The House of Mirth

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

The House of Mirth

File:The House of Mirth.JPG The House of Mirth, Penguin Books, 1993
Author	Edith Wharton
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Novel
Publisher	Charles Scribner's Sons
Publication date	October 14, 1905
Media type	print

The House of Mirth (1905), by Edith Wharton, is the story of Lily Bart, a well-born, but penniless woman of the high society of New York City, who was raised and educated to become wife to a rich man, a hothouse flower for conspicuous consumption. As an unmarried woman with gambling debts and an uncertain future, Lily is destroyed by the society who created her.

Written in the style of a novel of manners, The House of Mirth was the fourth novel by Edith Wharton (1862–1937), which tells the story of Lily Bart against the background of the high-society of upper class New York City of the 1890s; as a genre novel, The House of Mirth (1905) is an example of American literary naturalism.

Title

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

The title of the novel, The House of Mirth (1905), is derived from the Christian Old Testament, from the Book of Ecclesiastes, 7th chapter, verse 4:

“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

Edith Wharton’s original title for the manuscript was A Moment's Ornament, which plainly stated the facts-of-life of the story of the socialite woman Lily Bart; and directly addressed the social limitations imposed upon her, as such, by the mores of the social class and social stratum to which she belonged by birth, education, and breeding.

The manuscript title, A Moment's Ornament, refers to the Romantic imagery of the first stanza of the poem “She was a Phantom of Delight” (1804), by William Wordsworth (1770–1850), which describes an ideal of beauty of the type that narrowly circumscribed the life of Lily Bart:

“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).

Plot

In The House of Mirth (1905), the story of Lily Bart begins with her visiting the apartment of Lawrence Selden, a man for whom she has romantic feelings, but, for the sake of a high social-standing, decides that she must marry Percy Gryce, a young, timid millionaire who is wealthier than Selden. Despite the people of her social circle being convinced that Percy will propose marriage to Lily when they next meet, Lily changes her mind, and withdraws from their relationship, on account of an unexpected visit from Lawrence Selden. Despite feeling convinced that he loves Lily, Selden does not yet want to risk marriage; meanwhile, Gryce marries another girl, from within their social circle.

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.

Her social standing begins to erode when Gus Trenor, husband of friend Judy, gives Lily a large sum of money, accepted in the innocent belief that it represents profits from investments Gus had made in her behalf. The rumors that arise from that transaction, worsened by her injudicious and mysterious visit to Gus's townhouse in the city, further erode Lily's social standing. In the event, Lily one day receives a note from Selden, who asks to meet with her; certain that he shall propose marriage, Lily accepts to meet him the next day. Surprised by her acceptance, Selden becomes frightened by Lily's apparent change of heart, because earlier, Lily had escaped his attempt to kiss her; the fearful Selden flees New York City, first to Havana and then to Europe, cravenly leaving Lily with no notice.

To escape the rumors arisen from the gossip caused by her financial dealings with Gus Trenor, and also disappointed by 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. Unfortunately, whilst at sea, Bertha falsely accuses Lily of adultery with George, in order to thwart the attention and suspicion of their social circle away from Bertha's infidelity with the poet Ned Silverton. The ensuing social scandal ruins the personal reputation of Lily Bart, 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, but her enemy, the malicious Bertha Dorset, gradually communicates to them the “scandalous” personal background of Lily Bart, and, so, undermines the friendship with the Gormers, by way of whose sponsorship Lily hoped to become socially rehabilitated. 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 Lily resigns after Lawrence Selden returns to rescue her from complete infamy. 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 is fired at the end of the New York social season, when the demand for fashion hats has ceased.

Meanwhile, Simon Rosedale, a Jewish suitor who earlier had proposed marriage to Lily, when she was higher in the scale of social classes, 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, years earlier, of a 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.

In the event, Lily Bart receives a ten-thousand-dollar inheritance, from her Aunt Peniston, with which she repays Gus Trenor. Distraught by her misfortunate life, Lily had begun regularly using a sleeping draught of chloral hydrate to escape the pain of poverty and social ostracism; yet 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 was he able to be close to her in the way he had proved incapable of being when she was alive.

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.”

Publication of the novel prompted letters to the editor of the New York Times Saturday Review of Books, wherein the readers of The House of Mirth argued the merits of the story; enthusiasts said that the novel was a faithful and true portrait of the New York City gentry, whilst detractors said that the novel impugned the character of the city's social élite as a heartless, 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

• in

External links

• The House of Mirth at Project Gutenberg