Audiobook · read by volunteers
House of Mirth
Edith Wharton (1862–1937)
Read by Elizabeth Klett · 29 chapters · 12 h 32
About the book
Lily Bart is beautiful, clever and nearly thirty, and she knows that her place in New York's fashionable world depends on making the right marriage. Yet every time a suitable match comes within reach, something in her holds back, or something outside her intervenes. Edith Wharton's novel follows Lily through country-house weekends, gossip, shifting alliances and carefully guarded reputations, as she tries to keep her footing in a society that admires her but will not forgive a single misstep. It is a story about money, ambition and the narrow choices open to women, told with irony, psychological depth and real compassion. Elizabeth Klett reads all twenty-nine chapters across more than twelve hours, giving the long, absorbing narrative a calm and elegant voice. For lovers of classic fiction, this is a deeply rewarding listen.
Introduction
Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was an American novelist born into the old New York society that she would later portray with such precision. The House of Mirth, published in 1905, was her first great success, and it established her as one of the leading American writers of her generation. She later won the Pulitzer Prize for The Age of Innocence, becoming the first woman to receive that award for fiction.
The novel is regarded as an early and important example of the American novel of manners. It follows a young woman of good family but limited means, and it asks how much freedom a woman of that class really had in the early twentieth century. Wharton shows a world in which marriage is as much an economic arrangement as a personal one, and in which a single rumour can undo years of careful effort. The book was also among the first to look openly at how little social mobility Victorian-era American society offered to women who did not have a fortune of their own. Its title comes from a verse in the Book of Ecclesiastes.
This LibriVox recording is read by Elizabeth Klett, one of the project's most prolific volunteers, and runs for about twelve and a half hours. It is split into two books, with a total of twenty-nine chapter files. The pace of the story is unhurried, which suits audio very well: you can settle in, follow the intricate social details and feel the pressure growing. More than a century later, the questions it raises about status, security and choice still seem strikingly modern.
Public domain
Edith Wharton died in 1937: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text