Review: The House of Mirth

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

From the rows of books on my reading shelves, Wharton's immaculate writing is unmatched. Her clarity, balance and syncopated sentences are works of art. She creates uncanny characters; they all seem perfect simulacrums of the haughty and half-witted people we've all known at some time in our lives.

In Lily Bart, Wharton has created a character perfected sculpted to reflect the caste system of late 19th/early 20th century America. In Lily's world, Wharton meticulously crafts the double standards to which women were held - especially those traveling the hallowed halls of Society. She also points a condemning finger at the hypocrisy and debauchery of high society. It must have been a scandalous book to read during that time. The anti-semitism in early 20th Century New York was very evident throughout this book and was really shocking (and unattractive!).

But, Lily. She suffers so many indignities while beating her beautiful wings against a cage she has climbed into willingly. A victim of circumstance, yes, but she also creates many of these circumstances herself.

I thought the role of gambling in the story was especially clever - while some characters (including Lily once or twice) lose real money while really gambling, the entire story is actually about Lily's symbolic gambling with her own future. Throughout this reading, Kenny Roger's words from The Gambler kept playing through my head:

You've got to know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run
You never count your money
When you're sittin' at the table
There'll be time enough for countin'
When the dealin's done

Lily was surely a product of her upbringing. She was elegant, intelligent and not without gifts, but her actions were tragically ill-timed. It was truly sad.





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