It was a concession that would not only corrode their sense of style and decorum, but allow them to sacrifice the members of the 'old' society who could not keep pace. Fashions-and economics-had changed, and Old New York society was forced to recognize the power of 'new money' and even to accept the newly rich, with their tremendous wealth earned in a suspect marketplace, into their circle. As she wrote in her autobiography, A Backward Glance (1934), her goal in The House of Mirth was to uncover the true nature of society's power and to answer the question: 'in what aspect could a society of irresponsible pleasure-seekers be said to have, on the 'old woe of the world,' any deeper bearing that the people composing such a society could guess?'īy 1905, the genteel milieu of Wharton's childhood was rapidly disappearing. Although Wharton had previously published two collections of stories, The Greater Inclination (1899) and Crucial Incidents (1901) and the novel The Valley of Decision (1902), her decision to write about fashionable New York, a world she 'had been steeped in since infancy,' brought her immediate success and recognition. The House of Mirth, published in 1905, marks Edith Wharton's emergence as one of America's greatest writers. One of Wharton's most bracing and nuanced portraits of the life of women in a hostile, highly ordered world, The House of Mirth exposes the truths about American high society that its denizens most wished to deny.

As Lily spirals down into debt and dishonor, her story takes on the resonance of classic tragedy.

Though her desire for a comfortable life means that she cannot marry for love without money, her resistance to the rules of the social elite endangers her many marriage proposals. The beautiful, much-desired Lily Bart has been raised to be one of the perfect wives of the wealthy upper class, but her spark of character and independent drive prevents her from becoming one of the many women who will succeed in those circles.

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton Pamela Knights (Introduction by) Tom Wharton In The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton depicts the glittering salons of Gilded Age New York with precision and wit, even as she movingly portrays the obstacles that impeded women's choices at the turn of the century.

Author of the house of mirth