Read more
Zusatztext With an introduction by Elizabeth Hardwick! Contemporary Reviews! and Letters Between Edith Wharton and Her Publisher " A frivolous society can acquire dramatic significance only through what its frivolity destroys."--Edith Wharton Lily Bart knows that she must marry--her expensive tastes and mounting debts demand it--and! at twenty-nine! she has every artful wile at her disposal to secure that end. But attached as she is to the social world of her wealthy suitors! something in her rebels against the insipid men whom circumstances compel her to charm. "Why must a girl pay so dearly for her least escape!" Lily muses as she contemplates the prospect of being bored all afternoon by Percy Grice! dull but undeniably rich! "on the bare chance that he might ulti- mately do her the honor of boring her for life?" Lily is distracted from her prey by the arrival of Lawrence Selden! handsome! quick-witted! and penniless. A runaway bestseller on publication in 1905! The House of Mirth is a brilliant romantic novel of manners! the book that established Edith Wharton as one of America's greatest novelists. " A tragedy of our modern life! in which the relentlessness of what men used to call Fate and esteem! in their ignorance! a power beyond their control! is as vividly set forth as ever it was by Aeschylus or Shakespeare." --The New York Times Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1920 for The Age of Innocence. But it was the publication of The House of Mirth in 1905 that marked Wharton's coming-of-age as a writer. Informationen zum Autor Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and designer, best known for her novels The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth, and Ethan Frome. Wharton grew up traveling with her parents around Europe and was born into a rich household in New York City. Wharton was a gifted designer in addition to being a writer, and during her life she contributed to the interior design of several residences. Throughout World War I, she also served as a war journalist and was honored with the French Legion of Honor for her humanitarian efforts. In 1921, Wharton became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for literature for her book The Age of Innocence. She kept writing up until her death in 1937, and she is regarded as one of the best American authors of the 20th century. Klappentext Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time In The House of Mirth , Edith Wharton depicts the glittering salons of Gilded Age New York with precision and wit, even as she movingly portrays the obstacles that impeded women's choices at the turn of the century. The beautiful, much-desired Lily Bart has been raised to be one of the perfect wives of the wealthy upper class, but her spark of character and independent drive prevents her from becoming one of the many women who will succeed in those circles. Though her desire for a comfortable life means that she cannot marry for love without money, her resistance to the rules of the social elite endangers her many marriage proposals. As Lily spirals down into debt and dishonor, her story takes on the resonance of classic tragedy. One of Wharton's most bracing and nuanced portraits of the life of women in a hostile, highly ordered world, The House of Mirth exposes the truths about American high society that its denizens most wished to deny. With an introduction by Pamela Knights. Leseprobe Chapter One SELDEN PAUSED in surprise. In the afternoon rush of the Grand Central Station his eyes had been refreshed by the sight of Miss Lily Bart. It was a Monday in early September, and he was returning to his work from a hurried dip into the country; but what was Miss Bart doing in town at that season? If she had appeared to be catching a train, he m...
