The House of Mirth by Edith Warton

The House of Mirth 

By Edith Warton 

Rating :5/5 🤩😈

Genres : Classics, Romance, Historical.

When I read the first few pages, thought this is going to be an inconsequential and boring read. But the story caught up with me as the events churned out Miss Lily Bart the protagonist down the social ladder that she so desperately wished to ascend. It is a story with a deeper moral in it that even if one doesn't possess the wealth and superfluous fame that everyone craves for, what really matters to keep a person happy despite everything else is solid rooting in the form of a cherished family and love. I am very touched at how Lily comes into realization of this but at the very brink of her setting on a real journey, life is cut short. Perhaps there is a lesson in this - true happiness is not meant for all. :/ 

Lily Bart is a young, attractive socialite that is highly admired by men and adored by women. She is adopted by her aunt after the death of her mother who died poor having hated/feared poverty all her life. Lily inherits the very same fears and focuses all her energies into captivating and capturing a rich man for a secure future. One of her true friends is Mr.Selden who loves her but is extremely critical of her desires for wealth. Time and again their paths cross - each time she is in trouble, he helps her and keeps her afloat but they quickly drift apart not being able to reconcile their differences in pursuits/natures. As events unfold, she loses her so-called social circle of friends who heap false scandals on her to fulfill their selfish needs and save their backs. She is linked to multiple men in a ruinous way to a woman's character and she also loses out on an anticipated inheritance from her aunt and that throws her into the shackles of the very poverty she feared all along. Finding that she is no good at physical labor of earning a income and not able to find one who will marry her without subjecting herself to self degradation, she turns inward and realizes that her one true love has been Selden all along. But before they could ever come together, her life ends. She who has always sought for permanent solutions to her troubles had to face the biggest trouble of all - loneliness and a life of drudgery and didn't really have to. 

It is a penetrating story for those perceptive enough to get to the core of a character's motives and intentions.