Edith Wharton
2005-09-12
One of Edith Wharton’s most accomplished social satires, this novel tells the story of the beautiful but impoverished New York socialite Lily Bart, whose refusal to compromise in her search for a husband leads to her exclusion from polite society. In charting the course of Lily’s life and downfall, Wharton also provides a wider picture of a society in transition, a milieu in which old certainties, manners, and morals no longer hold true, and where the individual has become an expendable commodity.
This classic American novel is now available in a Broadview edition that includes a critical introduction and a rich selection of contextual documents. Appendices include Wharton’s correspondence about The House of Mirth, contemporary articles on social mores, etiquette, and dress, and related writings by Henry James, Thorstein Veblen, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
Wharton's poignant dive into early 20th-century New York society is a masterclass in character study and social commentary. As I followed Lily Bart's trials and tribulations, I felt a twinge of familiarity with the bygone era's complex mores and the delicate balance of reputation. The prose is as intricate as lace, with each sentence a thread woven into the larger tapestry of Lily's world. A bittersweet elegy that resonates with the subtleties of human experience.
