The House of Mirth (Enriched Classics) - Softcover

Wharton, Edith

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1439169497 ISBN 13: 9781439169490

Publisher: Pocket Classics, 2010

Synopsis

ENDURING LITERATURE ILLUMINATED BY PRACTICAL SCHOLARSHIP

An incisive portrait of New York high society and the somber economics of marriage during the late nineteenth century, Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth tells the story of beguiling socialite Lily Bart’s ill-fated attempt to find happiness.

THIS ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES:

• A concise introduction that gives the reader important background information

• A chronology of the author’s life and work

• A timeline of significant events that provides the book’s historical context

• An outline of key themes and plot points to guide the reader’s own interpretations

• Detailed explanatory notes

• Critical analysis and modern perspectives on the work

• Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction

• A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader’s experience

Simon & Schuster Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world’s finest books to their full potential.

About this title

Review

"Edith Wharton was a natural story-teller. As plots do in real life, hers flow directly from character. Her prose is so effortlessly elegant that you're rarely aware as they purl by that the sentences are so pretty...I was born after the heavy spade work of female emancipation was done. But 100 years ago, Edith Wharton's drive, independence, wilfulness and autodidactic mastery of the English language were extraordinary, and I bashfully claim her as a kindred spirit" (Lionel Shriver Guardian)

"A cautionary tale of social disaster, told with wit and elan" (Independent)

"Like Henry James, Wharton has a wonderful gift of revealing the inner life of her characters while also documenting the elegance and hypocrisy of high society...the accumulation of desolation in the final three chapters reduces me to tears" (Jonathan Bate Sunday Telegraph)

"[Edith Wharton was] an ambitious, brilliant and industrious woman who created "her own personal and professional revolution"" (Sunday Times)

"Edith Wharton's 1905 novel gave literature one of its most complicated tragic heroines" (Independent)

Book Description

The tragic fall of Lily Bart, a beautiful socialite who loses her footing in the savage social-climbing world of New York high society in the nineteenth century

Edition details

• Publisher: Pocket Classics
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1439169497
• ISBN 13: 9781439169490
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 456