![]() Lily’s mother hates “dinginess” and “living like a pig,” and after Lily and she struggle for a couple years, she dies “in disgust.” Lily must go stay with her father’s sister, Mrs. In her 20’s, Lily’s father announces the family’s financial ruin and dies almost immediately. Selden and Lily have a playful flirtation that will recur. Lily’s ignorance of “the real world” causes her to see working class life as inherently beneath her. Lily’s every interaction is subconsciously crafted for irresistible charm and unfailing control (social skills deliberately ingrained in her raising). In this first chapter, we learn a few things– 1. He greets her, and they converse for a while. Selden is a lawyer, so he has one foot in the glamorous NY society and one foot in the working class life. ![]() The novel opens with Lawrence Selden’s admiration of the seemingly effortless grace and beauty of Miss Lily Bart, whom he observes from a distance at the train station. The House of Mirth thoroughly depicts the luxuries and expectations of the carefully curated, filthy rich, early twentieth century New York society. Today’s classic post comes from an author whose novels resemble the Victorian era (England, mid 1800’s-1900) but are set in the early 1900’s in New York. ![]()
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