Join us on a literary world trip!
Add this book to bookshelf
Grey
Write a new comment Default profile 50px
Grey
Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!
All characters reduced
The House of Mirth - cover

The House of Mirth

Edith Wharton

Publisher: Open Road Media

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Summary

The classic tale of a young woman’s struggle for love and money from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Ethan Frome and The Age of Innocence.   Raised among New York’s high society, Lily Bart is beautiful, charming, and entirely without means. Determined to maintain the extravagant lifestyle to which she is accustomed, Lily embarks on a mission to marry a wealthy man who can secure her station. However, the businesslike proposals from her many suitors remain fruitless, and her thoughts keep returning to the one man she truly loves. Bedeviled by debt, betrayal, and vicious gossip, she is forced to confront the tragic cruelty just beneath the surface of the Gilded Age.   First appearing in Scribner’s Magazine as a monthly serial, House of Mirth was a runaway bestseller upon its release as a full-length novel in 1905. Hailed as “a fireworks display of brilliantly sardonic social satire deepened by a story of thwarted love” by the Wall Street Journal, it was the first popular and critical success for Edith Wharton, who went on to become the first female author to win the Pulitzer Prize. Since its initial publication, House of Mirth has been adapted into two feature films and continues to captivate modern readers.  This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.  
Available since: 12/13/2016.
Print length: 410 pages.

Other books that might interest you

  • Frankenstein - cover

    Frankenstein

    Mary Shelley

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein when she was only eighteen. At once a Gothic thriller, a passionate romance, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of science, Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein and his creation. 
     
    Obsessed with discovering the cause of generation and life and bestowing animation upon lifeless matter, Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts but; upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creature's hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein. 
     
    Frankenstein, an instant bestseller and an important ancestor of both the horror and science fiction genres, not only tells a terrifying story, but also raises profound, disturbing questions about the very nature of life and the place of humankind within the cosmos: What does it mean to be human? What responsibilities do we have to each other? How far can we go in tampering with Nature? Questions which, in the twenty-first century, are more relevant than ever.
    Show book
  • Importance of Being Reliable The (Unabridged) - cover

    Importance of Being Reliable The...

    Booker T Washington

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856 - November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African American community and of the contemporary black elite. Washington was from the last generation of black American leaders born into slavery and became the leading voice of the former slaves and their descendants. They were newly oppressed in the South by disenfranchisement and the Jim Crow discriminatory laws enacted in the post-Reconstruction Southern states in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING RELIABLE :I am going to call your attention this evening to a tendency of the people of our race which I had occasion to notice in the course of a visit recently made to certain portions of North Carolina and South Carolina.
    Show book
  • Top 10 Short Stories The - Saki - The top ten short stories written by master of dark humour and twists Saki - cover

    Top 10 Short Stories The - Saki...

    Saki Saki

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    The Top Ten -  Saki - An Introduction 
     
    The name H H Munro is obscured beneath the literary mantle of his nom de plume; Saki.  A writer of his times, the stories perfectly portray society’s whims and tastes in a delicate yet at times, barbed humour.  A divine wit who conjured words into quite extraordinary works. 
     
    Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart.  A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. 
     
    In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?  
     
    The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme.  Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature. 
     
    Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made.  If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something. 
     
    1 - The Top Ten - Saki - An Introduction 
    2 - The Lumber Room by Saki 
    3 - Tobermory by Saki 
    4 - The Open Window by Saki 
    5 - The Reticence of Lady Anne by Saki  
    6 - The Hounds of Fate by Saki 
    7 - Mrs Packletide's Tiger by Saki 
    8 - The Unrest Cure by Saki 
    9 - The Music on the Hill by Saki 
    10 - Sredni Vashtar by Saki 
    11 - The Interlopers by Saki
    Show book
  • The Crux - cover

    The Crux

    Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    "In place of happy love, lonely pain. In place of motherhood, disease. Misery and shame, child. Medicine and surgery, and never any possibility of any child for me."
    First published in her magazine The Forerunner, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Crux is an emotive tale on the nuances of female independence, social expectation and love in early 20th century America.
    Following an all-female group who move west to open a boarding house for men, The Crux focuses on the experience of Vivian ― and her desire for the undesirable. Deeply in love with Morton, a charismatic young man infected with both syphilis and gonorrhoea, Vivian's expected journey through her 'marriage' years is abruptly turned upside down.
    Torn by her personal intuition, the advice provided by her female companions and the knowledge that Morton will never give her healthy children, Vivian is faced with a permanent choice ― to forfeit love for the benefit of future generations.
    Balancing female and male perspectives on illness, personal preservation and nationalism, The Crux tracks Vivian's path through heart break, emotional development and female camaraderie.
    As an allegory for Gilman's own branch of utopian feminism, The Crux is a story of sacrifice and partnership deliberation within the framework of 20th century disease hysteria, eugenic ideology and developing modernism.
    Often omitted from her writing canon, The Crux is an integral aspect to understanding not only Gilman's own writing ― but the history of feminism as a whole.
    "The Crux is essentially a seminar in biological, feminine and social correctness. As stated in the original Forerunner publication, the novel was intended for a specific set of people - young and impressionable women primarily, followed by men and anyone else willing to listen. The Crux, in its barebones, is a nationalist parable for all of America to heed."
    from Ambrose Kelly's new introduction to The Crux
    * * *
    Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860 – 1935) was an American humanist, novelist, writer of short stories, poetry and nonfiction, and a lecturer for social reform. She was a utopian feminist and served as a role model for future generations of feminists because of her unorthodox concepts and lifestyle.
    Show book
  • Pride and Prejudice (Unabridged) - cover

    Pride and Prejudice (Unabridged)

    Jane Austen

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    Pride and Prejudice is Jane Austen's classic comic romance, in which the five Bennett sisters try to find that most elusive creature: a single man in possession of a large fortune. Sparks fly when sweet, pretty Jane meets their new neighbor, Mr. Bingley, but her sister Elizabeth is most offended by his haughty friend, Mr. Darcy. This is Austen at the height of her powers: the ironic narration, hilariously drawn supporting characters, and romantic suspense make this her most enduringly popular novel.
    Show book
  • Mother and Daughter - cover

    Mother and Daughter

    D H Lawrence

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    'Mother and Daughter' can be read as one of Lawrence's diatribes against women. Two women do their best to get along without men but in the end, as Lawrence always proposed, a woman cannot be fulfilled without a dominant man, however unsuitable he may be.
    Show book