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carolinenieto 's review for:
The House of Mirth
by Edith Wharton
I bought this book when I found it at the bookstore (along with The Age of Innocence) because I wanted to read some Edith Wharton, and I also saw an actor I like reading it, so I figured, why not give it a shot. The synopsis also sounded pretty cool. The actual copy of the book is super cool (except for when the cover fell off) because I think it's from the 60s.
Anyway, I did not expect to like this as much as I did. It took me pretty long to read, because I didn't read about 100 or so pages a day or more like I can do with contemporary books. Classics are naturally more dense, and this was no exception. Usually in older books I find there are references and things I don't understand, but every metaphor in this book was really well crafted and made sense to me. Even if the book was dense, the actual writing was really great; I really felt like I understood most things.
It's also just an example of really good writing; the entire storyline with Selden is just so well done. I rarely find myself getting excited over love interests in classics, because they're usually very boring, but Lily and Selden's relationship was so devastating and perfect. Chapter 6 was perfectly done. There were times when I thought they might have a shot at getting together, and I was so mad that they never did, because that was pretty much my ideal scenario for Lily.
I also think the character of Lily is super good. She's rich and frivolous, but we get to see why she is the way she is. We get a slight backstory when she's at the Trenor's in the beginning (which I think is a great place to put it, too). We get to hear about her parents, and how her mom is responsible for a lot of Lily's spending problems. As the book goes on, Lily wants to maintain this expensive lifestyle, but the only way to do that in her society is to get married. She tries this a couple of times, but always ends up backing off before she goes through with it. She has the power to entice someone to marry her, and to keep living how she's living, but it's always interrupted by Selden in some way. Like Selden said, when you're in society you don't realize there are other people outside of it; as desperately as Lily wanted to remain in society, she couldn't make that permanent a decision, and she also would be completely removing any chance she had with Selden.
There are also moments when she pretty much loses everything. She loses her friends, she loses her money. We get to see Lily Bart try to live as a poor woman; she even goes to work. She gets helped by Gerty Farrish, and she's pretty much the only loyal friend Lily has. Even though Lily confidently condemns her lifestyle at the beginning of the book, and Gerty even admits to hating her at one point. They needed a companion at times, and Lily was able to find some solace in her. What I find interesting is that Lily is of course looking for a way to keep spending money, but she tries her hardest to do it nobly. Even though her character is extremely privileged, and she's never had to work for anything, she's willing to if it means saving mooching off of her friends. When Lily looses all of her friends, it's pretty eye opening, and it let me know more into what the 1900s New York society was really like. It also shows how the word of men often ruined her reputation; men were rarely condemned for having affairs, and Lily is frequently condemned for the suspicion, even when she's taken advantage of and doesn't actually do anything, I suppose it's not much different from today. Rich and privileged people stay with rich and privileged people. She had few genuine friendships and people to help her.
I am saddened by her fate. Even though she was not perfect, I was rooting for her to get her life back together, because she wanted to do it honestly. She was trying her best to do the right thing. We have this little internal soliloquy going on at the end, and she's thinking over pretty much everything that's happened to her recently, including the girl from Gerty's place. I like that the ending is pretty ambiguous, and we don't really know if Lily mean to overdose on her sleeping pills. I still am not sure; I really was confident that Lily was trying to start a new life, but I'm afraid that maybe after seeing what it's like to live in poverty, the girl was the last straw. She may have decided that she'd rather be dead than live a life like that. Gerty and the others seems to think it's an accident, because it was common to overdose on sleeping pills, and maybe it was an accident, but there was something more behind it, and there was something leading to this moment. When Lily buys those letters, she can decide if she wants to cheat and blackmail her way back into society, or if she wants to try to do it honestly, or even forget society. Lily eventually burns the letters, which pretty much confirms that she's not willing to cheat her way into society. Society has always been a place where she fit. By doing this, it would mean that she didn't really belong.
This book says so much about women in society (in a rich and privileged society), and there's probably more I could be saying, but overall I really really enjoyed this book. There was something that was so resonant about it to me, and it really felt relevant to today, which is rare to find in a classic. Aside from my favorite books of all time, this might be my favorite classic.
Anyway, I did not expect to like this as much as I did. It took me pretty long to read, because I didn't read about 100 or so pages a day or more like I can do with contemporary books. Classics are naturally more dense, and this was no exception. Usually in older books I find there are references and things I don't understand, but every metaphor in this book was really well crafted and made sense to me. Even if the book was dense, the actual writing was really great; I really felt like I understood most things.
It's also just an example of really good writing; the entire storyline with Selden is just so well done. I rarely find myself getting excited over love interests in classics, because they're usually very boring, but Lily and Selden's relationship was so devastating and perfect. Chapter 6 was perfectly done. There were times when I thought they might have a shot at getting together, and I was so mad that they never did, because that was pretty much my ideal scenario for Lily.
I also think the character of Lily is super good. She's rich and frivolous, but we get to see why she is the way she is. We get a slight backstory when she's at the Trenor's in the beginning (which I think is a great place to put it, too). We get to hear about her parents, and how her mom is responsible for a lot of Lily's spending problems. As the book goes on, Lily wants to maintain this expensive lifestyle, but the only way to do that in her society is to get married. She tries this a couple of times, but always ends up backing off before she goes through with it. She has the power to entice someone to marry her, and to keep living how she's living, but it's always interrupted by Selden in some way. Like Selden said, when you're in society you don't realize there are other people outside of it; as desperately as Lily wanted to remain in society, she couldn't make that permanent a decision, and she also would be completely removing any chance she had with Selden.
There are also moments when she pretty much loses everything. She loses her friends, she loses her money. We get to see Lily Bart try to live as a poor woman; she even goes to work. She gets helped by Gerty Farrish, and she's pretty much the only loyal friend Lily has. Even though Lily confidently condemns her lifestyle at the beginning of the book, and Gerty even admits to hating her at one point. They needed a companion at times, and Lily was able to find some solace in her. What I find interesting is that Lily is of course looking for a way to keep spending money, but she tries her hardest to do it nobly. Even though her character is extremely privileged, and she's never had to work for anything, she's willing to if it means saving mooching off of her friends. When Lily looses all of her friends, it's pretty eye opening, and it let me know more into what the 1900s New York society was really like. It also shows how the word of men often ruined her reputation; men were rarely condemned for having affairs, and Lily is frequently condemned for the suspicion, even when she's taken advantage of and doesn't actually do anything, I suppose it's not much different from today. Rich and privileged people stay with rich and privileged people. She had few genuine friendships and people to help her.
I am saddened by her fate. Even though she was not perfect, I was rooting for her to get her life back together, because she wanted to do it honestly. She was trying her best to do the right thing. We have this little internal soliloquy going on at the end, and she's thinking over pretty much everything that's happened to her recently, including the girl from Gerty's place. I like that the ending is pretty ambiguous, and we don't really know if Lily mean to overdose on her sleeping pills. I still am not sure; I really was confident that Lily was trying to start a new life, but I'm afraid that maybe after seeing what it's like to live in poverty, the girl was the last straw. She may have decided that she'd rather be dead than live a life like that. Gerty and the others seems to think it's an accident, because it was common to overdose on sleeping pills, and maybe it was an accident, but there was something more behind it, and there was something leading to this moment. When Lily buys those letters, she can decide if she wants to cheat and blackmail her way back into society, or if she wants to try to do it honestly, or even forget society. Lily eventually burns the letters, which pretty much confirms that she's not willing to cheat her way into society. Society has always been a place where she fit. By doing this, it would mean that she didn't really belong.
This book says so much about women in society (in a rich and privileged society), and there's probably more I could be saying, but overall I really really enjoyed this book. There was something that was so resonant about it to me, and it really felt relevant to today, which is rare to find in a classic. Aside from my favorite books of all time, this might be my favorite classic.