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The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton.
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The House of Mirth
by Edith Wharton
Born in New York in 1862 to elderly parents, Edith Wharton was raised in a family replete with socially prominent relatives. Wharton traveled abroad and married ...
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Biography EssayWhile at the close of her career Edith Wharton was sometimes regarded as passe, a literary aristocrat whose fiction about people of high social standing had little to tell about the mas...
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Edith Wharton (1861-1937), American author, chronicled the life of affluent Americans between the Civil War and World War I.Edith Wharton was born Edith Newbold Jones in New York City, probably on Jan...
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During the early decades of the twentieth century--at a time when New York City could ban women from smoking in public--one American woman published works which discussed love outside of marriage, sca...
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The breadth of Edith Wharton's achievement makes definition of her place in literary history difficult. For fifty years she wrote prolifically, and her audience ranged from scholars to readers of popu...
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Perhaps the most striking thing about Edith Wharton 's reputation as a novelist is the fact that she has been "reclaimed" so many times. This fact seems all the more remarkable when one reflects that...
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While at the close of her career Edith Wharton was sometimes regarded as passe, a literary aristocrat whose fiction about people of high social standing had little to tell about the masses, particul...
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Although Edith Wharton is better known as a novelist than a short-story writer, she was in fact writing and publishing stories well before her debut as a novelist in 1902. Her first published story ...
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Henry James observed in an August 1902 letter to Edith Wharton's sister-in-law, Mrs. Cadwalader Jones, that Wharton "must be tethered in native pastures, even if it reduces her to a back-yard in New Y...
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In the following review, Meynell finds Wharton's moral stance lacking in The House of Mirth.
Mrs. Wharton is essentially a moralist, albeit with the whole modern resolve not to declare herself....
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In the following essay, Barnett posits that in The House of Mirth society functions as a character rather than simply a setting against which the story is told.
Edith Wharton's novels, like tho...
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In the following essay, Orr discusses the world of The House of Mirth as a contractual milieu.
“But you belittle me, don't you, … in being so sure.”
—Lily Bart1
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In the following essay, Riegel points out anti-Semitism in The House of Mirth, but notes that Wharton herself does not take an explicit stance in the novel.
Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth d...
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In the following essay, Sapora examines the conflict in The House of Mirth between the image of women as works of art or decorative objects and women's attempts at self-actualization.
At Mrs. W...
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In the following essay, Pizer examines The House of Mirth for its elements of literary naturalism as well as Wharton's apparent ambivalence to this possible interpretation at the end of the nov...
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In the following essay, Clubbe draws upon Wharton's interest in interior design to discuss her correlation in The House of Mirth between Lily's interior physical environments and the str...
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In the following essay, Howard discusses The House of Mirth as a turning point in Wharton's artistic and intellectual development.
What a book a devil's chaplain might write on the clums...
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In the following essay, Waid traces the publication history of The House of Mirth from its origin as a serial in Scribner's magazine.
In 1902, after reading The Valley of Decision, Edith Wharto...
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In the following essay, Gerard argues that Lily's death provides a break from Wharton's naturalism throughout The House of Mirth to allow for a moment of individual self-determination.
&...
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In the following essay, Moddelmog examines Wharton's narrative strategy of demonstrating the difficulties inherent in portraying female subjectivity by distancing herself, her other characters,...
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In the following essay, Loney examines Wharton's dramatization for the stage of The House of Mirth and posits reasons for the play's failure with audiences.
Although periodic grumblings ...
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In the following essay, Totten suggests that Lily's one genuine moment of subjectivity happens when she constructs herself as the aesthetic figure of Mrs. Lloyd.
“If, then, design is ine...
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In the following essay, Yeazell examines the milieu of appearances and consumption in which Lily must navigate and which ultimately leads to her downfall.
Few fictional heroines have been as consisten...
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In the following essay, Davidson discusses the options for women, particularly of Lily's class, in early-twentieth-century American society.
Edith Wharton, while writing her first major novel, ...
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In the following essay, Michelson observes the influence on The House of Mirth of the “well-made play.”
It happens that in the unfolding of Edith Wharton's career, she wrote The H...
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In the following essay, Showalter discusses the “crisis of adulthood” faced by Lily Bart and the nonfictional women upon which her character is based, who had to conform to the social ex...
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In the following essay, Dimock examines the ways in which the society of The House of Mirth is based on terms of commerce.
“… you got reckless—thought you could turn me inside out...
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In the following essay, Dixon discusses how Wharton's use of “contrasting angles of vision” as a literary technique reflects her ideological perspective concerning the role of the...
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In the following essay, Restuccia argues that part of Wharton's feminist position in The House of Mirth resembles later “humanist feminism” in its emphasis on the positive effects...
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In the following essay, Ammentorp finds that Wharton's male characters in The House of Mirth suffer nearly as much as the women because of their society's expectations.
In the past decad...
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Shattering the Glass House
"where ignorance is bliss, / 'Tis folly to be wise." - Thomas Gray
The title of Edith Wharton's novel The House of Mirth waxes poetic irony in the case of the old money so...
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The House of Mirth is a story that is full of deception, betrayal, deceit, and trickery. It exploits the social hierarchy of New York City in the late 19th century. Edith Wharton writes a magnificent ...
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Edith Wharton's novel, The House of Mirth, entails a crucial turning point near the end of Book I, in which the protagonist, Lily Bart, presents herself in the Brys fashion show. Lily portrays hersel...
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Teaching The House of Mirth
All teaching products sold separately.
The House of Mirth Lesson Plans contain 158 pages of teaching material, including:
The House of Mirth
Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton
Edith (Newbold Jones) Wharton
Critical Review by Alice Meynell
Shattering the Glass House of Mirth
