House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

“We are expected to be pretty and well-dressed till we drop-and if we can’t keep it up alone, we have to go into partnership (8).”

                Despite that I read only two chapters, I have gained an interestingly vivid image of Miss Lily Bart. Confident, intelligent, and beautiful, she casts a spell over the hearts of men. She manipulates her conversations to peak a man’s interest, so that even a timid man like Mr. Percy Gryce feels comfortable. She plays men just as easily as Mozart manipulates a piano. She loves her life of manipulation; however, she ages quickly. Being thirty years old, she begins to succumb to the pressures of social order. She must marry in order to keep her way of living, but she cannot choose working man like Seldon. He adores her albeit from a distance without telling her because he acknowledges the economic distinction between them. At the end of chapter two, she sets her sights on Gryce, but he is dreadfully dull. She has an internal conflict since she desires true love, but she demands that her future husband acquire the ability to sustain Lily Bart’s dreadful spending habits. This standard comes at a high price; does she marry for love or money? Time can only tell.