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Scribner Book Company, 2000. Paperback. Acceptable. Former library book; Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.
THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by Wharton, Edith - 2000
by Wharton, Edith
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THE HOUSE OF MIRTH
by Wharton, Edith
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New York U. S. A.: Scribner Library of Contemporary Classics. As New 2000. Softcover. Marfree, acidfree Fine later prtg; no names, not marked-in, underscored, clearance or discard. Mails from NYC usually within 12 hours.; House of Mirth SL 41; 1 x 8 x 5.5 Inches; 329 pages; Online Review"The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth," warns Ecclesiastes 7:4, and so does the novel by Edith Wharton that takes its title from this call to heed. New York at the turn of the century was a time of opulence and frivolity for those who could afford it. But for those who couldn't and yet wanted desperately to keep up with the whirlwind, like Wharton's charming Lily Bart, it was something else altogether: a gilded cage rather than the Gilded Age. One of Wharton's earliest descriptions of her heroine, in the library of her bachelor friend and sometime suitor Lawrence Selden, indicates that she appears "as though she were a captured dryad subdued to the conventions of the drawing room." Indeed, herein lies Lily's problem. She has, we're told, "been brought up to be ornamental," and yet her spirit is larger than what this ancillary role requires. By today's standards she would be nothing more than a mild rebel, but in the era into which Wharton drops her unmercifully, this tiny spark of character, combined with numerous assaults by vicious society women and bad luck, ultimately renders Lily persona non grata. Her own ambivalence about her position serves to open the door to disaster: several times she is on the verge of "good" marriage and squanders it at the last moment, unwilling to play by the rules of a society that produces, as she calls them, "poor, miserable, marriageable girls.Lily's rather violent tumble down the social ladder provides a thumbnail sketch of the general injustices of the upper classes (which, incidentally, Wharton never quite manages to condemn entirely, clearly believing that such life is cruel but without alternative). From her start as a beautiful woman at the height of her powers to her sad finale as a recently fired milliner's assistant addicted to sleeping drugs, Lily Bart is heroic, not least for her final admission of her own role in her downfall. "Once--twice--you gave me the chance to escape from my life and I refused it: refused it because I was a coward," she tells Selden as the book draws to a close. All manner of hideous socialite beasts--some of whose treatment by Wharton, such as the token social-climbing Jew, Simon Rosedale, date the book unfortunately--wander through the novel while Lily plummets. As her tale winds down to nothing more than the remnants of social grace and cold hard cash, it's hard not to agree with Lily's own assessment of herself: "I have tried hard--but life is difficult, and I am a very useless person. I can hardly be said to have an independent existence. I was just a screw or a cog in the great machine I called life, and when I dropped out of it I found I was of no use anywhere else." Nevertheless, it's even harder not to believe that she deserved better, which is why The House of Mirth remains so timely and so vital in spite of its crushing end and its unflattering portrait of what life offers up. --Melanie Rehak .
- Bookseller BobPrudhomme, Relentless Bookfinder (US)
- Format/Binding Softcover
- Book Condition New As New
- Binding Paperback
- ISBN 10 0684719282
- ISBN 13 9780684719283
- Publisher Scribner Library of Contemporary Classics
- Place of Publication New York U. S. A.
- Date Published 2000
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House of Mirth
by Wharton, Edith; Wharton, E
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The House of Mirth
by Wharton, Edith
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Charles Scribner's Sons, 1969. Soft cover. Fair. Large softcover, front wrapper shows painting by Joseph Bertelli, small photo of Wharton at bottom back left, 329 browned pages. Light crease and light wear to top front tip, 1/4" at spine top right edge, 1/4" tear at spine bottom left edge. Near Good.
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HOUSE OF MIRTH
by Edith Wharton
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Scribner Paper Fiction, 2000-01-01. Paperback. Good.
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HOUSE OF MIRTH
by Edith Wharton
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Scribner Paper Fiction, January 2000. Trade Paperback. Used - Good.
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HOUSE OF MIRTH
by Edith Wharton
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Scribner Paper Fiction. Used - Good. Good condition. A copy that has been read but remains intact. May contain markings such as bookplates, stamps, limited notes and highlighting, or a few light stains. Bundled media such as CDs, DVDs, floppy disks or access codes may not be included.
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The House of Mirth. [paperback].
by Wharton, Edith
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- Used - FINE. (Book appears never read, covers & interior clean/tight/crisp: no writings, no creases).
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New York. Charles Scribner's Sons (c1969). LARGER PAPERBACK.. FINE. (Book appears never read, covers & interior clean/tight/crisp: no writings, no creases). Small octavo. Cover art by Joseph Bertelli. iv. + 330pp. + ads. LATER 16th Printing.
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HOUSE OF MIRTH
by Edith Wharton
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Scribner Paper Fiction, 2000-01-01. Paperback. Used:Good.
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