The House of Mirth - Paperback

by Edith Wharton (Author)

The House of Mirth, a novel by Edith Wharton, tells the story of Lily Bart, a well-born but impoverished woman belonging to New York City's high society around the turn of the last century. Wharton creates a portrait of a stunning beauty who, though raised and educated to marry well both socially and economically, is reaching her 29th year, an age when her youthful blush is drawing to a close and her marital prospects are becoming ever more limited. The House of Mirth traces Lily's slow two-year social descent from privilege to a tragically lonely existence on the margins of society. Wharton uses Lily as an attack on "an irresponsible, grasping and morally corrupt upper class."

Author Biography

Edith Wharton (January 24, 1862 - August 11, 1937) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer.