The House of Mirth

Lily Bart is beautiful, well-bred, and nearly penniless, a young woman raised to adorn drawing rooms and marry well but unwilling, at the crucial moments, to trade herself for security. Across two years Edith Wharton follows her slow fall from the glittering center of 1890s New York society toward its unforgiving edges, undone by small debts, careless friends, and a code that punishes women far more than men. Published in 1905, the novel made Wharton’s reputation and remains one of the most piercing studies of how wealth and reputation are bought and lost. Its sympathy for Lily never softens its clear sight of the world that destroys her. This free PDF and EPUB edition offers the complete text of a landmark American novel.