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Tim O'Brien

602. Edith Wharton - The House Of Mirth


Not a lot of humour or mirth in this. I enjoyed The Age of Innocence (593) and thought I would try another Wharton.

Proved to be (by the end ) a slightly Dickensian tale of a girl of slender means but great beauty who is trying to climb the social ladder in New York in the (?)1890’s using her looks, but she cannot engage with the right man. (Obviously overt shagging is out).

A series of unintended but dangerous liaisons lead to her increasing isolation from polite society and her eventual (possibly accidental) suicide after a very Dickensian encounter with a young impoverished mother.

I usually read at least 1 19th century novel on holiday, so this was 2018’s, thus far.


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