A Life of Privilege Was Ahead - Or Complete Ruin...The House of Mirth, a novel by Edith Wharton (1862-1937), tells the story of Lily Bart, a well-born but impoverished woman belonging to New York City's high society around the turn of the last century.

Wharton creates a portrait of a stunning beauty who, though raised and educated to marry well both socially and economically, is reaching her 29th year, an age when her youthful blush is drawing to a close and her marital prospects are becoming ever more limited.

The House of Mirth traces Lily's slow two-year social descent from privilege to a tragically lonely existence on the margins of society.

Wharton uses Lily as an attack on "an irresponsible, grasping and morally corrupt upper class." Before publication as a book on October 14, 1905, The House of Mirth was serialized in Scribner's Magazine beginning in January 1905.

It attracted a readership among housewives and businessmen alike. Get Your Copy Now.