Hokay so. The House of Mirth! There is no mirth. There is only depression and irritating characters. Wharton tells the tale of Lily Bart, a poor and single woman who is still high on the social ladder because her parents were rich (but eventually lost it all). She's like everyone's pity friend, but they keep her around and give her old dresses and feed her because she's pretty to look at and happily loses at bridge and says nice things. Lily Bart has warm fuzzies for a Mr. Selden, who she can't marry because he's not very rich and she can't live without nice hats, even for love. Lily inadvertently gets herself into a bunch of social scrapes with married men, mostly because she's stupid (or not stupid, Wharton wants you to think she's actually bright and just a victim of her desires- WHICH IS STUPID).
SPOILERS. Eventually, Lily has to get a job, but she's very bad at it because she's too much of a Spesshul Snowflayke for manual labor, and then she gets addicted to sleeping pills and dies. SO.
Wharton's point here is that society creates these helpless women who have no skills and are used to luxury, encourages them to get married, and then when they can't (or won't) get married, leaves them in the cold. So Lily is annoying (and terrible to her only real friend Gerty) because she's useless and silly and shallow and can't make up her mind about what she wants. BUT you're supposed to sympathize with her because SOCIETY made her that way and it's SOCIETY's fault that she dies.
As far as the actual writing goes, I wasn't as impressed as I was with The Age of Innocence. Those are some STRONGLY DRAWN characters. The characters in The House of Mirth (with the exception of the good and nice Gerty) are not well drawn. They all kind of blur together. Half way through the book I still didn't really know who was who (whom?). Everyone has this vague Rich And Snarky And Likes Bridge And Money set of characteristics. ALSO, EDITH, YOU DON'T HAVE TO USE EVERY S.A.T. WORD YOU KNOW. For serious. I did a face-palm every time she used the word "desultory."
Anyway, yeah, I get it. Social criticism except not funny, annoying, vague characters. Nice descriptions, a few insightful passages. Not my favorite.
Two stars out of your mom.
So I haven't read this, and given your post I probably won't be reading it anytime soon. However, I almost want to read it right now only for your line: "Lily Bart has warm fuzzies for a Mr. Selden, who she can't marry because he's not very rich and she can't live without nice hats, even for love."
ReplyDeleteNice hats are of the utmost importance.
Bahaha, I love how people can have such incredibly different reactions to the same book. I read this one a couple months ago and ended up loving it. Then I had a similar reaction to your's to James' Portrait of a Lady and Allie at Lit Odyssey loved it. I love your review and see exactly how you got to this point. The writing tied it all together for me and made it worth it. Spesshul Snowflayke... I love it.
ReplyDeleteBummer. I read Age of Innocence last year and really enjoyed it, and was thinking of picking this one up next. Now... not so sure. Although I'm with Red on the hats. Utmost importance.
ReplyDelete*bodily shields Lily Bart from you*
ReplyDeleteYes, there was a dearth of mirth in this book. But even so, I remember liking it better than the other Wharton novels I read during the course of that long-ago semester.
ReplyDeleteAnd, of course, nice hats ain't cheap. So I can see how one might need to sacrifice poor love for rich indifference if nice hats hang in the balance. :)
I could never get into Wharton's other novels, but I do like this one. Lily is kind of a train wreck, and can be annoying, but I still couldn't help but be pulled into her sorry decline. What I do like about her, is that no matter how much she liked those nice hats, she just couldn't bring herself to marry someone just for his money.
ReplyDeleteI liked the first half of this novel, but it just kind of went downhill for me in the second part to where it wasn't fun anymore. I ended up giving it a 2 as well. I will probably give Age of Innocence a chance at some point to see if it's any better, but probably not this year with my TBR pile as imposing as it is.
ReplyDeleteI really like House of Mirth. I kind of think unlikeable characters don't really bother me, or maybe I liked Lily a little bit...
ReplyDeleteRed- Nice hats are THE MOST important.
ReplyDeleteMelissa- I think I got that from STFU Parents, actually. From all the parents who act like assholes because their kids are "special."
Kerry- AGE is much better.
Alice- She doesn't NEED your protection. She SELF DESTRUCTS.
As the Crow- HA! Dearth of mirth.
de Pizan- TRUE. That actually gave me high hopes at the beginning, that she destroys her own chances with Percy because she knows she doesn't want to marry him. Then it's downhill.
Bookish- I agree- the beginning wasn't so bad.
LBC- Some people really aren't bothered by unlikable protagonists. I don't know, I just can't hang.
I'll admit that I was bit nervous when I saw you were reading this one...it is one of my all-time favorites.
ReplyDelete*dies inside*
No, I can see your points. And I can understand, but I still love it. :)
I just finished The Age of Innocence the other day and felt that one was weaker. We all have different tastes!
Amanda - Or "Mands" as I just called you in my head: "BOOOOOOOOO"
ReplyDelete(but I still love your blog)
*hides head under pillow*
I re-read my review on this after yours because I read it in Sep of 2010... and I must say I really like my review! I think the book was powerful, but I was not very happy with Lily Bart. I wanted to shake her and perhaps challenge her to a duel.
ReplyDeleteMy review here:
http://eclectic-indulgence.blogspot.com/2010/09/house-of-mirth-edith-wharton.html
Ha, as usual your comments zap straight to the heart of things.
ReplyDeleteI actually love this book, but I also love how accurately you sum it up under your merciless microscope.
I nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award. You can check it out here: http://yearningforwonderland.blogspot.com/2012/01/awards-of-versatility-15-magnificent.html
Keep doing what you do so well ;)
Anna
@ruanna3
I also really, really liked this book, but it took me three readings about ten years apart to really get to the meaning of it, and then it became one of my favorites. If it makes you feel better I wasn't such a fan the first time around, either! :)
ReplyDeleteAnd I was so looking forward to enjoying this book, too....I do think that I'd agree with you if I read it. There really are entirely too many books in the English language about how SOCIETY is EVIL and hence screws over the female protagonist's life. I had a similar reaction when I was reading Lady with the Camelias, which I expected to love, but then the obstacle to the protagonists' union for the first half of the story ended up being that she likes to live in luxury. I really loved your phrase about the nice hats.....I wish I could be stylish enough to pull off wearing a nice hat.
ReplyDelete