The House of Mirth
by Edith Wharton

To be honest, if reading The House of Mirth had not been an assignment, I probably wouldn't have even thought about reading it. Part of this is because it is a criticism of society (which I usually try to avoid). I find it hard to get through books that point out the problems with society and the immorality of its people: which are present throughout the story. Wharton covers the frivolous spending of money and the preoccupation with minute problems throughout her book. The problem with this is that all of the "morals of the story" get tiring after reading a couple chapters.

In addition, the book itself was hard to understand. Yes, I realize that it is an old book and for the most part I understood it, however, there were important parts of the book that I didn't quite get because of a few sentences that were confusing and strangely worded. For example, I didn't understand that the money Mr. Trenor gave Lily was his until the end when Lily said, " Afterward I found out that he had not used my money--that what he said he had made for me he had really given me."

Although there were many things I didn't like about the book, I learned many things I didn't know about the turn of the century. I enjoyed the illustration of life in the early 1900s the book provided and am glad that it was an assignment.