The House of Mirth
Edith Wharton
Chapters I & II, pages 1-18.
As the I take my first step into this marathon of a novel, I had no idea what to expect spare the ever so appropriate allusions dropped by Mr. Costello throughout his emails: a young woman on wild adventures traveling at her heart's desire. Honestly, I had never even heard of this book before it was assigned for a summer reading. Therefore, my familiarity with Miss Lily Bart was lacking to say the least.
However, it wasn't long before Selden introduced me to this mysterious woman.
Then, through later conversation taking place between the two, I begin to discover what the story is actually about; it is a story of young woman struggling to live up to the expectations of an upper class society. Miss Bart wasn't wild after all but simply trying to find happiness unsuccessfully. "She was so evidently the victim of the civilisation which had produced her, that the links of her bracelet seemed like manacles chaining her to her fate," (Wharton, 5).
Another theme that seems to be prevalent is the importance of wealth and money within Lily's society. (All of my annotations at this point indicate this relationship somehow)
While the plot continues to develop, I'm interested to see how these two themes develop as well as if any other themes present themselves. Also, I hope she gets together with Selden. He seems like a nice dude.
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