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 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." (309-310)

Before publication 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).

Background, Theme, and Purpose

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

Edith Wharton started working on a piece of what was to become The House of Mirth during the period that she was finishing her Italian 16th century historical novel.

Edith Wharton considered several titles for the novel about Lily Bart; 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" represents the way Mrs. 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, Mrs. Wharton was able to address directly the social limitations imposed upon her. These included the mores of the upper crust social class to which Lily belonged by birth, education, and breeding.

The final title Wharton chose for the 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

The House of Mirth spotlights social context as equally important to the development of the story's purpose, as the heroine. "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 high society was peopled by the extraordinarily wealthy who were conditioned by the economic and social changes the Gilded Age (1870–1900) wrought. Mrs. 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 the ways New York high society of the eighteen nineties had changed 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.

Mrs. 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.

— Introduction to 1936 Edition, The House of Mirth 32-33

Mrs. 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.

— Introduction to 1936 Edition, The House of Mirth 33

If the excesses of the lives of the rich and famous had, by themselves, been the subject of The House of Mirth, it surely would have been relegated to a period piece. The House of Mirth continues to attract readers over a century after its first publication because its central theme, the struggle between who we are and what society tells us we should be, is as relevant today as it was in 1905. The life and death of Lily Bart continues to matter to us because Mrs. Wharton has succeeded in her purpose: to critique "a society so relentlessly materialistic and self-serving that it casually destroys what is most beautiful and blameless within it." (3)

Plot

Lily Bart, a beautiful but impoverished socialite, is on her way to a house party at Bellomont, the country home of her best friend, Judy Trenor. Her pressing task is to find a husband with the requisite wealth and status to maintain her place in New York society. Judy has arranged for her to meet the wealthy though boring Percy Gryce, a potential suitor. Lily grew up surrounded by elegance and luxury—an atmosphere she cannot live without as she has learned to abhor "dinginess." The loss of her father's wealth and the death of her parents left her an orphan without inheritance or a caring protector. She adapts to life as ward of her straight-laced aunt Julia Peniston from whom she receives an erratic allowance, a fashionable address, and good food, but little succor.

Additional challenges to her success in the “marriage market” are her advancing age—she has been on the "marriage market" for ten years, her penchant for gambling at bridge leaving her with debts beyond her means to pay, her efforts to keep up with her wealthy friends, her inner most desire to marry for love as well as money and status, and her longing to be free of the claustrophobic constrictions and routines of upper crust society.

Lily’s week at Bellomont ends up in a series of failures beginning with losing a large sum at bridge. She also loses her ploy to marry Percy Gryce even though her relationship with him during the week goes so well, everyone thinks an engagement between them is imminent. There are threats to her reputation because of her risky decision to visit her friend Lawrence Selden’s Manhattan flat during the two-hour wait for the train to Bellomont. On departing, she unfortunately encounters Mr. Rosedale, a Jewish businessman known to her set. Attempting to cover the appearance of an indiscretion, she professes to have been consulting her dress-maker. On her last day at Bellomont, threats to Lilly’s social standing begin when she agrees to have Gus Trenor make investments for her with the small amount of money she has. Lacking financial knowledge Lily truly believes Gus is making investments on her behalf and accepts several large checks from him. On several occasions, however, Gus makes it clear that he expects romantic attention from Lily in exchange for his financial expertise. She begins playing cat and mouse with him resulting in her public appearances at opera and late afternoon walks in Central Park with him. In retribution for a social snub, Lily’s cousin Grace Stepney informs their aunt Julia about rumors that Lily has gambling debts which she may be trying to cover through an inappropriate relationship with Gus Trenor. This sows seeds of doubt and discomfort in Aunt Julia who though shocked, does not discuss the situation with her niece so as to avoid a scene.

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 failure with Percy Gryce occurs when at week's end the tall, handsome and engaging Lawrence Selden unexpectedly shows up at Bellomont. Lily chooses to spend Sunday afternoon with him instead of meeting Percy for morning church services and an afternoon walk. Even though she made it clear to Selden during their tête-à-tête in his flat that she looked at him as that friend who won’t be afraid to say disagreeable things to her, she becomes drawn to him romantically. Succumbing to her agreeable femininity, Selden begins to fall in love with Lily, yet realizes that she cannot marry a man of his modest means.

Her strategy to marry Percy Gryce is thwarted by Bertha Dorset who is still wildly interested in Selden with whom she has been carrying on an extramarital affair. When she realizes that Selden came to Bellomont to see Lily, Bertha retaliates by making sure Percy finds out about Lily's gambling, smoking, and borrowing money from men to pay off her gambling debts. Percy gets scared off and soon thereafter marries Evie Van Osburgh. Mrs. Dorset's public pride in her match-making victory makes Lily subject to social ridicule. Lily decides not to burn Bertha's love letters to Selden, which she purchased from the char woman at Selden's apartment house who mistook Lily for Selden's paramour.

Lily attempts to neutralize the deleterious effects of the gossip surrounding her by renewing her association with her nemesis, Bertha Dorset, attending an unsuccessful house party at Bellomont, and cooperating with Carrie Fisher’s mission to bring the newcomers, the Wellington Brys, into high society. Following Mrs. Fisher’s advice, the Wellington Brys throw a large "general entertainment" featuring a series of tableaux vivants portrayed by a dozen fashionable women in their set including Miss Bart. The pièce de résistance of this highly successful event turned out to be the portrayal of Mrs. Lloyd in Sir Joshua Reynolds' famous 18th-century painting (1775–1776). The portrait shows an attractive woman suggestively clad. As the curtain opens on this last scene the gasp of approval heard from the audience was not as much for Reynold's brilliant interpretation of Mrs. Lloyd as it was for the loveliness of Lily Bart herself —marking the pinnacle of her social success. As Selden observes her in this tableau—elegant in its simplicity— it is as if for the first time he sees the real Lily Bart and feels the desire to be with her. He finds her alone in the ballroom toward the end of the musical interlude as the collective praise from her admirers was subsiding. He leads her to a garden where he tells her he loves her and they kiss. Lily sighs, " 'Ah, love me,love me—but don't tell me so!' " (141) and takes her leave. As Selden gathers his coat to leave he is disturbed by Ned Van Alstyne's remarks, ". . . .Gad, what a show of good-looking women; but not one of 'em could touch that little cousin of mine. . . . I never knew till tonight what an outline Lily has.” (142)

The next day Lily receives two notes—one from Judy Trenor inviting her to dine that evening at her town house and the other from Selden asking to meet with her the following day. Though she had a dinner engagement, she agreed to a visit with Judy at ten o'clock. However, her late-evening encounter turns out to be with Gus alone. Gus vehemently demands the kind of attention he thought he had paid for. Pleading naivité about business matters and appealing to their friendship, she promises to pay back the almost $10,000 she owes him. With heightened anger and resentment, he accuses Lily of playing with him while entertaining other men. Lily gets him to back off and gets herself into a hansom cab. Shaken and feeling very much alone, she calls on her friend Gerty Farish for succor and shelter for the rest of the evening. The following day Lily pleads with her aunt to help her with her debts and confesses that she has lost money gambling at bridge even on Sundays. her Aunt Julia refuses to help her except to cover the $1,000 to $2,000 bill for clothes and accessories. Feeling trapped and disgraced, she turns to thoughts of Selden and his love as her savior and has a change of heart towards him as she looks forward to his visit at four o'clock.

Instead, her visitor turns out to be Simon Rosedale who, so smitten by her appearance in the tableau vivant, proposes a marriage that would be mutually beneficial. Considering what Rosedale knows about her, she skillfully pleads for time to consider his offer Selden does not appear for his 4:00 appointment nor does he send word in explanation. Instead he has departed for Havana and then on to Europe on business.

To escape the rumors arising from the gossip caused by her financial dealings with Gus Trenor, and also disappointed by what she interprets as Selden's emotional withdrawal, Lily accepts Bertha Dorset's spur-of-the- moment invitation to join her and George on a Mediterranean cruise aboard their yacht, the Sabrina. Bertha intends for Lily to keep George distracted while Bertha carries on an affair with young Ned Silverton. Lily's decision to join the Dorsets on this cruise proves to be her social undoing.

In order to divert the attention and suspicion of their social circle away from her, Bertha insinuates that Lily is carrying on a romantic and sexual liaison with George by commanding that she not return to the yacht in front of their friends at the close of a dinner the Bry's held for the Duchess in Monte Carlo. Selden helps her arrange for lodging for the night with her cousin Jack Stepney under the promise that she leave promptly in the morning, The ensuing social scandal ruins Lily's reputation and almost immediately causes her friends to abandon her and Aunt Julia to disinherit her. 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 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 complicit in her own destruction. Wharton depicts Lily as having an aesthetic purpose in life—a fine specimen to be looked at and admired. Her extraordinary beauty should have served her well to find a wealthy husband with the requisite social status that would have secured her place in upper-class New York society. However, her inner longing to become free of her society's social conventions, her sense of what is right, and her desire for love as well as money and status have thwarted her success in spite of a number of eligible admirers over the ten years she has been on the marriage market. Challenges to her success are her advancing age—she is 29 as the novel begins—the loss of her father's wealth, and the death of her parents which has left her orphaned without a caring protector, her constant efforts to "keep up with the Joneses"(4), the very modest but erratic "allowance" from her straight-laced Aunt Julia, and her gambling debts which make her the subject of vile gossip. To protect Lawrence Selden's reputation, she refuses to use damning evidence against her nemesis, Bertha Dorset, which would have recouped 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 easily within and without Old New York's elite social circles through kinship with old-line New York families. He has known Lily since her “coming out” eleven years earlier. For all this time he has been in the background of her life. He views the comings and goings of New York's high society with the detachment and the objectivity of an outsider —a characteristic that Lily not only admires but also that allows her to view those people in her surroundings in an objective, critical and a not-so-flattering way. She becomes fascinated and envies his independence from the “tribe” and the freedom that has given him. Her encounters with Selden underscore the conflict between her inner voice —her self-hood at its core— and the outer voices of her reference group. It is from Selden's description, assessment and admiration of Lily's outward characteristics that we glean those attributes that contribute to New York high society's perception and misperceptions of who she is. He can be brutally honest about Lily's superficiality and artificiality and simultaneously appreciate the sparks of freedom and spontaneity that temper these negatives. These mutual admirable qualities give way to their romantic regard for one another. He is not, however, 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.

Simon Rosedale—A successful and socially astute Jewish businessman—the quintessential parvenu—who 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 tryst with one of his tenants. Rosedale is interested in Lilly because not only is she beautiful, but what is more important, she is also a social asset in gaining him a place in high society. She reflects that she has put herself in his power by her clumsy dress-maker fib and her refusal to allow him to take her to the station which would have given him the prestige of being seen by members of the society with whom he was aspiring to gain acceptance. As his social ascendency continues, he offers Lily marriage which would provide her a way out of her financial dilemma and her precarious social standing; she puts him off. His cleverness and business acumen serve him well to achieve a higher and higher rung on the social ladder. Lily, however, is on her way down to the point that Rosedale is no longer interested in marrying her. Despite the differences in their social standing , Rosedale by the end of the story shows compassion for Lily. He offers her a loan when he runs into her after she has lost her hat-making job—an offer she refuses.

Percy Gryce—A conservative, rich, but shy and unimaginative young eligible bachelor on whom Lily, with the support of her friend Judy Trenor, sets her sights. Percy's less than titillating personality notwithstanding, Lily works out a strategy to catch him at week-long festivities at Bellomont. Her fortuitous and successful encounter with Percy on the train to Bellomont further encourages her in pursuit of her goal. Her strategy gets interrupted, however, when Selden at week's end also appears on the scene unexpectedly. Lily then decides, on the spur of the moment, to set aside her well-thought-out tactics to pursue Percy in favor of spending some time with Selden. When, at a more rational moment, she returns to pursuing Percy, his mother-in law-to-be tells Lily at Jack Stepny's and Gwen Van Osburgh's wedding about his engagement to Evie Van Osburgh.

Bertha Dorset (Mrs. George Dorset)—A petite and pretty high-society matron whose husband George is extremely wealthy. She is first introduced catching the train to Bellomont where she boards with great fanfare and commotion. She demands that the porter find her a seat with her friends, Lily and Percy. Once at Bellomont Judy Trenor intimates to Lilly that Bertha is manipulative and also unscrupulous such that it is better to have her as a friend rather than an enemy. It is well known that Bertha is bored with her husband and seeks attention and love outside the confines of marriage. At Bellomont Bertha continues to pursue Selden in an attempt to rekindle the flame of an adulterous affair they have been carrying on but with which he has become disenamored. As Book I ends, she invites Lily to accompany her on a Mediterranean cruise to distract her husband so she can carry on an 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.

Mrs. Peniston (Julia)—Lily's wealthy, widowed Aunt –sister to Lily’s father. Mrs. Peniston embodies "old school" morality and has a family pedigree that goes back to the industrious and successful Dutch families of early New York. Although she maintains an opulent residence on fashionable Fifth Avenue, in Lilly's eyes it lacks a certain chic, and thus is but one step away from dingyness. Mrs. Peniston's “Old New York” lifestyle requires keeping her drawing room neat, eating well and dressing expensively. She harbors a passive attitude and does not actively engage in life. Mrs. Peniston took pleasure in the public display of her generosity by agreeing to take Lilly on for a year after her mother died—much to the relief of the extended family. Lily stayed on for years because she was able to adapt to her aunt’s passive ways and because Mrs. Peniston was indulgent for the volatility of youth. Lilly is dissatisfied with her existence in her aunt's house to the point of engaging in "fits of angry rebellion against fate"(56). She desires to make an independent life for herself, but that is economically and socially impossible. The peaceful co-existence she has constructed with her aunt comes to an end when Mrs. Peniston hears the rumors that Lily has had an affair, learns that Lily gambles on Sundays, and then disinherits her leaving Lilly without a fashionable place to live and without a substantial inheritance.

Judy Trenor (Mrs. Gus Trenor)—Lily's best friend and confidante— is the stereotypical high-society matron, married to Gus Trenor, a successful business man. She frequently hosts large parties and social events at their country home, Bellomont. By engaging in gossip Mrs. Trenor keeps up on the social scene. She acts as matchmaker between Lily and Percy Gryce. She uses Lily as her surrogate private secretary 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. She invites Selden to Bellomont on anonymous advice to keep Mrs. George Dorset entertained.

Gus Trenor—Judy Trenor's husband—a massive man with a heavy carnivorous head and a very red complexion. He is a successful stock market speculator and an advocate of Sid Rosedale's acceptance in high society circles although he considers him a bounder. He is also 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. The proceeds from this speculation will help her 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.

Carry Fisher (Mrs. Fisher)—A small, fiery and dramatic divorcée. She is perceived as carrying "a general air of embodying a 'spicy paragraph';"(70) and according to Mrs. Trenor, ". . .most of her alimony is paid by other people's husbands." (91) She sponges money from Gus Trenor to cover her bills much to his wife's chagrin. Although Gus accepts romantic favors from Mrs. Fisher in exchange for paying her bills and investing her money in the stock market, he considers her a "battered wire-puller"(94) in comparison to the freshness and unsullied Miss Bart. Carry is also known for bringing newcomers into high society such as Rosedale and the Welly Brys who had managed the miracle of making money in a falling market. 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 man, whose first intention was to live on proofreading and write an epic, but ended up living off his friends. Ned's romantic relationship at the Bellomont house party is with Carrie Fisher. Six months later Ned accompanies Lily and the Dorsets on their Mediterranean cruise. He has an affair with Mrs Dorset, who manages to keep it concealed from most of society.

Evie Van Osburgh—A young, innocent, dull, and conservative, stay-at-home kind of a girl, heiress to a substantial fortune. Judy Trenor paired her sister,Gwen, with Percy Gryce at the Sunday-night supper at Bellomont. Evie ends up getting engaged within six weeks of their stay at Bellomont to Percy Gryce due to Bertha Dorset's match-making skills.

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.

Jack Stepney and Gwen (Van Osbburgh) Stepney—A very wealthy couple—guests at Bellomont just before celebrating their wedding at the Van Osburgh's estate six weeks later. They belong to Old New York's high society. Jack has business dealings with Sid Rosedale and has tried to afford him entré into New York's high society. Jack is Lily's cousin so he agrees to shelter her for the night after Bertha kicks her off her yacht for ostensibly carrying on romantically with Bertha's husband.

Grace Stepney—Lily's competitive middle-aged cousin who lives in a boarding house and who attracts and remembers all manner of gossip related to high society in general and to Lily in particular. Unbeknownst to Lily, Grace dislikes her because she felt "mortally offended" at being excluded from her Aunt Peniston's dinner party for Jack and Gwen on their return from their honeymoon. She surmised, not unjustly, that it was Lily's counsel to her Aunt Peniston that kept her from being included. To get even Grace relays to Aunt Julia the talk about Lily's attention to Gus Trenor in exchange for money that Lily used to pay gambling debts. Grace refuses to give Lily financial assistance when she is down and out.

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.
• Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth(1995) adapted for the stage by Dawn Keeler. The play was performed by the Cambridge Theatre Company at the Theatre Royal in Winchester, England. After the initial production, the play toured England for nine weeks. This modern adaptation offers a late-twentieth-century interpretation of Lily Bart's story that emphasizes freedom, relationships, and tragedy.
• The House of Mirth (2000), directed by Terence Davies, featured Gillian Anderson as Lily Bart.

Sources

• Auchincloss, Louis (1961). Edith Wharton and her New Yorks, Reflections of a Jacobite. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
• Barnett, Louise K.(1989). Language, gender and society in The House of Mirth. Connecticut Review 11.2 (Summer), 54-63.
• Commander, Katherine Lucille (2008). "Tragedy in The House of Mirth: The decline of Lily Bart" University of Tennessee Honors Thesis Projects.http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj/1165
• Killoran, Hellen. (2001). The Critical Reception of Edith Wharton. Rochester, NY: Camden House. ISBN 1-57113-101-9.
• Lewis, R.W.B. (1975). Edith Wharton: A Biography (First ed.). New York, NY: Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-012603-5.
• Meyers, Jeffrey (2004), Introduction in Wharton, Edith. The House of Mirth. Barnes & Noble. ISBN 1-59308-153-7.
• 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.
• Rattray, L.(ed.).(2012). Edith Wharton in Context. New York: Cambridge University Press. 400pp.
• Showalter, Elaine, The death of the lady (novelist): Wharton's House of Mirth in Carol J. Singley, ed. (2003). Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, A Case Book, pp. 39–61. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 337. ISBN 0-19-515603-X.
• Wharton, Edith (1905, Vol. 37). "The House of Mirth, Book I, Chapts. XI-XIII". books.google.com. Scribner's Magazine. Retrieved May 28, 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Singley, Carol J., Introduction in Carol J. Singley, ed. (2003). Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, A Case Book,pp. 3–24. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 337. ISBN 0-19-515603-X.
• 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.
• 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.
• Wolff, Cynthia Griffin, Lily Bart and the drama of femininity in Carol J. Singley, ed. (2003). Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, A Case Book,pp. 209–228. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 337. ISBN 0-19-515603-X.

Reviews

• Gorra, Michael(2015). "The portrait of Miss Bart". NYbooks.com/daily. The New York Revew of Books. Retrieved May 26, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Kornasky, L. (2014). Edith Wharton in context. Studies in American Naturalism, 9(1), 107.
• 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
• 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

• Wharton, Edith (1905, Vol. 37). "The House of Mirth, Book I, Chapts. XI-XIII". books.google.com. Scribner's Magazine. Retrieved May 28, 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

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