The House of Mirth was serialized in Scribner’s Magazine in January 1905 and first published as a book in October of that year. It was Wharton’s second published novel, and her first commercial success, selling 140,000 copies by the end of 1905. The story concerns Lily Bart, a beautiful and charming twenty nine year old socialite, orphaned and living with her aunt Julia Peniston in New York. Her father was wealthy until he was ruined when she was nineteen, a disaster shortly followed by his death, after which she and her mother relied on the hospitality of relatives. She now consorts and weekends with New York’s fashionable, the Trenors, Dorsets, her cousins the Stepneys. Opportunities for marriage have been missed, and spinsterhood approaches (looms?). When Lily stays with the Trenors in their country home, Bellomont, she loses much money at bridge, adding to previous debts. She resolves to quit but the reputation for liking the game is not easily shed. At Bellomont she is likely to encounter Lawrence Selden, a young lawyer with much talent for conversation, and also Percy Gryce, a young society man with much wealth. Her attempt to charm Gryce fails, or is foiled. She asks the sybaritic Gus Trenor for help with money, and he is willing to invest for her, but he expects more than gratitude in return. The cheques he sends her are large, but there are lovely dressing-cases and opera cloaks to buy. The Micawber principle will harass her throughout the novel, but for a beauty like Lily, there is the option, indeed expectation, of marriage to money. Within the respectable set, however, rumors can devastate a young woman’s prospects, and those rumors are sometimes exaggerated or even fabricated for the sake of self-protection, jealousy, or whatever could turn someone against a delightful creature like Miss Bart.
© 2024 Kaz
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