The House of Mirth

For the various adaptations of the novel, see The House of Mirth (disambiguation).

The House of Mirth

First Edition, 1905
Author	Edith Wharton
Language	English
Genre	Novel
Publisher	Charles Scribner's Sons
Publication date	October 14, 1905
Publication place	United States
Media type	print

The House of Mirth (1905), a novel by Edith Wharton (1862–1937), 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 ravishing beauty who, though raised and educated to marry well both socially and economically, is reaching her 29th year, an age when 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"(309-310).

Although published as a book on October 14, 1905, The House of Mirth was serialized in Scribner’s Magazine beginning in January 1905. It attracted a readership among housewives and businessmen alike. Charles Scribner wrote Edith in November 1905 that the novel was showing "the most rapid sale of any book ever published by Scribner."(310) By the end of December sales had reached 140,000 copies. Edith's royalties were valued at more than half a million dollars in today's currency. The commercial and critical success of The House of Mirth solidified Wharton's reputation as a major novelist.

Because of the novel's commercial success some critics classified it as a genre novel. However, Edith's pastor, then rector of Trinity Church in Manhattan, wrote to tell her that her novel was "a terrible but just arraignment of the social misconduct which begins in folly and ends in moral and spiritual death."(310) This moral purpose was not lost on the literary reviewers and critics of the time who tended to categorize it as both social satire and a novel of manners. Carol Singley in her Introduction to Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth: A Case Book states, "[The House of Mirth] is a unique blend of romance, realism, and naturalism,[and thus] transcends the narrow classification of a novel of manners."(3) The House of Mirth was Edith Wharton's second published novel and was preceded by two novellas, The Touchstone (1900), Sanctuary (1903) and one full-length novel, The Valley of Decision (1902). Her subsequent important novels are Ethan Frome (1911), The Custom of the Country (1913), and The Age of Innocence (1920) for which she won the Pulitzer Prize in 1921. These works influenced a host of American authors for two generations. They include F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby),Sinclair Lewis (Main Street),John O'Hara (Appointment in Samarra), and Louis Auchincloss (The House of Five Talents).

Title and Purpose

In The House of Mirth (1905), Lily Bart enjoys the attentions of a gentleman.

Wharton considered several possibilities as the title of her novel. Two were germane to her purpose:

A Moment's Ornament appears in the first stanza of William Wordsworth's (1770–1850) poem, "She was a Phantom of Delight" (1804) that describes an ideal of feminine beauty:

"She was a Phantom of delight / When first she gleam’d upon my sight; / A lovely Apparition, sent / To be a moment’s ornament: / Her eyes as stars of twilight fair; / Like twilight's, too, her dusky hair; / But all things else about her drawn / From May-time and the cheerful dawn; / A dancing shape, an image gay, / To haunt, to startle, and waylay."

— CLXXIV: She was a Phantom of Delight, first stanza (1804)

"A moment's ornament" symbolizes how Wharton describes Lily's relationship to her reference group as a beautiful and well-bred socialite. Her value lasts only as long as her beauty and good-standing with the group. By centering the story around a portrait of Lily, Wharton was able to address directly the social limitations imposed upon her. These included the mores of the upper crust social class and social stratum to which Lily belonged by birth, education, and breeding.

The title Wharton finally chose for her novel was The House of Mirth (1905) taken from the Old Testament:

"The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth."

— Ecclesiastes 7:4

As "The House of Mirth" the novel spotlights the social context as playing as much of a role in the development of the novel's purpose as the heroine herself. "Mirth" contrasted with "mourning" also bespeaks a moral purpose as it underscores the frivolity of a social set that not only worships money, but also uses it ostentatiously solely for its own amusement and aggrandizement. At the time the novel takes place, Old New York society was peopled by the extraordinarily wealthy who were conditioned by the economic and social changes the gilded age(1870-1900) wrought. Wharton's birth around the time of the Civil War predates that period by a little less than a decade. As a member of the privileged Old New York society, she was eminently qualified to describe it authentically. She also had license to criticize it without being vulnerable to accusations of envy motivated by coming from a lower social caste. She accused her peers of having lost the sense of noblesse oblige of their forebears.

Wharton reveals in her introduction to the 1936 reprint of The House of Mirth her choice of subject and her major theme:

When I wrote House of Mirth I held, without knowing it, two trumps in my hand. One was the fact that New York society in the nineties was a field as yet unexploited by a novelist who had grown up in that little hot-house of tradition and conventions; and the other, that as yet these traditions and conventions were unassailed, and tacitly regarded as unassailable.

— 32-33: Introduction to the 1936 reprint of The House of Mirth

Wharton figured that no one had written about New York society because it offered nothing worth writing about. But that did not deter her as she thought something of value could be mined there. If only the writer could dig deeply enough below the surface, some " 'stuff o' the conscience' " could be found. She went on to declare unabashedly that:

[I]n spite of the fact I wrote about totally insignificant people, and 'dated' them by an elaborate stage-setting of manners, furniture and costume, the book still lives and has now attained the honour of figuring on the list of the Oxford University Press. ...Such people always rest on an underpinning of wasted human possibilities and it seemed to me the fate of the persons embodying these possibilities ought to redeem my subject from insignificance.

— 33: Introduction to the 1936 reprint of The House of Mirth

Plot

In The House of Mirth (1905), the story of Lily Bart begins with her visiting the apartment of Lawrence Selden, a lawyer for whom she eventually develops romantic feelings, but whose relative lack of means make him ineligible to be her husband. Visiting a man's apartment is considered inappropriate behavior for a young, unmarried woman, but Lily is occasionally careless of appearances and does not care very much about her reputation. She enjoys flirting with men, and since she is a very attractive woman they tend to fall in love with her.

Lily's goal, at the start of the book, is to marry Percy Gryce, a young, timid millionaire from a very conservative family. Lily presents herself dishonestly, pretending to be the innocent, conservative young woman to whom Percy would be attracted. Although her confidantes are convinced that Percy will propose marriage to Lily, they are mistaken. Lily withdraws from their relationship, partly because she is confident that Percy is hers, and partly because Selden's unexpected visit makes her realize how dishonorable marrying a man she does not care for would be. Despite feeling convinced that he loves Lily, Selden does not yet want to risk marriage, especially after Lily explicitly states that she cannot marry a man of Selden's modest means. Meanwhile, Gryce marries another, younger woman from within their social circle. The match was set up by the married Bertha Dorset who correctly identifies Lily as the reason Selden is no longer interested in carrying on their adulterous affair. Bertha retaliates by making sure Percy finds out about Lily's habits of gambling, smoking, and borrowing money, and she introduces Percy to a young woman who really is the innocent, conservative person Lily pretends to be but is not. The courtship proceeds so rapidly that Lily is unaware of it until the happy couple announces their engagement.

The tragic heroine of The House of Mirth (1905), Lily Bart, lingers at the broad staircase, observing the high-society people gathered in the hall below.

Lily's social standing begins to erode when she manipulates her friend Judy's husband Gus Trenor into giving her money. While visiting the Trenors, she ignores Judy's explicit warning to not have financial dealings with her husband, who likes to pay for romantic attention from other women. Lily flirts with Gus so as to talk him into agreeing to make investments on her behalf. She accepts several checks for large amounts of money from Gus, who is accustomed to receiving romantic attention from women (such as the disreputable divorcee Carry Fisher) in exchange for money. Gus expects romantic attention from Lily in exchange for the payments. To him, an experienced Wall Street speculator, the idea that he's actually investing Lily's money for a gigantic profit is an obvious social fiction. Lily, however, lacks financial knowledge and truly believes he's making investments on her behalf. She begins to avoid Gus, who speaks indiscreetly to others about the transaction. The rumors that arise from his continued pursuit of her and from the compromises she makes to allow Gus a little bit of social contact with her alienate her friend Judy and damage Lily's reputation. Lily one day receives a note from Selden, who asks to meet with her. Certain that he will propose marriage, she agrees to meet him the next day. Surprised and alarmed by Lily's apparent change of heart toward him, and also by the fact he sees her sneaking out of Gus's townhouse that very night while Judy is known to be out of town, Selden flees New York City. He travels first to Havana and then to Europe, cravenly leaving Lily with no notice and no explanation.

To escape the rumors arisen from the gossip caused by her financial dealings with Gus Trenor, and also disappointed by what she interprets as Selden's emotional cowardice, Lily accepts Bertha Dorset's invitation to join her and her husband, George, on a cruise of Europe aboard their yacht, the Sabrina. Bertha intends that Lily should keep George distracted while Bertha conducts an affair with a young poet Ned Silverton. Lily fails to keep George sufficiently distracted, and so when George catches Bertha in a compromising situation, Bertha falsely accuses Lily of adultery with George, in order to divert the attention and suspicion of their social circle away from herself. The ensuing social scandal ruins Lily's personal reputation, which then causes her abandonment by friends and disinheritance by Aunt Peniston.

Undeterred by such misfortunes, Lily fights to regain her place in high society by befriending Mr and Mrs Gormer and becoming their social secretary, so as to introduce the Gormers to high society and groom them to take a better social position. However, her enemy, the malicious Bertha Dorset, gradually communicates to them the "scandalous" personal background of Lily Bart, and, so, undermines the friendship which Lily had hoped would socially rehabilitate her. Only two friends remain for Lily: Gerty Farish (a cousin of Lawrence Selden) and Carry Fisher, who help her cope with the social ignominy of a degraded social status, whilst continually advising Lily to marry as soon as reasonably possible.

Despite the efforts and advice of Gerty and Carry to help her overcome notoriety, Lily descends through the social strata of the high society of New York City. She obtains a job as personal secretary of Mrs. Hatch, who is a disreputable woman and who very nearly succeeds in marrying a wealthy young man in Lily's former social circle. She resigns after Lawrence Selden returns to warn her of the danger, but not in time to avoid being blamed for the crisis. Lily then finds a job in a milliner's shop; yet, unaccustomed to the rigors of working class manual labour, her rate of production is low and the quality of her workmanship is poor, and she is fired at the end of the New York social season when the demand for fashionable hats has ceased.

Meanwhile, Simon Rosedale, a Jewish suitor who earlier had proposed marriage to Lily, when she was higher in the social scale, returns to her life and tries to rescue her, but Lily is unwilling to meet his terms. Simon wants Lily to use love letters, which she bought from her servant, to confirm the occurrence of a long-ago love affair between Lawrence Selden and Bertha Dorset. For the sake of Selden's reputation, Lily does not act upon Rosedale's request, and secretly burns the love letters when she visits Selden, one last time.

Eventually, Lily Bart receives a ten-thousand-dollar inheritance, from her Aunt Peniston, with which she repays Gus Trenor. Distraught by her misfortunes, Lily had begun regularly using a sleeping draught of chloral hydrate to escape the pain of poverty and social ostracism. One day, Lily takes an overdose of the sleeping draught and kills herself. Hours later, Lawrence Selden arrives to her quarters, to finally propose marriage, but finds Lily Bart dead; only then is he able to be close to her.

Characters

Lily Bart-Wharton paints Lily, the heroine of her novel, as a complex multifaceted personality with the purity that her Christian name implies, the defiance that her surname implies, and the foolishness that the title of the novel implies. The combination of the social pressures and conventions of her reference group and her refusal to "settle" numerous times to save herself portend a fateful destiny where she becomes the agent of her own destruction. Wharton depicts Lily as having an aesthetic purpose in life—a fine specimen to be looked at and admired. Her pressing task as the novel begins is to find that husband with the requisite wealth and status to ensure that she maintains her place in upper-class New York social circles. Her beauty should have served her well to achieve that purpose for which she had been well trained. However, it turns out that who she is at her core, her desire to escape the claustrophobic confines of social convention, her sense of what is right, and her personal desire for love as well as money has thwarted her success in spite of a number of eligible admirers. Her vulnerabilities are her advancing age—she has been on the "marriage market" for ten years as the novel begins—her constant efforts to "keep up with the Joneses"(4) given the very modest allowance from her straight-laced Aunt Julia. The loss of her father's wealth, and the death of her parents has left her orphaned and without a caring protector. To protect Lawrence Selden's reputation She refuses to use damning evidence against Bertha Dorset which would recoup her ruined social standing. This leads to a tragic yet heroic ending.

Lawrence Selden-A young lawyer who, although not wealthy himself, is able to move within the elite social circles through a distant relationship to money. He is able to view the doings of New York's high-society personages with the detachment of an outsider. Yet, he is not free from the social pressure of rumor. Though he has shown Lily consistent friendship, he abandons her when she becomes the victim of appearances that put her virtue, as an unmarried woman, in question.

Bertha Dorset- A high-society matron whose husband George Dorset is an extremely wealthy man. Bertha is bored with her husband and seeks attention and love outside the confines of marriage. Wharton describes her not only as manipulative but also without scruples. As the story begins Bertha pursues Selden, but later she uses Lily as a distraction for her husband George so she can carry on another affair with Ned Silverton. Bertha understands, as a married woman, she must keep up appearances and ruthlessly impugns Lily's reputation to mask her own adultery. She spreads false rumors that besmirch Lily's virtue among their friends. Lily, as an unmarried woman without a protector, has little she can do in her own defense.

Judy Trenor-Wharton paints Mrs. Trenor as the quintessential high-society matron, married to Gus Trenor, a successful business man. She frequently hosts large parties and social events at their country home, Bellomont. Mrs. Trenor engages in gossip and spends much of her day making sure that every detail of her events is done to perfection. This includes poring over lists to decide which guests are the most desirable to invite, which have been "stolen" by another conflicting event, and which unmarried men and women should be set up together.

Gus Trenor- Judy Trenor's husband, is a notorious flirt and looks for attention in relationships with women outside of his marriage. Gus becomes enamored with Lily, a frequent guest at his wife's weekend social events. He uses his financial investment skills and a large sum of his own money in a risky investment for Lily which she agrees to. She needs money in addition to her allowance, to pay her gambling debts and other expenses necessary to keep up appearances.The investment turns sour and Lily commits to repaying her debt to Gus rather than to bestow him with the sexual favors he desires.

Percy Gryce-A young, rich, but boring eligible bachelor on whom Lily, with the support of her friend Judy Trenor, sets her sights. She works out a strategy to catch him at a weekend at Bellomont. Her strategy gets interrupted when Selden also appears on the scene and she decides on the spur of the moment not to pursue Percy. When she has a change of mind at a more rational moment and she decides she must marry him, he announces his engagement to Evie Van Osburgh.

Simon Rosedale-A successful Jewish businessman, has the money but not the social standing to be accepted into the circle of New York's leisure class. Building his fortune in real estate, Rosedale makes his first appearance in the story when he observes Lily leaving his apartment building in what appears to be a lover’s meeting with Selden, one of his tenants. Rosedale is interested in Lilly because not only is she beautiful but more importantly she is also a social asset in gaining him a place in high society. He offers her marriage which provides her a way out of her financial dilemma and by then her precarious social standing, but she refuses. As he works his way up the social ladder due to his cleverness and business acumen, Lilly is on her way down to the point that Rosedale is no longer interested in marrying her. Despite the differences in their social standing by the end of the book, Rosedale is still kind to Lily, and he offers her money when he runs into her after she has lost her hat-making job.

Gerty Farish- Selden's cousin. She is a kind, generous woman who occupies herself with charity work. In Book Two, she becomes one of Lily's only friends, giving her a place to stay and taking care of her when everyone else abandons her.

Carry Fisher-Known for bringing newcomers, such as the Brys, into society. After Lily has been expelled from the upper class by Bertha, Carry is one of the few people who still shows compassion toward her, offering Lily support and money.

Ned Silverton-A young rich man, Ned accompanies Lily and the Dorsets on their Mediterranean cruise. He has an affair with Bertha, but manages to keep it concealed from most of society.

Mrs. Peniston (Julia)-Lily's wealthy and straight-laced Aunt who embodies the "old school" morality. She became Lily's guardian after Lily's mother died. Mrs. Peniston maintains an unostentatious residence on fashionable Fifth Avenue where Lily also lives. When Mrs. Peniston hears the rumors that Lily had an affair and learns that Lily gambles on Sundays, she disinherits her as Book Two begins, and leaves most of her estate to other relatives.

Jack Stepney and Gwen Stepney-A very wealthy couple. Jack is Lily's cousin. He married Gwen Van Osburgh in Book One, and also belongs to New York's high society. In Book Two, he agrees to shelter Lily for the night after Bertha kicks her off the yacht.

Grace Stepney-Lily's competitive cousin who refuses to give Lily financial assistance..

Critical reception

In the contemporary book review "New York Society Held up to Scorn in three New Books" (15 October 1905) The New York Times critic said that The House of Mirth is "a novel of remarkable power" and that "its varied elements are harmoniously blended, and [that] the discriminating reader who has completed the whole story in a protracted sitting, or two, must rise from it with the conviction that there are no parts of it which do not properly and essentially belong to the whole. Its descriptive passages have verity and charm, it has the saving grace of humor, its multitude of personages, as we have said, all have the semblance of life."

The publication of the novel prompted letters to the editor of the "New York Times Saturday Review of Books" which argued the merits of the story, saying that the novel was a faithful and true portrait of the New York City gentry, while detractors said that it impugned the character of the city's social élite as heartless and materialist leisure class.

Adaptations

The novel The House of Mirth (1905) has been adapted to radio, the stage and the cinema.

• The Play of the novel The House of Mirth (1906), by Edith Wharton and Clyde Fitch.
• La Maison du Brouillard (1918), directed by Albert Capellani, featured Katherine Harris Barrymore as Lily Bart; a French silent film.
• The House of Mirth was presented on radio's Theatre Guild on the Air December 14, 1952. The one-hour adaptation starred Joan Fontaine and Franchot Tone.
• The House of Mirth (1956), directed by John Drew Barrymore. Matinee Theatre: Season 2, Episode 56. (4 December 1956)
• The House of Mirth (1981), directed by Adrian Hall. A television film for the Public Broadcasting System in the U.S.
• The House of Mirth (2000), directed by Terence Davies, featured Gillian Anderson as Lily Bart.

Sources

• Meyers, Jeffrey (2004), Introduction in Wharton, Edith. The House of Mirth. Barnes & Noble. ISBN 1-59308-153-7.
• Wharton, Edith., The House of Mirth: The Complete Text in Ross C. Murfin (series ed.) & Shari Benstock, ed. (1994). Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism: Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth pp.25-305. Boston * New York: Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press. p. 498. ISBN 0-312-06234-6.
• Quindlen, Anna (2000), Introduction in Wharton, Edith. The House of Mirth. NY: Signet Classics The Penguin Group. pp. v–xi. ISBN 978-0-451-47430-8.
• Killoran, Hellen. (2001). The Critical Reception of Edith Wharton. Camden House. ISBN 1-57113101-9.
• Rattray, L.(ed.).(2012). Edith Wharton in Context. New York: Cambridge University Press. 400pp.
• Wharton, Edith., Introduction to The House of Mirth (1936) in Frederick Wegener, ed. (2000). Uncollected Critical Writings. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press pp.265-269.
• Wharton, Edith., Introduction to the 1936 edition of The House of Mirth in Carol J. Singley, ed. (2003). Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, A Case Book, pp.31-38. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 337. ISBN 0-19-515603-X.

Reviews

• Preston, C. (2004). The critical reception of Edith Wharton. The Yearbook of English Studies, 34(1) Nineteenth-Century Travel Writing,336-338.

Accessed: 01-04-2016 03:52 UTC.DOI: 10.2307/3509561

• Kornasky, L. (2014). Edith Wharton in context. Studies in American Naturalism, 9(1), 107.
• Singley, C., & Moseley, A. (2007). Wharton and Cather. American Literary Scholarship, 2007(1), 139-168.
• Wharton, Edith. (1905). Mr. Sturgis’s Belchamber, Bookman, 21(May), 309-310.

External links

• The House of Mirth at Project Gutenberg
• The House of Mirth public domain audiobook at LibriVox