Edith Wharton 
The House of Mirth 

In Edith Wharton’s novel, The House of Mirth, readers are transported to the Gilded Age high society of New York City, where social status and material wealth reign supreme. Through the story of the beautiful but penniless Lily Bart, Wharton expertly examines the constraints placed on women by the rigid societal norms of the time, as well as the consequences of greed and ambition. Wharton’s prose is elegant and incisive, painting a vivid picture of a world filled with opulence and hypocrisy. The House of Mirth stands as a timeless classic, offering a scathing critique of the shallow values of the upper class. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the complexities of human nature and the pitfalls of a society consumed by wealth and privilege.

About the author

Edith Wharton, born Edith Newbold Jones on January 24, 1862, into a wealthy and distinguished New York family, was a prominent American novelist, short story writer, and designer. Wharton broke through the tight societal norms of her time to become one of the most respected writers in American literature. Educated privately in the United States and abroad, Wharton possessed a keen insight into the upper-class society, which became the focus of her elegantly crafted novels. She was fluent in several European languages and steeped in the culture of the Old World, which informed her literary aesthetic.

One of her most acclaimed novels, ‘The House of Mirth, ‘ published in 1905, is a piercing critique of the rigid expectations and moral strictures of the American aristocracy. This novel, like much of her work, is characterized by her witty and incisive analysis of social strata and the dynamics of gender and class. Wharton’s narrative style weaves irony with compassion, revealing the inner lives of her characters with psychological complexity and vivid realism. Over the span of her career, Wharton authored more than forty books, including ‘Ethan Frome, ‘ ‘The Age of Innocence, ‘ for which she won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1921, and ‘The House of Mirth, ‘ solidifying her legacy as a central figure in the canon of American literature. She passed away on August 11, 1937, but her works continue to attract critical acclaim and scholarly attention for their enduring contributions to American letters and social commentary.