The House of Mirth -- Edith Wharton, Paperback

A black comedy of manners about vast wealth and a woman who can define herself only through the perceptions of others. The beautiful Lily Bart lives among the nouveaux riches of New York City - people whose millions were made in railroads, shipping, land speculation and banking. In this morally and aesthetically bankrupt world, Lily, age twenty-nine, seeks a husband who can satisfy her cravings for endless admiration and all the trappings of wealth. But her quest comes to a scandalous end when she is accused of being the mistress of a wealthy man. Exiled from her familiar world of artificial conventions, Lily finds life impossible.

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Author: Edith Wharton
Publisher: Penguin Group
Published: 05/01/1993
Pages: 368
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 7.73h x 5.03w x 0.66d
ISBN: 9780140187298
Age Range: 18-UP

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 9.7
Point Value: 26
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 50682 / House of Mirth


Review Citation(s):
Newsweek 12/03/2007 pg. 20
Newsweek 01/28/2008 pg. 13
Entertainment Weekly 06/15/2012 pg. 85

About the Author
Edith Wharton was born Edith Newbold Jones on January 24, 1862, during the American Civil War. Wharton published her first short story in 1891; her first story collection, The Greater Inclination, in 1899; a novella called The Touchstone in 1900; and her first novel, a historical romance called The Valley of Decision, in 1902. The book that made Wharton famous was The House of Mirth, published in 1905. She died in 1937.