The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton: 9780140187298

Table Of Content

• Vivan Beaumont Theater, 1,047 seats, $179 top. Opened April 24, 2024. Reviewed April 20. Running time: 2 HOURS, 25 MIN.
• Workshop: Drawing from Film Inspired by Catherine Goodman
• The Conners Is Losing Its Wednesdays-at-8 Time Slot on ABC — Find Out Why
• Notes
• Brief Biography of Edith Wharton
• Some Critics Don’t Understand the ‘Cabaret’ Broadway Revival. Young Women Do. (Guest Column)
• Nike Releases New Air Jordan 3 Retro Sneakers: Here's Where to Get A Pair Online

Her relation with her aunt was assuperficial as that of chance lodgers who pass on the stairs. But evenhad the two been in closer contact, it was impossible to think of Mrs.Peniston’s mind as offering shelter or comprehension to such misery asLily’s. As the pain that can be told is but half a pain, so the pity thatquestions has little healing in its touch. What Lily craved was thedarkness made by enfolding arms, the silence which is not solitude, butcompassion holding its breath. He paused, flushed by his diatribe, and fixing on her a look in whichresentment was the ingredient she least disliked. But she had regainedher presence of mind, and stood composedly in the middle of the room,while her slight smile seemed to put an ever increasing distance betweenherself and Trenor.

Vivan Beaumont Theater, 1,047 seats, $179 top. Opened April 24, 2024. Reviewed April 20. Running time: 2 HOURS, 25 MIN.

If rejection there had been—and he wondered nowthat he had ever doubted it! —then he held the key to the secret, and thehillsides of Bellomont were lit up, not with sunset, but with dawn. Itwas he who had wavered and disowned the face of opportunity—and the joynow warming his breast might have been a familiar inmate if he hadcaptured it in its first flight. Youpromised once to help me,” she continued in the same tone, as though thewords were drawn from her unwillingly. Selden and Lily stood still, accepting the unreality of the scene as apart of their own dream-like sensations. It would not have surprised themto feel a summer breeze on their faces, or to see the lights among theboughs reduplicated in the arch of a starry sky.

Workshop: Drawing from Film Inspired by Catherine Goodman

She began to undress without ringing for her maid, whom she had sent tobed. She had been long enough in bondage to other people’s pleasure to beconsiderate of those who depended on hers, and in her bitter moods itsometimes struck her that she and her maid were in the same position,except that the latter received her wages more regularly. “And at this hour of the day I don’t suppose you’ve a single one left,have you, Lily? When the tea came he watched her in silent fascination while her handsflitted above the tray, looking miraculously fine and slender in contrastto the coarse china and lumpy bread.

The Conners Is Losing Its Wednesdays-at-8 Time Slot on ABC — Find Out Why

She felt soprofoundly tired that she thought she must fall asleep at once; but assoon as she had lain down every nerve started once more into separatewakefulness. It was as though a great blaze of electric light had beenturned on in her head, and her poor little anguished self shrank andcowered in it, without knowing where to take refuge. She opened her cheque-book, and plunged into such anxious calculations ashad prolonged her vigil at Bellomont on the night when she had decided tomarry Percy Gryce.

Suddenly,however, there was a sound of voices and a rustle of skirts in thedoorway, and Mr. Gryce, restoring his watch to his pocket, turned with anervous start; but it was only to find himself handing Mrs. Wetherallinto the carriage. The observance of Sunday at Bellomont was chiefly marked by the punctualappearance of the smart omnibus destined to convey the household to thelittle church at the gates. Whether any one got into the omnibus or notwas a matter of secondary importance, since by standing there it not onlybore witness to the orthodox intentions of the family, but made Mrs.Trenor feel, when she finally heard it drive away, that she had somehowvicariously made use of it. “Oh, Lily, that’s nice of you,” she merely sighed across the chaos ofletters, bills and other domestic documents which gave an incongruouslycommercial touch to the slender elegance of her writing-table. Mrs. Trenor’s summons, however, suddenly recalled her state ofdependence, and she rose and dressed in a mood of irritability that shewas usually too prudent to indulge.

She received this with a look from which all tinge of resentment hadfaded. After the tissue of social falsehoods in which she had so longmoved it was refreshing to step into the open daylight of an avowedexpediency. They had been seated for some time in the seclusion of a rocky glen abovethe lake, when she suddenly cut short the culmination of an impassionedperiod by turning upon him the grave loveliness of her gaze. Carry, in her rare moments of prosperity, became so expansively maternalthat Miss Bart sometimes wondered whether, if she could ever get time andmoney enough, she would not end by devoting them both to her daughter.

Some Critics Don’t Understand the ‘Cabaret’ Broadway Revival. Young Women Do. (Guest Column)

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Carry is also known for bringing newcomers into high society such as Rosedale and the Wellington Brys, who had managed the miracle of making money in a falling market. After Lily has been expelled from the upper class by Bertha, Carry is one of the few people who still show compassion toward her, offering Lily support and job opportunities. Carry is an example of a woman who finds ways to earn money and to succeed in society despite being divorced and somewhat disreputable. Her presence in the story refutes the notion that Lily has no choice except to self-destruct. Gus Trenor—Judy Trenor's husband—a massive man with a heavy carnivorous head and a very red complexion. He is a successful stock market speculator and an advocate of Simon Rosedale's acceptance in high society circles although he considers him a bounder.

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The ensuing social scandal ruins Lily's reputation and almost immediately causes her friends to abandon her and Julia to disinherit her. The pièce de résistance of this highly successful event turns out to be the portrayal of Mrs. Lloyd in Sir Joshua Reynolds' famous 18th-century painting (1775–1776). For better or for worse, she has transitioned from a marriageable "girl" to a not-quite-reputable woman similar to Carry Fisher.

Also by Edith Wharton

But his box contained only a line ofrapturous assent from Gerty, and he was turning away disappointed when hewas hailed by a voice from the smoking room. Gerty Farish, the morning after the Wellington Brys’ entertainment, wokefrom dreams as happy as Lily’s. If they were less vivid in hue, moresubdued to the half-tints of her personality and her experience, theywere for that very reason better suited to her mental vision. Suchflashes of joy as Lily moved in would have blinded Miss Farish, who wasaccustomed, in the way of happiness, to such scant light as shone throughthe cracks of other people’s lives. She did not like Trenor’s unusual excitability, with its too evidentexplanation, and the thought of being alone with him, with her friend outof reach upstairs, at the other end of the great empty house, did notconduce to a desire to prolong their TETE-A-TETE. He had taken her hand, half-banteringly, and was drawing her toward a lowseat by the hearth; but she stopped and freed herself quietly.

Carry Fisher, on the strength, as she frankly owned, of the Brys’ Newportsuccess, had taken for the autumn months a small house at Tuxedo; andthither Lily was bound on the Sunday after Dorset’s visit. Though it wasnearly dinner-time when she arrived, her hostess was still out, and thefirelit quiet of the small silent house descended on her spirit with asense of peace and familiarity. It may be doubted if such an emotion hadever before been evoked by Carry Fisher’s surroundings; but, contrastedto the world in which Lily had lately lived, there was an air of reposeand stability in the very placing of the furniture, and in the quietcompetence of the parlour-maid who led her up to her room. Mrs. Fisher’sunconventionality was, after all, a merely superficial divergence from aninherited social creed, while the manners of the Gormer circlerepresented their first attempt to formulate such a creed for themselves. The other ladies had fallen back at her approach, and a space createditself about her.

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To Mr. Dorset,however, his wife’s attitude was a subject of such evident concern that,when he was not scraping the sauce from his fish, or scooping the moistbread-crumbs from the interior of his roll, he sat straining his thinneck for a glimpse of her between the lights. Perhaps it was not, Lily reflected; but it should be soon, unless she hadlost her cunning. If Selden had come at Mrs. Dorset’s call, it was at herown that he would stay. It struck her as providential that she should be the instrument of hisinitiation.

Lily hadtried to mitigate this charmless background by a few frivolous touches,in the shape of a lace-decked toilet table and a little painted desksurmounted by photographs; but the futility of the attempt struck her asshe looked about the room. Once more the haunting sense of physicalugliness was intensified by her mental depression, so that each piece ofthe offending furniture seemed to thrust forth its most aggressive angle. She usually contrived to avoid being at home during the season ofdomestic renewal. On the present occasion, however, a variety of reasonshad combined to bring her to town; and foremost among them was the factthat she had fewer invitations than usual for the autumn. She had so longbeen accustomed to pass from one country-house to another, till the closeof the holidays brought her friends to town, that the unfilled gaps oftime confronting her produced a sharp sense of waning popularity. They would welcomeher in a new character, but as Miss Bart they knew her by heart.

When, at a more rational moment, she returns to pursuing Percy, his mother-in law-to-be tells Lily at Jack Stepny's and Gwen Van Osburgh's wedding about his engagement to Evie Van Osburgh. In retribution for a social snub, Lily's cousin Grace Stepney informs Julia of rumors that Lily is having an affair with Gus to obtain money so she can pay off her gambling debts. This plants seeds of doubt and discomfort in Julia who, though shocked, chooses to accept the rumors without speaking to her niece. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. And Harper, as the healer Astrov, who drinks too much to keep his self-hatred at bay, is utterly delightful. It feels like these actors — along with Molina, Pill and Rose — have been rehearsing for months, they’re so comfortable in their roles, and make their characters and their suffering so deeply relatable.

Here heleft her outside, in the darkness of the raised hood, while his name wassent up to Stepney, and he paced the showy hall, awaiting the latter’sdescent. Ten minutes later the two men passed out together between thegold-laced custodians of the threshold; but in the vestibule Stepney drewup with a last flare of reluctance. A startled look ran from eye to eye; Mrs. Bry crimsoned to the verge ofcongestion, Mrs. Stepney slipped nervously behind her husband, andSelden, in the general turmoil of his sensations, was mainly conscious ofa longing to grip Dabham by the collar and fling him out into the street.

The consciousnessthat much skill would be required made Lily rest thankfully in thegreatness of the obligation. Since he would HAVE to pull Bertha throughshe could trust him to find a way; and she put the fulness of her trustin the telegram she managed to send him on her way to the quay. Happily for both, there was little physical strength to sustain hisfrenzy. It left him, collapsed and breathing heavily, to an apathy sodeep and prolonged that Lily almost feared the passers-by would think itthe result of a seizure, and stop to offer their aid.