#200 in Classics
The House of Mirth
- 348
- Pages
- about 6 h
- Reading time
- Film 2000 +1
- On screen
- 20th Century's Greatest Hits: 100 English-Language Books of Fiction
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Our view
Wharton’s “The House of Mirth” takes us deep into its characters’ inner lives as a bright social world turns to tragedy. Lily Bart, well born and without money, needs a rich husband to keep her place in 1890s New York society, and the novel follows her two-year slide to its margins. Some readers find the prose flowery in places. It starts brightly and darkens by degrees, and Lily’s fall is hard to look away from.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The House of Mirth is a tragedy about Lily Bart, a well-born but penniless young woman belonging to New York City's high society of the 1890s. Written by American author Edith Wharton, it came out October 14, 1905. The House of Mirth traces Lily's slow two-year social descent from privilege to a lonely existence on the margins of society as she fails to marry a man of wealth and status to secure her a place in affluent society. Wharton uses Lily as an attack on "an irresponsible, grasping and morally corrupt upper class."
On screen
This book has been adapted for the screen 2 times — from 1918 to 2000.
Adaptation data: Wikidata · On screen →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.7 across 125 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 46% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Classics average of 7.7. That is how 7.7 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.3 | 16 | 13% |
| Hardcover | 7.6 | 109 | 87% |
Frequently asked
How long is The House of Mirth?
It has 348 pages — longer than 74% of the ranked books in Classics.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Classics — and a score of 7.7, the closest to this book.
