Novel Drama

The House
of Mirth
Author Year Published Original Language
Edith Wharton 1905 English

MAIN CHARACTERS

Gambling with Love Set among the New York elite of the 1890s, The House of Mirth is
both a tragedy and a social satire. Lily Bart has not been trained to
make or understand money: she must marry rich and choose
between the lawyer she loves and the dull, corrupt, wealthy men
who want to marry her. Can she be true to her evolving sense
of morality?

Lily Bart
Beautiful, naïve, used to
wealth; needs money Percy Gryce
Wealthy but dull; world’s biggest
collector of Americana

Bertha Dorset
Lily’s dangerous Gus Trenor
high society “friend” Invests money for Lily;
expects sex in return

Lawrence Selden Simon Rosedale

Lawyer Lily loves; Jewish businessman;
too poor for her world speaks the ugly truth

Motifs

Reading Water Gambling

Represents society and Represents Lily’s function as Symbolizes risky behavior with
understanding of the individual currency rather than her value money and love
as a person

The House of Mirth

Author
by the Numbers

14 3
Age at which Wharton began a Novels Wharton published before
secret novel called Fast and The House of Mirth
Loose

EDITH WHARTON
1862–1937

11 ~2,000 Wharton mocked the New York elite of

Months over which sections
of the novel were serialized in
Scribner's Magazine
Flowers in Wharton’s gardens at
her home, The Mount
America’s Gilded Age, of which she was
a part. She established her career as a
novelist with The House of Mirth, a
scathing satire. In 1921 she became the
first woman awarded a Pulitzer Prize—
for her novel The Age of Innocence.

Themes

Money vs. Morality Woman vs. Society Beauty

Cruel, superficial people easily Lily struggles with her Lily's beauty is her only
destroy innocent, beautiful identity in the face of societal asset—she is a decorative object
people. expectations. for wealthy men to marry.

e are expected to be pretty and well-dressed till we drop.

Lily, Book 1, Chapter 1

Sources: Edith Wharton by Hermoine Lee, Edith Wharton: A Life in Pictures

and Text, The Mount, The New Yorker, New York Times, “Symbolic or
Monetary Exchange: Money, Hospitality and the Home in Edith Wharton's The
House of Mirth” by Thomas Dutoit

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