The material wealth in The House of Mirth is shown through this main storyline. ... Lily runs into a woman whom she once gave charity money to and is asked to come to her house and warm up. ... Selan goes to Lily's house to clear things up between the two of them. ... The House of Mirth can be compared to The Rise of Silas Lapham in terms of material wealth and class level in society. ... The same is true in The House of Mirth. ...

• Word Count: 471
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Through out the novel, The House of Mirth, Lily Bart's character changes mentally, emotionally and socially. She starts out as a witty, charming, and beautiful young lady, whom is liked by all, but she ends up lonesome and afraid. She is not able to live up to her mother's teachings in becoming a we...

• Word Count: 1119
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Edith Wharton is one of America's most celebrated female novelists, with an esteemed devotion to fiction works. Wharton was born Edith Jones in 1862, into an upper class New York City family. She was engaged at a young age, yet the marriage was called off because of the Jones family's snobbish reput...

• Word Count: 483
• Approx Pages: 2

"Everything about her was at once was at once vigorous and exquisite, at once strong and fine. He had a confused sense that she must have cost a great deal to make, that a great many dull and ugly people must, in some mysterious way, have been sacrificed to produce her. He was aware that the qualities distinguishing her from the herd of her sex were chiefly external, as though a fine glaze of beauty and fastidiousness had been applied to vulgar clay." -(p 3.) Readers are offered these early impressions of Lily Bart from the mind of Lawrence Selden as they walk toward his flat on Madison Avenue...

• Word Count: 315
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: Undergraduate