Review of House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

*The House of Mirth* by Edith Wharton (1905). Published by Virago UK.

Because I’m someone very much on a budget, one of my favorite activities in the past few years has been to thrift books around my local stores. Books at a local store, as much as I want to support local book shops, are simply too expensive sometimes, and when I want to read a book, I typically just check it out at the library unless it’s an academic or specialized one that a library wouldn’t purchase.

Thrifting books has been a lesson in intentionality, though. You come in with the budget or set amount of books you’re going to buy, and everything I’ve actually wanted in the long run eventually shows up at the thrift store. It’s incredible.

I typically go to Savers or Goodwill, and it was at a Savers where I found this copy of House of Mirth. Prices have been gradually increasing lately, but they’re still cheaper than the bookstores.

I know quite a bit about Edith Wharton, yet had never read any of her books until now. I purchased this copy of the novel for $3, then procrastinated on reading it until I had a 25 and 30 hour journey to Malaysia from Washington DC. I had a ton of time to read and watch movies on these flights, so my trusty copy of the novel was my main companion in the Abu Dhabi Airport.

Let’s get into the review!

Socialite Lily Bart is struggling at life—and staying wealthy in New York City.

Our main character in this book is Lily, who, despite coming from a wealthy background and fitting in with the rich folks of New York, is falling to the wayside. She’s only getting older as the days pass, and she has failed to find a husband after all of these years. She has her eye on someone, but he doesn’t want her, so her prospects are dulled with Simon, a financier, and Percy, who’s just rich.

Because Lily has no parents—they died, adding to her trauma and financial woes—her aunt Julia takes care of her as a ward, but no one tells Lily what to do with her life. She hates Julia because of this, but when she meets stockbroker Gus Trenor, it puts her into a terrible situation where she goes into debt by the end.

The match games begin with this in mind, and rumors start flying that Lily is romantically involved with Gus outside of wedlock in order to get some money. Julia hears about this and believes them, putting her in a tense relationship with her niece, despite not asking Lily for the truth about it at all.

Lily ends up meeting a bunch of different people after she realizes she got played by the people in her life, leading to this debt, and then she meets those from different walks. Some are new money, others are former aristocrats. This is a different kind of social death, as people from Lily’s status would not associate with those like this.

One night, one of Julia’s servants mails Lily a package, and she opens it to discover a bunch of love letters by Bertha Dorset. It’s absolutely perfect blackmail material, but Lily is a saint and then tries to get involved in a way that benefits her, but doesn’t hurt anyone outright.

But the way Bertha uses her makes Lily’s reputation even worse, as she seen as kind of loose. One of her new friends throws a massive party, where Lily catches the eye of Selden, a lawyer active within New York’s elite circles despite not being wealthy himself. He tells her he loves her after seeing her there, and after they kiss, Lily leaves him behind.

Lily then confesses to her aunt about the gambling, and Julia refuses to help her any more beyond the necessities. She waits for Selden to arrive, but then gets proposed to by someone else—Selden never shows up, as he went to Cuba and Europe instead. The rumors swirl even more at the same time abotu Lily’s behavior, and Bertha invites Lily to come on a cruise of the Mediterranean.

There, Bertha makes the implication Lily is having a thing with her husband, and Lily’s reputation is lost completely and Julia disinherits her. Her life is temporarily ruined, but she decides to regain her spot in these elite circles by helping others.

She gets a job as a secretary, becomes interested in drugs, and is fired. She finds a job at a milliner’s shop, she’s fired because she doesn’t know how to work and she’s addicted to the drugs. Simon seeks her out in a revenge plot, but Lily burns the love letters instead. After Julia dies, Lily inherits enough money to pay off her debts.

However, because she’s now severely addicted, she overdoses and dies in her room. Selden comes to find her, ready to propose, but finds her body instead. He realizes the debts she had, and how her reputation was ruined for no reason, leaving him devastated at what he’s just walked into.

Overall Thoughts

Considering this was my first Edith Wharton novel, I genuinely enjoyed it! I liked the Gilded Age and New York setting a lot, and Lily’s plight must certainly have been scathing for the elites to read when she published it. We know it’s the truth that something like this could easily happen in such shallow societies.

While the writing was a bit archaic for me at times, I thought the characterization was excellent and the actual prose itself lended to some stunning moments. I was glad I had my own copy, as I was underlining quite a bit in the airport.

I highly recommend reading this if you haven’t already—I did really like this one a lot. I’ll be reading more of Wharton’s work in the near future, especially when I can thrift a copy of her books somewhere nearby.

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