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jersy 's review for:
The House of Mirth
by Edith Wharton
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.