how Lily Bart gradually loses her place in the New York smart set, sliding lower and lower until her death in a common boarding house. The basic problem is money; Lily's family are not really rich enough any more to maintain their position, and it is her beauty and social graces which have let her continue to be accepted even until the beginning of the novel.
The obvious solution to Lily's problems is marriage to a rich man, and she seems to have plenty of opportunities, even if at twenty nine she is considered a bit old to do so. The problem is that she can never quite bring herself up to scratch, so that she schemes and works to entrap a man only to pull out at the wrong moment, put off by a vision of a lifetime of boring conversation or whatever the bad points about him happen to be. She also has a tendency to get into completely innocent situations which are then disastrously misunderstood, for example alienating two of her closest friends who think she is having affairs with their husbands. (In one case, this is particularly unjust; Bertha Dorset invites her on a trip to Europe on the understanding that she will distract Bertha's husband from her own affair, only for Bertha to turn neurotically suspicious and jealous.)
The interest of the novel is in its inversion of the typical romantic society plotline, and it is the characterisation of Lily which makes it successful and tragic. It is not full of mirth by any stretch of the imagination. (The title sounds like it is a quotation, but the nearest I could find, which reflects the spirit of the novel, is from an anonymous poem, On the Life of Man: "What is our life? a play of passion, / Our mirth the music of derision, / Our mothers' wombs the tiring houses be, / Where we are dressed for this short comedy".)
Lily Bart--the story of bad luck and bad choices.
An excellent book with a protagonist who is fully fleshed out, by turns dislikable but always inviting our pity, but ultimately so sad...
This book is about cruelty, but such subtle cruelty that - at least at first - you don't notice it. The particular brand of cruelty is exclusion, exclusion from a society whose rules are made by those with much money and reputations they protect at all costs. Lily Bart, the protagonist, doesn't have enough money to join them without borrowing (and so putting herself at risk of blackmail) nor quite enough courage to confront them (which would mean expulsion from the fringes of the society to which she clings). It is an object lesson in finding the courage to be yourself at a time when, especially for a woman, that was a very difficult thing to do. It defeated Lily Bart ... and I wish it hadn't.
I wanted to grab Lily back from the brink of disaster ... I first read 'The House of Mirth' almost twenty years ago and all the way through I willed Lily to find a way to survive in a society that seemed to me to take pleasure in her struggle to live among them, and in her failure to do so. When, on page 12 of my edition (from the Penguin American Library), Lily Bart says to Lawrence Selden, ‘A girl must [marry]; a man may if he chooses … We are expected to be pretty and well-dressed until we drop – and if we can’t keep it up alone, we have to go into partnership,’ my heart sank just as it did when I first read those lines. And when, on page 15, Wharton writes, ‘Why must a girl pay so dearly for her least escape from routine? … She had yielded to a passing impulse in going to Lawrence Selden’s rooms … [but] this one … was going to cost her rather more than she could afford,’ In a society where hypocritical standards and fantastic wealth rule, there is no room for intelligence, independence or impulse, if it is female.
I love 'The House of Mirth', but the love is bittersweet because it is an uncomfortable read. As Wharton herself said of the book (and she spoke from real knowledge because she was born, in 1862, into a family whose members were counted among the ‘Four Hundred’): ‘A frivolous society can acquire dramatic significance only through what its frivolity destroys. Its tragic implication lies in its power of debasing people and ideals.’
A while ago I also read this with the Cornflower Bookgroup: http://cornflower.typepad.com/domestic_arts_blog/2008/03/the-house-of-mi.html
I wanted to grab Lily back from the brink of disaster ... I first read 'The House of Mirth' almost twenty years ago and all the way through I willed Lily to find a way to survive in a society that seemed to me to take pleasure in her struggle to live among them, and in her failure to do so. When, on page 12 of my edition (from the Penguin American Library), Lily Bart says to Lawrence Selden, ‘A girl must [marry]; a man may if he chooses … We are expected to be pretty and well-dressed until we drop – and if we can’t keep it up alone, we have to go into partnership,’ my heart sank just as it did when I first read those lines. And when, on page 15, Wharton writes, ‘Why must a girl pay so dearly for her least escape from routine? … She had yielded to a passing impulse in going to Lawrence Selden’s rooms … [but] this one … was going to cost her rather more than she could afford,’ In a society where hypocritical standards and fantastic wealth rule, there is no room for intelligence, independence or impulse, if it is female.
I love 'The House of Mirth', but the love is bittersweet because it is an uncomfortable read. As Wharton herself said of the book (and she spoke from real knowledge because she was born, in 1862, into a family whose members were counted among the ‘Four Hundred’): ‘A frivolous society can acquire dramatic significance only through what its frivolity destroys. Its tragic implication lies in its power of debasing people and ideals.’
A while ago I also read this with the Cornflower Bookgroup: http://cornflower.typepad.com/domestic_arts_blog/2008/03/the-house-of-mi.html
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Like Emma Bovary, this heroine loves beauty and wants to consider herself part of it. For her this translates into needing money. Also reminds me of Of Human Bondage.
My goodness, what an amazing book. I just don't even know what to say.
Wonderfully rich characters, prose, plot. Tragic but enjoyable, heartbreaking and beautiful. Just wonderful.
Wonderfully rich characters, prose, plot. Tragic but enjoyable, heartbreaking and beautiful. Just wonderful.