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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
Perhaps I'll write a real review later once I'm done sobbing nigh on uncontrollably.
Lovely, lovely novel.
Lovely, lovely novel.
This was wonderful and frustrating at the same time. You could see from the beginning that it could never end well. And that rooting for Lily was no use. So sad.
The House of Mirth is the story of a young woman not too eager to take the traditional path of a woman and intends to have fun instead. It's about her making some stupid mistakes but also about the judgment of other people including some one would have called friends before. The book comments on the lifestyle and views of the rich of that time in a fascinating way and went differently than what I expected.
While this was an interesting story, the way it told didn't entirely work for me. While we're with Lily during the most important events, some things are told to the reader later by her or other characters. This fits what the author wants to accomplish, but it also made me feel detached since I was never really in on what's going on. Though there were some moments where the reader is more with Lily emotionally and these really worked for me.
Also, the writing style is beautiful and I admired it earlier in one of Wharton's short stories, but in a full-lenght novel, it felt distracting and too long-winded. Every sentence was pretty but a lot of it felt irrelevant and dragged. If, in some dialogs, answering to someone takes a whole page because there are so many thoughts and observations the author wants to include first, that's just too slow for me.
But if you are really into nice writing and that doesn't bother you, give this book a try, since it is very intentional and well crafted.
While this was an interesting story, the way it told didn't entirely work for me. While we're with Lily during the most important events, some things are told to the reader later by her or other characters. This fits what the author wants to accomplish, but it also made me feel detached since I was never really in on what's going on. Though there were some moments where the reader is more with Lily emotionally and these really worked for me.
Also, the writing style is beautiful and I admired it earlier in one of Wharton's short stories, but in a full-lenght novel, it felt distracting and too long-winded. Every sentence was pretty but a lot of it felt irrelevant and dragged. If, in some dialogs, answering to someone takes a whole page because there are so many thoughts and observations the author wants to include first, that's just too slow for me.
But if you are really into nice writing and that doesn't bother you, give this book a try, since it is very intentional and well crafted.
Kind of dull, though it got a bit more interesting towards the end. I got kind of annoyed with Lily Bart throughout the first part
This one beat Age of Innocence hands down for me. I loved the darker storyline, watching Lily Bart's decent into the working class and followed by her death at the very moment when it looked like she would finally make things work with her on again off again love Seldon. Brilliant! There aren't enough unhappy endings out there. The only thing keeping this from being 5 stars is how obvious everything was. You knew Lily was going to die as soon as Wharton started harping on her chloroform dependency.
"The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth." Ecclesiastes 7:4
My first Wharton, but I hope to read more. This is a beautiful, brilliant, tragic read. Lily Bart is a great creation.
My first Wharton, but I hope to read more. This is a beautiful, brilliant, tragic read. Lily Bart is a great creation.
http://makemesmarternow.blogspot.dk/2016/06/reading-classics-house-of-mirth-by.html
Edith Wharton’s classic novel of manners casts a sardonic eye at social status and the games it plays through the eyes of a complex and indecisive beauty, Lily Bart. Caught between her desire for authenticity and her stronger urge to stay in the center of an elite circle and marry rich within it, Lily employs her wit and self-sustaining charm to climb to the top, though she picks up some bad habits along the way. Wharton’s characters are not often on the sympathetic side, although the stipulations of the era, especially for a young woman, create interesting dynamics. Despite frustrating decision-making and manipulative behaviors by certain members of the cast, the dialog remains quick and clever. If Edith Wharton was the original Gossip Girl, then Lawrence Selden is her Lonely Boy. The antagonizing on-again, off-again exchanges between Lily and Selden are in turn hopeful and doomed; Selden stays on the outskirts of society looking in and yet can’t help but follow Lily closer to its center, while Lily wants to find him there at the same time she turns to look for someone better in her luxury-minded eyes. Wharton teases at gossip and parties only to put these social engagements in their place with a grander perspective of turn-of-the-century upper crust New York, showing the great effort of climbing to the top, and far greater ease of slipping back down to the bottom. Inspired in part by Wharton’s own privileged upbringing, Lily comes of age with a fear of “dinginess” due to her father’s bankruptcy and her mother’s vain attempts of recovery. Unfortunately, luck is not on Lily’s side, and The House of Mirth draws out the ways in which our societies and our own private destinies can ultimately define us.
Aquí la videoreseña: https://youtu.be/rfCaN-cKRHc
4,5 estrellas.
En esta novela Edith Wharton realiza figuradamente, usando siempre un lenguaje muy educado, el acto de pillar un bate de béisbol y meterle una paliza a los miembros de las clases altas de Nueva York durante la llamada "Edad dorada". Pero paliza, paliza. De mandarlos a todos a la UVI. Supongo que nadie podía hacerlo mejor que ella, que sabía de lo que hablaba.
Edith Wharton es como Jane Austen, pero en americana y en más detallista y directa en su crítica. Es normal, 100 años (mínimo) las separan, y el realismo y el naturalismo habían influenciado la Literatura. Además, Edith Wharton escribe para (o es consciente de que puede ser leída por) un grupo más amplio de personas que Jane Austen, quien no esperaba que nadie fuera de su misma clase social leyera su obra, y por lo tanto hay mucho que no explica, porque quien la leía en la época ya sabía de lo que hablaba. Edith Wharton no. Edith Wharton te lo explica todo. TODO. Y en esa detallísima descripción de la clase alta, de lo que visten, lo que comen, dónde viven y, sobre todo, cómo actúan, es donde se desarrolla la historia de Lily Bart, una mujer que tal vez no sea la persona más inteligente del mundo siempre, pero que no es tonta, es perfectamente autoconsciente de su situación, quiere lo que quiere... pero le falta maldad. Lily Bart tiene demasiados escrúpulos para el mundo en el que se mueve. La verdad es que lo pasé mal al leer sus desventuras, porque Lily Bart me cae bien. Creo que es porque Edith Wharton explica muy bien dos conceptos que a día de hoy están muy presentes: el concepto de "pobreza relativa" y la depresión; la depresión causada por la ansiedad por no saber si vas a llegar a fin de mes. Me ha parecido fascinante cómo Edith Wharton aborda y describe estos dos temas.
En definitiva, un clásico que me ha encantado y que me alegro de haber leído. Y ojalá a Bertha Dorset mal dolor de tripa le entre, que cuanto más se mueva más le duela y si para reviente.
4,5 estrellas.
En esta novela Edith Wharton realiza figuradamente, usando siempre un lenguaje muy educado, el acto de pillar un bate de béisbol y meterle una paliza a los miembros de las clases altas de Nueva York durante la llamada "Edad dorada". Pero paliza, paliza. De mandarlos a todos a la UVI. Supongo que nadie podía hacerlo mejor que ella, que sabía de lo que hablaba.
Edith Wharton es como Jane Austen, pero en americana y en más detallista y directa en su crítica. Es normal, 100 años (mínimo) las separan, y el realismo y el naturalismo habían influenciado la Literatura. Además, Edith Wharton escribe para (o es consciente de que puede ser leída por) un grupo más amplio de personas que Jane Austen, quien no esperaba que nadie fuera de su misma clase social leyera su obra, y por lo tanto hay mucho que no explica, porque quien la leía en la época ya sabía de lo que hablaba. Edith Wharton no. Edith Wharton te lo explica todo. TODO. Y en esa detallísima descripción de la clase alta, de lo que visten, lo que comen, dónde viven y, sobre todo, cómo actúan, es donde se desarrolla la historia de Lily Bart, una mujer que tal vez no sea la persona más inteligente del mundo siempre, pero que no es tonta, es perfectamente autoconsciente de su situación, quiere lo que quiere... pero le falta maldad. Lily Bart tiene demasiados escrúpulos para el mundo en el que se mueve. La verdad es que lo pasé mal al leer sus desventuras, porque Lily Bart me cae bien. Creo que es porque Edith Wharton explica muy bien dos conceptos que a día de hoy están muy presentes: el concepto de "pobreza relativa" y la depresión; la depresión causada por la ansiedad por no saber si vas a llegar a fin de mes. Me ha parecido fascinante cómo Edith Wharton aborda y describe estos dos temas.
En definitiva, un clásico que me ha encantado y que me alegro de haber leído. Y ojalá a Bertha Dorset mal dolor de tripa le entre, que cuanto más se mueva más le duela y si para reviente.