Literary Precedents for The House of Mirth

This Study Guide consists of approximately 90 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The House of Mirth.

Literary Precedents for The House of Mirth

This Study Guide consists of approximately 90 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The House of Mirth.
This section contains 670 words
(approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy The House of Mirth Study Guide

The House of Mirth belongs to the school of naturalism. In discussing the significance of the title, R. W. B. Lewis notes that the novel was "Edith Wharton's first full scale survey of the comedie humaine, American style." Honore de Balzac is a particularly important antecedent for this novel. Like Balzac, Wharton presents a spectrum of society from the poor to the rich. Like Balzac, she sees many of her characters controlled by greedy, acquisitive passions which belie the elegant veneer of their surroundings. Gary H. Lindberg sees Balzacian elements in Lily Bart's characterization: "Like Balzac, [Wharton] gives moral weight to her heroine by analyzing her under extraordinary pressures — financial need, vanity, ambition, impulse, social expectation — and she illuminates each stage of moral compromise."

Closer to home, Blake Nevius finds a trace of Theodore Dreiser's determinism in The House of Mirth, pointing to "the...

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This section contains 670 words
(approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy The House of Mirth Study Guide
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The House of Mirth from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.