House of Mirth

House of Mirth was written by Edith Wharton and first published in 1905. Born in 1862 into an exclusive New York society against whose rigid mores she often rebelled. Edith Wharton bridged the literary worlds of two continents and two centuries in her rich and glamorous life. The House of Mirth, her tenth book, is the story of young Lily Bart and her tragic sojourn among the upper class of turn-of-the-century New York, touching upon the insidious effects of social convention and the sexual and financial aggression to which free spirited women exposed.