The House of Mirth: with original illustrations

Edith Wharton's novel The House of Mirth was published in 1905. It chronicles the story of Lily Bart, a well-bred but destitute woman from high society in New York City at the turn of the century. Wharton paints a picture of a lovely woman who, although being nurtured and trained to marry well both socially and economically, is approaching her 29th year, a time when her youthful blush is fading and her matrimonial choices are becoming increasingly limited. Lily's two-year social decline from wealth to a terribly lonely existence on the outskirts of society is chronicled in The House of Mirth. Wharton uses Lily as an attack on "an reckless, grasping, and morally dishonest upper class," according to one academic. Read more