House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

"...and her mind clung to them as a sick person might cling to a healing relic (Wharton, 141)."

When I was younger, I read Sadako and the 1000 Paper Cranes for school. A doctor diagnoses a Japanese girl with cancer due to the atom bomb dropping more than thirty years ago. Only fourteen, she believes that she has much more life to live. She hears of a story of the 1000 paper cranes, an old Japanese legend that states if a person makes 1000 origami cranes, she will acquire one wish. As her health deteriorates, she makes these cranes in hopes to save herself; however, she dies beforehand. I relate this novel to the predicament of Lily. Instead of physical sickness, she has mental instability. She needs a miracle like the 1000 cranes to save her from her depression. Her thousand cranes is Selden. Just as the Japanese girl could not complete her thousand, neither did Lily find respite in Selden. They were futile hopes, but it helped them stay above the waters of despair. In the end, both succumb to the depths of despair and die (“spoiler”).