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dbubbles88 's review for:
The House of Mirth
by Edith Wharton
I completely understand why this is considered Wharton's masterpiece. With the character of Lily Bart, she delves so completely into the inner workings of a woman struggling to survive in the elitist society of the era. She is almost a sister character to Ellen Olenska of The Age of Innocence (my other favorite Wharton), but Lily has much less money to work with and is much more fully realized. Instead of an ideal seen through the eyes of a male character, like Ellen is, Lily is firmly the protagonist here. Although we see her through the objectifying eyes of men once in a while, more often than not we are in her head, seeing how she constructs her persona and outer self to gain power in her culture. The House of Mirth has the most developed cast of characters of any Wharton novel, with numerous side characters like Selden, Rosedale, and Gerty all have fully realized inner lives. The constant financial transactions and discussions of money in the novel give the upper crust an even darker underbelly than in Wharton's previous novels. The House of Mirth is simply riveting.