She also reflects on the injustice of being an unmarried woman, since men and married women have infinitely more freedom than her, and can live independent lives without constantly worrying about preserving a reputation of chastity. Later, she scolds herself for potentially ruining her reputation by being seen with Selden and for rebuking Rosedale, who might one day reach a position of social prominence.

Lily then hurries off to the train station, rejecting Rosedale’s offers to accompany her. The excuse backfires against her, as Rosedale owns the Benedick, the apartment complex where Selden lives, and knows that there is no dress-maker there. As Rosedale makes sly comments about the fact that Lily must have just left Selden’s apartment, Lily invents an excuse about going to her dress-maker. Though clearly taken with Lily’s grace and beauty, Selden feels that she always behaves in a calculating, premeditative way, aimed at reaching a hidden goal.Īfter Lily takes her leave from Selden, she runs into Simon Rosedale, a rich man who is desperate to enter the high society Lily belongs to. Over tea, Lily and Selden share a moment of surprising intimacy, and Lily asks Selden if he would accept to be her friend, since she sorely lacks sincere friends around her. When Lawrence asks Lily if she wants to have tea in his apartment, the young lady accepts, although she knows that it is considered risky for a young woman to spend time in a man’s apartment alone. Her acquaintance Lawrence Selden, who runs into her at Grand Central Station, spends a few hours with her, distracting her waiting alone in the hot city. The novel opens on a hot afternoon in September, as Lily has just missed a train to go to Bellomont, where her friends Judy and Gus Trenor are organizing a party.

Now, her only hope to stay in upper-class society is to marry a rich and powerful man, so that she can acquire the social credit and financial clout she needs to lead a luxurious life. Despite being born into an important, wealthy New York family, Lily, a beautiful twenty-nine-year-old woman, remains impoverished after her father goes bankrupt during her teenage years. Set in New York at the end of the 19 th century, The House of Mirth describes Lily Bart’s efforts to maintain her elevated position in high society.

Author of the house of mirth