House of Mirth (Barnes & Noble Classics - Edith Wharton [16]
16. Edith Wharton, Introduction to The House of Mirth (1936), in Uncollected Critical Writings, edited and with an introduction by Frederick Wegener (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), pp. 265-266, 268-269.
17. Wharton, Letters, pp. 96-97, 99.
18. Edith Wharton, “Mr. Sturgis’ Belchamber,” Bookman, 21 (May 1905), 309-310.
19. Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence (New York: Scribner’s, 1920), p. 335.
20. Jean de la Bruyère, “On Women,” Characters, translated by Jean Stewart (London: Penguin, 1970), pp. 55-68.
21. In the psychoanalytical A Feast of Words: The Triumph of Edith Wharton (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977), p. 117, Cynthia Griffin Wolff makes a Freudian slip and refers to her as “Mrs. Penniston.” Many of Wharton’s critics, thinking of Dreiser’s Sister Carrie (written in 1905, but not published until 1912), misspell Carry Fisher’s first name.
22. Wharton, Letters, p. 94.
23. D. H. Lawrence, “The Rocking-Horse Winner” (1926), Complete Short Stories (New York: Viking, 1961), vol. 3, p. 791.
24. Quoted in Lewis, Edith Wharton, p. 548.
25. Matthew Josephson, The Robber Barons (1934. Reprint: New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1962), p. 339.
26. Irving Howe, “The Achievement of Edith Wharton,” Edith Wharton: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Irving Howe (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1962), p. 15.
27. Wharton, Backward Glance, p. 207.
28. The film adaptation of The House of Mirth, which appeared in 2000, provides another way of interpreting the novel and a chance to see how popular actors of today portray the characters. Gillian Anderson, who plays Lily, is too noble and dignified; Laura Linney, who plays Bertha, seems too nice for the role; Eric Stoltz lacks the irresistible sex appeal of Selden; Anthony LaPaglia is insufficiently vile and villainous as Rosedale; Dan Aykroyd is unconvincing as the repulsive tycoon Gus Trenor. Written and directed by Terence Davies, the film is slavishly truthful to the novel, though it drops the Gerty-Nettie working-girl subplot. It is static and stagy, languid, mannered, and artificial, and depends too heavily on lavish costumes, heavy furniture, and stilted diction. The film fails to realize the dramatic potential of the most brilliant scenes in the novel: Selden’s proposal, Haffen’s blackmail, the tableaux vivants, Trenor’s near rape, Bertha’s dismissal of Lily, the reading of Aunt Julia’s will, Dorset’s pathetic plea for help, Rosedale’s crude proposition, the last meeting with Selden, his discovery of Lily’s dead body, and his tragic failure to understand the meaning of her sacrifice.
THE HOUSE OF MIRTHa
BOOK ONE
I
SELDEN PAUSED IN SURPRISE. In the afternoon rush of the Grand Central Station his eyes had been refreshed by the sight of Miss Lily Bart.
It was a Monday in early September, and he was returning to his work from a hurried dip into the country; but what was Miss Bart doing in town at that season? If she had appeared to be catching a train, he might have inferred that he had come on her in the act of transition between one and another of the country-houses which disputed her presence after the close of the Newportb season; but her desultory air perplexed him. She stood apart from the crowd, letting it drift by her to the platform or the street, and wearing an air of irresolution which might, as he surmised, be the mask of a very definite purpose. It struck him at once that she was waiting for some one, but he hardly knew why the idea arrested him. There was nothing new about Lily Bart, yet he could never see her without a faint movement of interest: it was characteristic of her that she always roused speculation, that her simplest acts seemed the result of far-reaching intentions.
An impulse of curiosity made him turn out of his direct line to the door, and stroll past her. He knew that if she did not wish to be seen she would contrive to elude him; and it amused him to think of putting her skill to the test.
“Mr. Selden—what good luck!”
She came forward smiling, eager almost, in her resolve