The House of Mirth

Wonderful

I've listened to this book twice and will listen again after a while. I'd be happy to hear Eleanor Bron read the dictionary aloud: to hear her read Edith Wharton is pure bliss.

10 of 11 people found this review helpful

Like Henry James but more accessible

The novel portrays the New York upper middle class society in the late 19th century. Wharton writes elegantly, and is an acute psychologist and observer of manners. She's also very witty at times--with what you might call a stiletto wit. The reading is excellent, with subtle difference of voice and accent nicely calibrated to the character speaking.
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the book. But it made me wonder why writers like Wharton and Henry James devote themselves to writing about people who don't do anything--a class of idlers, in fact, who are terrified that they might have to work for a living. Perhaps they think that this idleness produces greater subjective sensitivity and depth. But I think their long descriptions and analyses of people's inner depths are rather more refined and sophisticated than is justified by reality. OccasionalIy found myself saying: Bring on a pirate! Let's have a murder! Or at least have someone kicked by a horse.

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

If you think you may be interested, get it!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Absolutely. This is one of the greatest novels by one of our greatest novelists. If you love beautiful writing and a great story, this is for you. Also: The narration by Eleonor Bron, the great, under-appreciated English actress who appeared in the film version of The House of Mirth (as well as the Beatles' movie Help!) is a work of art in itself.

What did you like best about this story?

The way social drama/comedy transforms into something much more profound.

Which scene was your favorite?

Impossible to choose.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, too long. A book to savor.

Any additional comments?

I had not expected this to be as good as Wharton's The Age of Innocence. I was wrong.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

Wharton's Masterpiece

This novel is both a satire of New York society at the turn of the century and a tragedy about one woman's downfall. Wharton's depiction of wealthy society types is scathing. She combines the psychological insight of James and the epigrammatic wit of Wilde. In many ways, it is a shocking as it must have been when first published.

I sampled many versions and chose Eleanor Bron's reading for the quality of her voice. She gives a stunning reading, full of tenderness and pathos and the right bite when called for. Highest recommendation.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

A Most Eloquent Tragedy

This is the first book I've read by Edith Wharton and, trust me, I'll be reading as many as I can from here on out! I found myself constantly upset with the center of the novel, Lily Bart, because of her ego, her reluctance to accept the love being offered to her upon nearly every encounter with a male (though one she was wise to refuse), and her inability (or, rather, lack of effort) to crawl out of the hole she had dug for herself in the final chapters of the book.

But, no matter what the author was expressing, I've seldom seen more beautifully constructed sentences, painting an exquisite picture of the characters' surroundings, moods and behaviors. Not only does she display a wonderful landscape, she also delivers bits of wisdom here and there to keep the reader from falling into Lily's debacle.

"In whatever form a slowly-accumulated past lives in the blood - whether in the concrete image of the old house stored with visual memories, or in the conception of the house not built with hands, but made up of inherited passions and loyalties - it has the same power of broadening and deepening the individual existence, of attaching it by mysterious links of kinship to all the mighty sum of human striving."

Eleanor Bron's performance of the novel is terrific, with discernible accents for specific characters and the ability to fluently express the author's tremendous work. Well done, indeed.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Renewed Resonance Given the Times We Live In

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Because it's so timely in that it's the story of a downward spiral as one watches the life they took for granted slipping away before their very eyes, only to be replaced by an ever more diminished view of the future, and so it parallels what's going on in the U.S. today as we adjust to a disappearing middle class, possibly forever, unless we act to preserve it.

What did you like best about this story?

In addition to its renewed resonance mentioned above (I've read the book in the past but it never resonated then the way it does now) I was very impressed with Wharton's writing, empathy, and understanding of what circumstances must be like for someone that she, being relatively affluent, never had to face or experienced herself. The ending chapters were brilliantly thought out and written, and yet she imagined the scenarios with great empathy. They were nothing she was able to call upon from her own life experience, and yet the depth of what she writes about, and how expertly she writes it, forces the reader to absolutely connect with the experience of the heroine.

What about Eleanor Bron’s performance did you like?

Top-notch. She's a great talent as an actress and always has been, even when playing an annoying American in the classic Audrey Hepburn/Albert Finney film Two for the Road, which is the first time she came to my attention decades ago.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The ending was very emotional as I listened to it anew with a completely different perspective now given the times we currently live in. I can't say more without giving away the ending, so I'll simply say I thought it was masterful and genuinely touching and heartfelt, but beyond that it's sticking with me. How differently things might have been if just one thing had been changed along the way time after time.

I was also glad to read this again after watching the Gillian Anderson film version because there's a very important difference in terms of intent at the very end that's better in the writing than it was in the film.

Any additional comments?

Though not a book filled with religious themes or much about religion at all, the title comes from Ecclesiastes 7:4 and one can keep this in mind while reading the book and see if they agree. Ecclesiastes 7:4 reads:

"The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth."

I also felt this was interesting and something to keep in mind while reading:

"New York at the turn of the century was a time of opulence and frivolity for those who could afford it. But for those who couldn't and yet wanted desperately to keep up with the whirlwind, like Wharton's charming Lily Bart, it was something else altogether: a gilded cage rather than the Gilded Age."

"...The House of Mirth remains so timely and so vital in spite of its crushing end and its unflattering portrait of what life offers up."

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Brilliant Writing

This book is amazingly well written. There were so many beautiful turns of phrase and amazing metaphors and insights (comparing the wrinkled finery left on the floor after undressing to the unappealing leftovers of a banquet, allusions to the manacle-like nature of women's jewelry, chaining them to a life they may not have chosen). Edith Wharton truly is one of the great writers of the 20th century. I was a Literature major in college and I'm sad I never had a chance to study her works there. The narration was very good, the speaker had a pleasant voice.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Decisions Have Consequences

Having now read Ethan Frome and Age of Innocence and listened to The House of Mirth, I can say that Edith Wharton is an unsympathetic author. She expects her characters and readers to look at the world through an objective lens. She places her characters into situations that have extreme consequences, and part of her program, so it seems, is to see how people will respond when tempted. What seems a small decision lingers throughout the narrative, especially for Lilly Bart, whose life descends into degradation as she is forced to compromise who she is for the sake of money. Simple decisions exact a terrible toll on her, and in the end, she succumbs to the hardships of her existence. If you enjoy happy endings or you feel too much for characters, then Edith Wharton might not be the author for your tastes. If you, on the other hand, expect a text to point to larger truths of how society functions--here late 19th/early 20th century--then her books are a fine source of how so much of life depends on the external forces of other people.

4 of 6 people found this review helpful

Money, It's a Hit

"Money, it's a hit,
Don't give me that do goody good bullsh!t."*


A superb, timeless novel that went to my top 40 (at least) because it was a real kick in the a$$ to NYC upper class society in the early 20th Century. So, why haven't we had these societal mirrors nearly as often or recent as we should?

>>>>>>>>

Take an utter beauty^ of modest means, orphaned at a young age and raised to be a perfect wife of wealth and privilege
+
put her into the depraved, hostile, covetous and capricious upper class society in Gilded Age New York City,
+
have her want love + wealth + status while maintaining a streak of independence, her moral compass and a touch of folly,
=
a timeless classic tragedy arising from innocent Lily Bart's struggle against society and its expectations.

“She felt a stealing sense of fatigue as she walked; the sparkle had died out of her, and the taste of life was stale on her lips. She hardly knew what she had been seeking, or why the failure to find it had so blotted the light from her sky: she was only aware of a vague sense of failure, of an inner isolation deeper than the loneliness about her.”Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth

The eponymous verse from the King James Bible**:

"The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth."
Ecclesiastes 7:4, KJV


_________________________________


*Roger Waters, "Money" (1973)


**Her alternative title was "A Moment's Ornament," from one of her favorite poems, "She was a Phantom of Delight," first stanza (1804) "

She was a Phantom of delight
When first she gleam'd upon my sight;
A lovely Apparition, sent
To be a moment's ornament:....

Wm. Wordsworth, "She was a Phantom of Delight," first stanza (1804)


^"Everything about her was warm and soft and scented; even the stains of her grief became her as raindrops do the beaten rose." Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Lily in a Gilded Cage

Edith Wharton is a surgeon cutting apart and exposing the true insides of the best in society. Her exquisitely drawn descriptions of even minor characters are the reason to read the book -- you might know someone just like them even in today's "modern" times. That said a major draw back for me was the mean use of stereotypical Jew, which shines a light not so pleasant on Ms. Wharton herself.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful