You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
violentlyagitated 's review for:
The House of Mirth
by Edith Wharton
A very eloquently written and drawn-out tragedy. Reading this book was in no way fun, there‘s precious little mirth in it.
You watch Lily as she creates opportunities for herself but ultimately ends up missing them because deep down she‘s an idealist that wants nothing but happiness in life on top of riches. I think her friend Mrs Fisher (who was my favorite character) described it pretty well:
‚That‘s Lily all over: she works like a slave preparing the ground and sowing her seed; but the day she ought to be reaping the harvest she oversleeps herself or goes off on a picnic.‘
This is how the entire novel feels. You stumble from one big chance to the next with Lily but she takes none of them although they would make her life better in a materialistic sense (I get it, she wouldn‘t have found happiness). So those chances diminish and become smaller as the years pass.
And with Selden, the only one you feel she loves, fate just ain‘t having it. That and his wallet is too slim, it seems.
I could go on about how her parents basically wrecked Lily‘s life for her but I feel like a big part of it was how she kept surrounding herself with her toxic relations - and I‘m too weary for that.
All in all, I can say I‘m unhappy now so even though Edith Wharton‘s writing is balm for the sore reader‘s heart, I can‘t give this book more than two stars for making me suffer.
PS: If this were a Jane Austen novel, Selden would have made it in time and we‘d have gotten an epilogue. I would have loved to see Lily happy, not just on her moral high ground ;
You watch Lily as she creates opportunities for herself but ultimately ends up missing them because deep down she‘s an idealist that wants nothing but happiness in life on top of riches. I think her friend Mrs Fisher (who was my favorite character) described it pretty well:
‚That‘s Lily all over: she works like a slave preparing the ground and sowing her seed; but the day she ought to be reaping the harvest she oversleeps herself or goes off on a picnic.‘
This is how the entire novel feels. You stumble from one big chance to the next with Lily but she takes none of them although they would make her life better in a materialistic sense (I get it, she wouldn‘t have found happiness). So those chances diminish and become smaller as the years pass.
And with Selden, the only one you feel she loves, fate just ain‘t having it. That and his wallet is too slim, it seems.
I could go on about how her parents basically wrecked Lily‘s life for her but I feel like a big part of it was how she kept surrounding herself with her toxic relations - and I‘m too weary for that.
All in all, I can say I‘m unhappy now so even though Edith Wharton‘s writing is balm for the sore reader‘s heart, I can‘t give this book more than two stars for making me suffer.
PS: If this were a Jane Austen novel, Selden would have made it in time and we‘d have gotten an epilogue. I would have loved to see Lily happy, not just on her moral high ground ;