The House of Mirth

<div><p><strong>Introduction and Notes by Janet Beer, Manchester Metropolitan University.</strong></p></div><div><p><em>The House of Mirth</em> tells the story of Lily Bart, aged 29, beautiful, impoverished and in need of a rich husband to safeguard her place in the social elite, and to support her expensive habits - her clothes, her charities and her gambling. Unwilling to marry without both love and money, Lily becomes vulnerable to the kind of gossip and slander which attach to a girl who has been on the marriage market for too long.</p></div><div><p>Wharton charts the course of Lily''s life, providing, along the way, a wider picture of a society in transition, a rapidly changing New York where the old certainties of manners, morals and family have disappeared and the individual has become an expendable commodity.</p></div><div><p><em>The House of Mirth</em> was published in October 1905 to widespread critical acclaim. It became an instant bestseller and is regarded today as one of