Lily might be incapable of marrying for money, but she was equally incapable of living without it. -p.172
The tale of Lily Bart, a woman rich in pedigree yet as fiscally fit as Al Bundy, living in the materialistic world of New York's old monied at the end of the 1800s. When we meet Lily she is trying to culminate her life's work, landing a rich husband. Beautiful, bright and oozing charisma, Lily is fully capable of doing this yet it seems she can never seal the deal. Without a rich husband and without real money to her name, what's a girl to do?
The House of Mirth is a masterpiece; phenomenal story - phenomenal storytelling, although this novel is not for the fainthearted. Yes, Wharton makes you chuckle with her snide remarks and nod in agreement with her astute observations on human nature, but this author can teach a master class on empathy. For a faux-rich snob at the turn of the century, Wharton's use of empathy makes Lily so relatable. Throughout the novel you're living and breathing Lily Bart's existence. When Lily makes a wrong move, you'll feel frustrated and disappointed. When she makes the right move but gets sacked through no fault of her own, you're gutted. When she gets a bit of happiness, you're relieved. With every sentence, Wharton infuses your gut with feeling. And 90% of that feeling is depressing. So much so that naming this work "The House of Mirth" is like breathing with a broken rib, every breath hurts. That mocking name just adds salt to the wound. Wharton was uncompromising; when she sets out to
A point of interest and admiration for me is Lily Bart's tenacity. Taking one of the opportunities to marry into wealth would have solved her problems, but Lily persisted with the single life. Lily has motivation and ability; she has barely enough income to get by and possesses the wherewithal to score a rich husband, but she's almost 30 years old and still unmarried. Is it bad luck or is Lily her own victim? Or perhaps "victim" is too strong a word. Maybe remaining unmarried is Lily's way of rebelling; her way of eking out a little freedom from a world that oppresses her. A world in which she's so entrenched that she can't really decipher what it is she wants, but knows what it is she doesn't.
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"That's Lily all over, you know: she works like a slave preparing the ground and sowing her seed; but the day she ought to be reaping the harvest she over-sleeps herself or goes off on a picnic." Mrs. Fisher paused and looked reflectively at the deep shimmer of sea between the cactus-flowers. "Sometimes," she added, "I think it's just flightiness--and sometimes I think it's because, at heart, she despises the things she's trying for. And it's the difficulty of deciding that makes her such an interesting study." - chapter 1"I have tried hard--but life is difficult, and I am a very useless person. I can hardly be said to have an independent existence. I was just a screw or a cog in the great machine I called life, and when I dropped out of it I found I was of no use anywhere else. What can one do when one finds that one only fits into one hole? One must get back to it or be thrown out into the rubbish heap--and you don't know what it's like in the rubbish heap!" Lily Bart, chapter 12
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Read The House of Mirth online:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/284
http://www.online-literature.com/wharton/house_mirth/
Google Book - House of Mirth
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