Movies - The House of Mirth

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	Movies - The House of Mirth

The House of Mirth is a 1905 novel by Edith Wharton. It is centered on Lily Bart, a New York socialite who attempts to secure a husband and a place in affluent society. It was one of the first novels of manners to emerge in American literature.

The title is taken from Ecclesiastes 7:4: "The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.” In the Gillian Anderson version, she admits as much to Gus Trenor at the end of her downward spiral: "I have been such a fool."

Of all of Wharton's best-known novels, The House of Mirth seems the most tragic. The heroine, who is far from stupid, is so bound-up in her rigid principles, that she flatly refuses to grab hold of the virtual life-rafts thrown to her. Her lawyer friend, Lawrence Selden, would gladly have married her, but she thought him not rich enough. When Bertha Dorset's husband asks for her help in a proposed divorce suit against his wife by reason of infidelity, Lily coldly stands aside, uninvolved. Had the trial gone forward, she might have become his second wife. A wealthy and doting Mr. Gryce, evidently taken with her, is impetuously snubbed as she decides not to meet him at church. Compelled by her reverence for honesty, in a disastrous move she admits her gambling debts to her dour and snippy Aunt Julia, who then disinherits her. Having repeatedly refused the help of her powerful friends, she alienates them all, and now must seek increasingly menial and disreputable (i.e. proletarian) work.

A 1918 film version was directed by Albert Capellani and starred Katherine Harris Barrymore as Lily Bart. A 2000 film version was directed by Terence Davies and starred Gillian Anderson as Bart.

Trivia

# Anderson's daughter, Piper, appears uncredited in couple of scenes, here.

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