The House of Mirth

“A tragedy of our modern life, in which the relentlessness of what men used to call Fate and esteem, in their ignorance, a power beyond their control, is as vividly set forth as ever it was by Aeschylus or Shakespeare.“—The New York Times

Edith Wharton was born into New York society in 1862, an environment that provided ample material for her novels but offered little encouragement for her artistic development. Educated by tutors and governesses, she was raised primarily for marriage. However, her marriage in 1885 to Edward Wharton proved emotionally disappointing. She experienced the first of several nervous breakdowns in 1894. Despite or perhaps because of the strain of her marriage, she began writing fiction, publishing her first story in 1889.

Her first published book was on interior decorating, followed by several novels and story collections. These works were created while the Whartons resided in Newport and New York, traveled in Europe, and built their home, The Mount, in Lenox, Massachusetts. In Europe, she befriended Henry James, who became her traveling companion and a significant critic of her fiction.

The House of Mirth (1905) achieved critical acclaim and bestseller status, as did Ethan Frome (1911). In 1913, the Whartons divorced, and Edith relocated to France. However, her writing remained focused on America, particularly the wealthy New York society of her youth. Her satiric novel, The Custom of the Country, was published in 1913, and The Age of Innocence earned her the Pulitzer Prize in 1921.

In her later years, she garnered admiration from younger writers such as Sinclair Lewis and F. Scott Fitzgerald. She authored approximately thirty books, including her autobiography, A Backwards Glance (1934). She passed away at her villa near Paris in 1937.

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