Work record

The House of Mirth

Name: The House of Mirth
Author: Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton

1905 · Early 20th Century · Novel · English

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Abstract

Written: 1903-1905
Setting: 1890s; New York, country houses on the Hudson, and Monte Carlo
Author: Edith Wharton
Country: United States
Language: English
Genre: Novel of manners
Form: Novel in two books
Recommended: Grades 10–12 (Mature social novel; ends with an overdose of a sleeping draught.)

Heroine. An orphaned beauty nearing thirty depends on a wealthy aunt and on invitations from fashionable friends. Trained for nothing but a brilliant marriage, she lives among the very rich without money of her own.

Missteps. She lets a dull heir slip away, flirts with a principled bachelor lawyer, loses at cards, and takes money from a friend's husband who expects to be repaid in other ways.

Fall. A spiteful society matron uses her as a decoy on a Riviera cruise and then disgraces her. Her aunt nearly disinherits her, and former friends close their doors.

Integrity. Sinking into poverty and work she cannot do well, she possesses letters that could restore her by blackmail, yet she destroys them and pays every debt.

End. Worn out, she dies from too much of a sleeping drug. Wharton's first major success is a sharp portrait of the Gilded Age marriage market and its cost to women.

For readers. The novel suits older students because of its tragic ending. It invites close discussion of how money, reputation and gender limit choice, and of whether integrity can survive in a world that rewards calculation over honesty and kindness.

Main characters

Lily Bart: A beautiful, unmarried woman without fortune.
Lawrence Selden: A lawyer who loves Lily but holds back.
Bertha Dorset: A rich, jealous society woman.
Gus Trenor: A financier who expects repayment for favors.
Simon Rosedale: A wealthy financier trying to enter society.
Gerty Farish: A kind woman who helps Lily.

Summary

The House of Mirth, published in 1905, made Edith Wharton famous. Its title comes from Ecclesiastes: the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. Lily Bart is twenty-nine, beautiful, intelligent and penniless, an orphan raised to expect luxury and kept afloat by her rich aunt, Mrs. Peniston. In the New York society of the 1890s her only career is marriage to a wealthy man, and time is running out. She almost secures the dull millionaire Percy Gryce but sabotages her chances, partly because she is drawn to Lawrence Selden, a lawyer of modest means who talks of a republic of the spirit, freedom from money and anxiety. Lily gambles at bridge and lets Gus Trenor, the husband of a friend, invest money for her, not understanding that he expects something in return; his attempt to collect damages her reputation. Bertha Dorset, a jealous and powerful woman, uses Lily as cover for her own affair during a Mediterranean cruise and then publicly turns her off the yacht, implying that Lily is the guilty one. Lily's aunt dies and leaves her only a small legacy. Rejected by society, Lily drifts downward, working as a social secretary and then in a milliner's shop where she is not skilled. She holds letters that could ruin Bertha Dorset and could restore her own position, but she will not use them, and she burns them in Selden's fire. She also refuses to marry Simon Rosedale, a wealthy outsider, on the terms that would require blackmail. Having received her small inheritance, she pays her debt to Trenor. Exhausted and sleepless, she takes an overdose of chloral, perhaps by accident, and dies; Selden arrives the next morning with the word he had meant to say. Wharton exposes a society that turns women into ornaments and punishes them for imperfect calculation, while giving Lily a final moral dignity. The ending and adult themes make it suitable for upper high school.

Virtues in this work

Honor: Lily refuses to use the letters for blackmail.
Justice: She repays her debt to Trenor before she dies.

Plot or Argument

Book One: the marriage market
Lily misses her chance with Percy Gryce, is drawn to Selden, and becomes entangled with Gus Trenor.
The fall begins
Trenor's demand and Bertha Dorset's cruelty on the yacht damage Lily's reputation.
Book Two: descent
Disinherited and dropped by society, Lily works for a living and refuses to use Bertha's letters.
The end
She burns the letters, repays Trenor, and dies of an overdose before Selden can speak.

Characters

Lily Bart, protagonist
A beautiful, unmarried woman without fortune.
Lawrence Selden, friend
A lawyer who loves Lily but holds back.
Bertha Dorset, antagonist
A rich, jealous society woman.
Gus Trenor, husband of a friend
A financier who expects repayment for favors.
Simon Rosedale, suitor
A wealthy financier trying to enter society.
Gerty Farish, Selden's cousin
A kind woman who helps Lily.

Lessons

A woman's choices
Lily has been trained only to marry well. Wharton asks how much her fate is her own fault and how much society's.
- What choices are open to Lily?
- Where does she make mistakes?
- Is society to blame?
Related across the library
- Can You Forgive Her?, Lesson: What should a woman do?
  What should a woman do?. Trollope raises the question of a woman's life and choices.
- Bérénice, Lesson: When the tragic act is a refusal
  When the tragic act is a refusal. Most tragedies end in death; Bérénice ends in three people walking away alive. Racine's preface argues that grandeur of action, not bloodshed, makes tragedy, and the play tests that claim by making renunciation itself the climax. Students can ask what kind of suffering is left when no one dies, and whether giving up a real good for a higher duty can be as costly and as dramatic as losing one's life.
- The Merry Wives of Windsor, Lesson: Many tongues in one town
  Many tongues in one town. Windsor is full of accents and errors: Evans's Welsh, Caius's French, Quickly's malapropisms, Pistol's bombast, the Host's catchphrases. Falstaff's final humiliation includes being mocked by a man who makes fritters of English. The comedy delights in language while gently teaching that pride in one's own speech can be another kind of folly.
- The Trojan War, Medical lens
  The legend Coolidge retells contains several episodes of interest to the history of medicine and of madness, though she tells them as story, not as clinical description. Odysseus's feigned madness to escape the draft is one of the oldest stories of malingering detected. In the traditional versions of the quarrel, Apollo's plague on the Greek camp, sent for the dishonor of his priest, frames epidemic disease as divine punishment. The contest for Achilles' armor traditionally ends in Ajax's madness and death by hi...
- Transamerica Mortgage Advisors, Inc. v. Lewis, Lesson: The meaning of void
  The meaning of void. Stewart found a private remedy in the single word void. A void contract can be challenged in court, and courts have long allowed a party to rescind it and recover what was paid. The reasoning shows how ordinary legal concepts carry their customary consequences into a statute.
Integrity at a cost
Lily refuses to use Bertha's letters. She chooses honor over safety.
- Why won't Lily use the letters?
- What does it cost her?
- Is her choice heroic or foolish?
Related across the library
- The Gambler, Lesson: Money and relationships
  Money and relationships. Almost every relationship in the book depends on money, debts or inheritances. Students can trace how money shapes love and loyalty.
- Shirley, Medical lens
  Caroline's wasting illness and despair, and Robert's gunshot recovery, are described in detail.
- TSC Industries, Inc. v. Northway, Inc., Full Text
  in Mills we attempted to clarify to some extent the elements of a private cause of action for violation of a In a suit challenging the sufficiency under a and Rule a-9 of a proxy statement soliciting votes in favor of a merger we held that there was no need to demonstrate that the alleged defect in the proxy statement actually had a decisive effect on the voting So long as the misstatement or omission was material the causal relation between violation and injury is sufficiently established we concluded if the pr...
- The Warden, Hiram'S Hospital
  sacred music had decided the position in which he was to exercise his calling and for many years he performed the easy but not highly paid duties of a minor canon At the age of forty a small living in the close vicinity of the town increased both his work and his income and at the age of fifty he became precentor of the cathedral Mr Harding had married early in life and was the father of two daughters The eldest Susan was born soon after his marriage the other Eleanor not till ten years later At the time at whic...
- Father Goriot (Le Père Goriot), Full Text
  here is little Victorine one of the richest heiresses in Paris If we had known that eh What a game of chance death is They say Victorine was sweet on you was there any truth in it Shut up Bianchon I shall never marry her I am in love with a charming woman and she is in love with me so---- You said that as if you were screwing yourself up to be faithful to her I should like to see the woman worth the sacrifice of Master Taillefer s money Are all the devils of hell at my heels cried Rastignac What is the matter wi...
The house of mirth
The title is from Ecclesiastes. Wharton contrasts pleasure-seeking with wisdom.
- Who lives in the house of mirth?
- What does Ecclesiastes 7:4 suggest?
- Does anyone in the novel find wisdom?
Related across the library
- Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge, Lesson: Security for investors
  Security for investors. Story answered that public works depend on private capital, and that no one will build a bridge or canal if the legislature may later destroy its value by chartering a free rival next door. His dissent treats steady protection of property as a condition of public improvement.
- The Importance of Being Earnest, Lesson: Satire of society
  Satire of society. Lady Bracknell judges suitors by money and birth. Wilde exposes the shallowness of such values.
- Gideon v. Wainwright, Lesson: One prisoner's petition
  One prisoner's petition. Gideon wrote his petition in pencil on prison paper. The Court accepted it, appointed one of the best lawyers in Washington for him, and changed the law of every state. The case shows how the ordinary process of petition can bring a large question before the highest court.
- Church History in Plain Language, Lesson: Writing for non-specialists
  Writing for non-specialists. Shelley aimed to make a vast subject accessible to general readers.
- Orlando: A Biography, Lesson: Clothes and the self
  Clothes and the self. After the change Orlando remains, the narrator says, the same person, but skirts change how Captain Bartolus treats her and how she looks at the world. The book presents two views, that clothes mould us and that something deeper chooses the clothes, and lets them argue.

Context

The novel depicts the Gilded Age society of New York, where old families and new fortunes competed for status.

Composition

Serialized in Scribner's Magazine in 1905 and published that year; it became a best seller.

Reception

It established Wharton as a major novelist and remains one of the most admired American novels of manners.

Money Wealth Class / Society Gender Women Marriage Honor Shame

Comparisons

Ethan Frome
Wharton's novella of a different kind of entrapment in rural New England.
The Age of Innocence
Wharton's later study of the same New York society a generation earlier.

Quotes

“To keep a kind of republic of the spirit—that’s what I call success.”

— Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth, Book One, Chapter 6 (Project Gutenberg #284).Quote card

The Red Badge of Courage, Chapter I
Yer jest one little feller amongst a hull lot of others, and yeh’ve got to keep quiet an’ do what they tell yeh. Henry remembers his mother's farewell, which disappointed him because it was full of socks and plain duty instead of heroic sentiments.
The Sound and the Fury, Lesson: The Easter sermon and the fallen house
The Easter sermon and the fallen house. The three dated days of 1928 are Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, yet the Compsons experience no resurrection. The Rev. Shegog's sermon on the blood of the Lamb and the 'ricklickshun' is the one moment of shared hope in the book, and it is heard in a Black church to which Dilsey brings Benjy. Faulkner leaves open whether the Easter frame judges the Compsons, consoles Dilsey, or both.
The Nibelungenlied, Lesson: Honor can make truth lethal
Honor can make truth lethal. The scandal of Brunhild's deception matters because courtly rank and sexual reputation are public structures. The poem teaches that truth spoken inside an honor culture may not liberate anyone; it may demand blood.
Heroides, Letter XIV (Hypermnestra to Lynceus)
She is not faithful who regrets her faith. Hypermnestra declares that no threat from her father will make her say she repents of sparing Lynceus.
Instructions for His Generals, Lesson: Discipline built on mistrust
Discipline built on mistrust. Because many soldiers would desert if they could, Frederick designs camps, marches and patrols around preventing escape. The book reveals how an absolutist army treated its own men as a population to be guarded.

“I have tried hard—but life is difficult, and I am a very useless person.”

— Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth, Book Two, Chapter 12 (Project Gutenberg #284).Quote card

Orlando: A Biography, Lesson: Clothes and the self
Clothes and the self. After the change Orlando remains, the narrator says, the same person, but skirts change how Captain Bartolus treats her and how she looks at the world. The book presents two views, that clothes mould us and that something deeper chooses the clothes, and lets them argue.
A Doll's House and Other Plays, A Doll's House, Act 3
I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I was papa's doll-child Nora's recognition of the pattern of her life, explaining the play's title.
Principles of Literary Criticism, Lesson: Two uses of language
Two uses of language. Richards distinguishes the scientific use of language, which aims at true reference, from the emotive use, which aims at effects in feeling and attitude. Students can use the distinction while weighing whether poetry, and especially religious poetry, can also tell the truth.
Orlando: A Biography, Chapter 6
The midwife Mrs Banting announces the safe delivery of Orlando's son, in a passage the narrator hurries past.
The Complete Poems, Summary
The Complete Poems of Walt Whitman gathers the evolving work of a poet who made the self expansive enough to contain a democracy. The center is Leaves of Grass, first published in 1855 and revised across multiple editions until Whitman's death. In poems such as Song of Myself, I Sing the Body Electric, Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking, the Calamus cluster, Drum-Taps and When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd, Whitman invents a poetic voice that is intimate, public, bodily, mystical...

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

Lily's visit to Selden's rooms at the opening.
Lily's gambling debts at bridge.
The tableaux vivants scene.
The Mediterranean yacht cruise.
The burning of the letters.

Key terms and names

Novel of manners: A novel about the customs and values of a social class.
Gilded Age: The late-19th-century American era of great new fortunes.
Chloral: A sedative drug used as a sleeping draught.
Tableaux vivants: Living pictures: costumed guests posing still as famous paintings.

Seminar Questions

Comprehension Why must Lily marry money?
Comprehension How does Bertha Dorset ruin Lily?
Comprehension What does Lily do with the letters?
Interpretation What does Selden mean by the republic of the spirit?
Interpretation Is Lily's death an accident?
Big Question Does society shape character more than character shapes fate?

Faith Connections

Ecclesiastes 7:4 (Scripture)
The heart of fools is in the house of mirth, the source of the title.
Matthew 6:24 (Scripture)
Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: A society that values women only as ornaments destroys those who cannot or will not trade themselves; Lily's final refusal shows integrity even in defeat.

Rhetorical device: tragic irony. Selden comes with the word that might have saved Lily just after her death.

Debate: Resolved: that Lily Bart should have married Rosedale.

Memory Work

To keep a kind of republic of the spirit—that’s what I call success.
Book One, Chapter 6. Selden's ideal of freedom, against which Lily measures her life.

Writing Prompts

Essay: How does money shape every relationship in The House of Mirth?

Comparison with Ethan Frome: Compare Lily Bart with Ethan Frome as characters trapped by circumstance.

Creative Prompts

Essay
Is Lily Bart a victim or responsible for her fate?
Dialogue
Write the word Selden meant to say to Lily.
Classroom
Trace Lily's money: list each gain and loss and what it costs her.