The House of Mirth is a novel by Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton , was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer.- Early life and marriage:...

. First published in 1905, the novel is Wharton's first important work of fiction, sold 140,000 copies between October and the end of December, and added to Wharton's existing fortune.

Although The House of Mirth is written in the style of a novel of manners

Novel of manners

The novel of manners is a literary genre that deals with aspects of behavior, language, customs and values characteristic of a particular class of people in a specific historical context. The genre emerged during the final decades of the 18th century. The novel of manners often shows a conflict...

, set against the backdrop of the 1890s New York ruling class, it is a text considered to be part of American literary Naturalism. Wharton places her tragic heroine, Lily Bart, in a society that she describes as a "hot-house of traditions and conventions."

Derivation of the title

The title derives from Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes

The Book of Ecclesiastes, called , is a book of the Hebrew Bible. The English name derives from the Greek translation of the Hebrew title.The main speaker in the book, identified by the name or title Qoheleth , introduces himself as "son of David, king in Jerusalem." The work consists of personal...

 7:4: The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. The manuscript had originally been titled "A Moment's Ornament", a reference to Wordsworth's poem 'She was a Phantom of Delight.' Wharton's working title for the book was "The year of the Rose".

Plot

The House of Mirth tells the story of Lily Bart, a woman who is torn between her desire for luxurious living and a relationship based on mutual respect and love. She sabotages all her possible chances for a wealthy marriage, loses the esteem of her social circle, and dies young, poor, and alone.

Lily is initially of good social standing and rejects several offers of advantageous marriage. She then damages her standing by accepting an invitation to Lawrence Selden's private rooms. Lily's social standing erodes further when her friend Judy Trenor's husband Gus gives Lily a large sum of money. Lily innocently accepts the money, believing that it is the return on investments he supposedly made for her. The rumors of this transaction, and of her mysterious visit to Gus in his city residence crack her social standing further.

To escape the rumors and gossip, she accepts an invitation from Bertha Dorset to join her and her husband, George, on a cruise of Europe aboard their yacht the Sabrina. Unfortunately, while aboard the yacht, Bertha accuses Lily of adultery with George in order to shift societal attention from Bertha's own infidelity with poet Ned Silverton. Lily has the option of saving herself by publishing evidence of an affair between Bertha and Silverton, yet refrains for sake of Silverton's reputation. The ensuing scandal ruins Lily, leading her Aunt Peniston to disinherit her.

Lily descends the social strata, working as a personal secretary until Bertha sabotages her position by turning her employers against her. Lily then takes a job as social secretary for a disreputable woman, but resigns after Selden comes to rescue her from complete infamy. She then works in a millinery, but produces poorly and is let go at the end of the season. Simon Rosedale, the Jewish suitor who had proposed marriage to her when she was higher on the social scale tries to rescue her, but she is unwilling to meet his terms: to use love letters between Bertha Dorset and Selden that have come into her possession. Eventually Lily receives her $10,000 inheritance, which she uses to pay her debt to Trenors. Lily dies from an overdose of the sleeping draught

Chloral hydrate

Chloral hydrate is a sedative and hypnotic drug as well as a chemical reagent and precursor. The name chloral hydrate indicates that it is formed from chloral by the addition of one molecule of water. Its chemical formula is C2H3Cl3O2....

 to which she had become addicted.

Reception

The book received an enthusiastic review in the New York Times upon its original publication, which called it "a novel of remarkable power," and which read in part "Its varied elements are harmoniously blended, and the discriminating reader who has completed the whole story in a protracted sitting or two must rise from it with the conviction that there are no parts of it which do not properly and essentially belong to the whole. Its descriptive passages have verity and charm, it has the saving grace of humor, its multitude of personages, as we have said, all have the semblance of life."

There followed months of letters to the Times, arguing over the book. Some readers were enthusiastic fans, while others felt that the book unfairly impugned the city's social elite.

Film, TV & Theatrical adaptations

The House of Mirth has been adapted several times into other media:

• 1906 stage adaptation written by Edith Wharton and Clyde Fitch
  Clyde Fitch
  Clyde Fitch was an American dramatist.-Biography:Born William Clyde Fitch at Elmira, New York, he wrote over 60 plays, 36 of them original, which varied from social comedies and farces to melodrama and historical dramas.As the only child to live to adulthood, his father, Captain William G...
  
  .
• 1918 silent film
  Silent film
  A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
  
   adaptation, The House of Mirth
  The House of Mirth (1918 film)
  The House of Mirth is a 1918 silent melodrama film directed by French film director Albert Capellani, starring Katherine Harris Barrymore as Lily Bart. It is a cinema adaptation of Edith Wharton's 1905 novel of the same name The House of Mirth and the first ever cinema adaptation of any of her work...
  
  (La Maison du Brouillard
  The House of Mirth (1918 film)
  The House of Mirth is a 1918 silent melodrama film directed by French film director Albert Capellani, starring Katherine Harris Barrymore as Lily Bart. It is a cinema adaptation of Edith Wharton's 1905 novel of the same name The House of Mirth and the first ever cinema adaptation of any of her work...
  
  ) directed by French film director
  Film director
  A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
  
   Albert Capellani
  Albert Capellani
  Albert Capellani was a French film director and screenwriter of the silent era. He directed 168 films between 1940 and 1922...
  
  , starring Katherine Harris Barrymore as Lily Bart. This silent film is considered to be a lost film
  Lost film
  A lost film is a feature film or short film that is no longer known to exist in studio archives, private collections or public archives such as the Library of Congress, where at least one copy of all American films are deposited and catalogued for copyright reasons...
  
  .
• 1981 TV film version, The House of Mirth
  The House of Mirth (TV film)
  The House of Mirth is a 1981 American television film directed by Adrian Hall. It is based on Edith Wharton's novel of the same name. It stars Geraldine Chaplin as the protagonist, Lily Bart. The film was part-funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities...
  
  , directed by Adrian Hall
  Adrian Hall (director)
  Adrian Hall ia an American theatre director. In his career, he has seen his belief in the primacy of the artist and in the value of the confrontation between actor and audience come to full fruition...
  
  , starring Geraldine Chaplin
  Geraldine Chaplin
  Geraldine Leigh Chaplin is an English-American actress and the daughter of Charlie Chaplin.Chaplin first came to prominence for her Golden Globe-nominated role of Tonya in David Lean's Doctor Zhivago . She received her second Golden Globe nomination for Robert Altman's Nashville...
  
   as Lily Bart.
• 2000 film adaptation, The House of Mirth
  The House of Mirth (2000 film)
  The House of Mirth is a 2000 film version of Edith Wharton's 1905 novel The House of Mirth. The film was written and directed by Terence Davies and stars Gillian Anderson.-Plot:...
  
  , directed by Terence Davies, starring Gillian Anderson
  Gillian Anderson
  Gillian Leigh Anderson is an American actress.After beginning her career in theatre, Anderson achieved international recognition for her role as Special Agent Dana Scully on the American television series The X-Files. During the show's nine seasons, Anderson won Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen...
  
  as Lily Bart.

External links

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• The House of Mirth audio book at Librivox
• The House of Mirth study guide, themes, quotes, multimedia, teacher resources