CliffsNotes on Wharton's The House of Mirth (Cliffsnotes Literature Guides)

• ISBN13: 9780764537165
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Lily Bart must choose between her desire for a husband with wealth and standing, and her desire for respect and love. After rejecting several offers of marriage, she ultimately betrays her heart and destroys her reputation. With “The House of Mirth,” Wharton transforms the novel of manners into an incisive and disturbing portrait of the strictures imposed upon women in the upper class of 1890’s New York society."The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth," warns Ecclesiastes 7:4, and so does the novel by Edith Wharton that takes its title from this call to heed. New York at the turn of the century was a time of opulence and frivoli! ty for those who could afford it. But for those who couldn't and yet wanted desperately to keep up with the whirlwind, like Wharton's charming Lily Bart, it was something else altogether: a gilded cage rather than the Gilded Age.

One of Wharton's earliest descriptions of her heroine, in the library of her bachelor friend and sometime suitor Lawrence Selden, indicates that she appears "as though she were a captured dryad subdued to the conventions of the drawing room." Indeed, herein lies Lily's problem. She has, we're told, "been brought up to be ornamental," and yet her spirit is larger than what this ancillary role requires. By today's standards she would be nothing more than a mild rebel, but in the era into which Wharton drops her unmercifully, this tiny spark of character, combined with numerous assaults by vicious society women and bad luck, ultimately renders Lily persona non grata. Her own ambivalence about her position serves to open! the door to disaster: several times she is on the verge of ! "good" m arriage and squanders it at the last moment, unwilling to play by the rules of a society that produces, as she calls them, "poor, miserable, marriageable girls.

Lily's rather violent tumble down the social ladder provides a thumbnail sketch of the general injustices of the upper classes (which, incidentally, Wharton never quite manages to condemn entirely, clearly believing that such life is cruel but without alternative). From her start as a beautiful woman at the height of her powers to her sad finale as a recently fired milliner's assistant addicted to sleeping drugs, Lily Bart is heroic, not least for her final admission of her own role in her downfall. "Once--twice--you gave me the chance to escape from my life and I refused it: refused it because I was a coward," she tells Selden as the book draws to a close. All manner of hideous socialite beasts--some of whose treatment by Wharton, such as the token social-climbing Jew, Simon Rosedale, ! date the book unfortunately--wander through the novel while Lily plummets. As her tale winds down to nothing more than the remnants of social grace and cold hard cash, it's hard not to agree with Lily's own assessment of herself: "I have tried hard--but life is difficult, and I am a very useless person. I can hardly be said to have an independent existence. I was just a screw or a cog in the great machine I called life, and when I dropped out of it I found I was of no use anywhere else." Nevertheless, it's even harder not to believe that she deserved better, which is why The House of Mirth remains so timely and so vital in spite of its crushing end and its unflattering portrait of what life offers up. --Melanie RehakThis collection was designed for optimal navigation on Kindle and other electronic devices. It is indexed alphabetically, chronologically and by category, making it easier to access individual books, stories and poems. This collect! ion offers lower price, the convenience of a one-time download! , and it reduces the clutter in your digital library. All books included in this collection feature a hyperlinked table of contents and footnotes. The collection is complimented by an author biography. Table of Contents List of Works by Genre and TitleList of Works in Alphabetical OrderList of Works in Chronological OrderEdith Wharton Biography Novels:The Age of InnocenceThe Bunner SistersThe Custom of the CountryEthan FromeThe Fruit of the TreeThe Glimpses of the MoonThe House of MirthThe ReefSanctuarySummerThe TouchstoneThe Valley of Decision Non-Fiction:Fighting FranceIn Morocco Short Stories Collections:Crucial InstancesThe Descent of Man and Other StoriesThe Greater InclinationThe Hermit and the Wild WomanTales of Men and Ghosts Short Stories:AfterwardThe Angel at the GraveAutres TempsThe Best ManThe Blond BeastThe Bolted DoorThe ChoiceComing HomeThe Confessional"Copy" A DialogueA CowardA Cup of Cold WaterThe Daunt DianaThe DebtThe Descent of ManThe DilettanteThe Duchess at Pra! yerThe EyesExpiationFull CircleThe Fulness of LifeThe Hermit and the Wild WomanHis Father's SonThe House of The Dead HandIn TrustA JourneyKerfolThe Lady's Maid's BellThe Last AssetThe LegendThe LetterThe LettersThe Long RunMadame de TreymesThe Mission of JaneThe Moving FingerMrs. Manstey's ViewThe Muse's TragedyThe Other TwoThe PelicanThe PortraitThe Pot-BoilerThe PretextThe QuicksandThe ReckoningThe RecoveryThe RembrandtSouls BelatedThe Triumph of NightThe Twilight of the GodA Venetian Night's EntertainmentThe VerdictXingu Poetry:Artemis to Actaeon, and Other VersesBotticelli's Madonna in the LouvreThe SonnetThis collection was designed for optimal navigation on Kindle and other electronic devices. It is indexed alphabetically, chronologically and by category, making it easier to access individual books, stories and poems. This collection offers lower price, the convenience of a one-time download, and it reduces the clutter in your digital library. All books included in th! is collection feature a hyperlinked table of contents and foot! notes. T he collection is complimented by an author biography. Table of Contents List of Works by Genre and TitleList of Works in Alphabetical OrderList of Works in Chronological OrderEdith Wharton Biography Novels:The Age of InnocenceThe Bunner SistersThe Custom of the CountryEthan FromeThe Fruit of the TreeThe Glimpses of the MoonThe House of MirthThe ReefSanctuarySummerThe TouchstoneThe Valley of Decision Non-Fiction:Fighting FranceIn Morocco Short Stories Collections:Crucial InstancesThe Descent of Man and Other StoriesThe Greater InclinationThe Hermit and the Wild WomanTales of Men and Ghosts Short Stories:AfterwardThe Angel at the GraveAutres TempsThe Best ManThe Blond BeastThe Bolted DoorThe ChoiceComing HomeThe Confessional"Copy" A DialogueA CowardA Cup of Cold WaterThe Daunt DianaThe DebtThe Descent of ManThe DilettanteThe Duchess at PrayerThe EyesExpiationFull CircleThe Fulness of LifeThe Hermit and the Wild WomanHis Father's SonThe House of The Dead HandIn TrustA JourneyKe! rfolThe Lady's Maid's BellThe Last AssetThe LegendThe LetterThe LettersThe Long RunMadame de TreymesThe Mission of JaneThe Moving FingerMrs. Manstey's ViewThe Muse's TragedyThe Other TwoThe PelicanThe PortraitThe Pot-BoilerThe PretextThe QuicksandThe ReckoningThe RecoveryThe RembrandtSouls BelatedThe Triumph of NightThe Twilight of the GodA Venetian Night's EntertainmentThe VerdictXingu Poetry:Artemis to Actaeon, and Other VersesBotticelli's Madonna in the LouvreThe SonnetThis book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery."The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth," warns Ecclesiastes 7:4, and so does the novel by Edith Wharton that takes its title from this call to heed. New York at the turn of the century was a time of opulence and frivolity for those who could a! fford it. But for those who couldn't and yet wanted desperat! ely to k eep up with the whirlwind, like Wharton's charming Lily Bart, it was something else altogether: a gilded cage rather than the Gilded Age.

One of Wharton's earliest descriptions of her heroine, in the library of her bachelor friend and sometime suitor Lawrence Selden, indicates that she appears "as though she were a captured dryad subdued to the conventions of the drawing room." Indeed, herein lies Lily's problem. She has, we're told, "been brought up to be ornamental," and yet her spirit is larger than what this ancillary role requires. By today's standards she would be nothing more than a mild rebel, but in the era into which Wharton drops her unmercifully, this tiny spark of character, combined with numerous assaults by vicious society women and bad luck, ultimately renders Lily persona non grata. Her own ambivalence about her position serves to open the door to disaster: several times she is on the verge of "good" marriage and squanders it at! the last moment, unwilling to play by the rules of a society that produces, as she calls them, "poor, miserable, marriageable girls.

Lily's rather violent tumble down the social ladder provides a thumbnail sketch of the general injustices of the upper classes (which, incidentally, Wharton never quite manages to condemn entirely, clearly believing that such life is cruel but without alternative). From her start as a beautiful woman at the height of her powers to her sad finale as a recently fired milliner's assistant addicted to sleeping drugs, Lily Bart is heroic, not least for her final admission of her own role in her downfall. "Once--twice--you gave me the chance to escape from my life and I refused it: refused it because I was a coward," she tells Selden as the book draws to a close. All manner of hideous socialite beasts--some of whose treatment by Wharton, such as the token social-climbing Jew, Simon Rosedale, date the book unfortunate! ly--wander through the novel while Lily plummets. As her tale! winds d own to nothing more than the remnants of social grace and cold hard cash, it's hard not to agree with Lily's own assessment of herself: "I have tried hard--but life is difficult, and I am a very useless person. I can hardly be said to have an independent existence. I was just a screw or a cog in the great machine I called life, and when I dropped out of it I found I was of no use anywhere else." Nevertheless, it's even harder not to believe that she deserved better, which is why The House of Mirth remains so timely and so vital in spite of its crushing end and its unflattering portrait of what life offers up. --Melanie RehakThis book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

The tragic fall of one of the most heartbreaking characters in American literature, a beautiful socialite wh! o loses her footing in the savage social-climbing world of 19th century New York high society

 

Lily Bart has no fortune, but she possesses everything else she needs to make an excellent marriage: beauty, intelligence, a love of luxury, and an elegant skill in negotiating the hidden traps and false friends of New York's high society. But time and again Lily cannot bring herself to make the final decisive move: to abandon her sense of self and a chance of love for the final soulless leap into a mercenary union. Her time is running out, and degradation awaits. Edith Wharton's masterful novel is a tragedy of money, morality, and missed opportunity.

Since its publication in 1905 The House of Mirth has commanded attention for the sharpness of Wharton's observations and the power of her style. A lucid, disturbing analysis of the stifling limitations imposed upon women of her generation, Wharton's tale of Lily Bart's searc! h for a husband of position in New York Society, and betrayal ! of her o wn heart, transformed the traditional novel of manners into an arrestingly modern document of cultural anthropology. With incisive contemporary analysis, the introduction by a leading scholar of American literature updates this increasingly important work.

For the 150th anniversary year of Edith Wharton's birth: her three greatest novels in a couture-inspired deluxe edition featuring a new introduction by Jonathan Franzen.

Born into a distinguished New York family, Edith Wharton chronicled the lives of the wealthy, the well born, and the nouveau riches in fiction that often hinges on the collision of personal passion and social convention. This volume brings together her best-loved novels, all set in New York.

The House of Mirth is the story of Lily Bart, who needs a rich husband but refuses to marry without both love and money. The Custom of the Country follows the marriages and affairs of Undine Spragg, who is as vain, spoiled, an! d selfish as she is irresistibly fascinating. The Pulitzer Prize-winning The Age of Innocence concerns the passionate bond that develops between the newly engaged Newland Archer and his finacée's cousin, the Countess Olenska, new to New York and newly divorced.

The original CliffsNotes study guides offer expert commentary on major themes, plots, characters, literary devices, and historical background. The latest generation of titles in this series also feature glossaries and visual elements that complement the classic, familiar format.

CliffsNotes on The House of Mirth takes you into the waning years of the Gilded Age and the moral bankruptcy of New York City's elite class. Edith Wharton's story of a woman â€" whose beauty causes men to desire to possess her and women to be jealous of her â€" reflects the complicated struggle of the individual against the social strictures of a powerful, and triumphant, moneyed class.

This concise supplement to the sa! tirically critical The House of Mirth, helps you unders! tand the overall structure of the novel, actions and motivations of the characters, and the social and cultural perspectives of the author. Features that help you study include

• Chapter-by-chapter summaries and commentaries
• A character map that outline key characteristics and relationships
• Insightful character analyses
• A critical essay about the opulence and emptiness of the Gilded Age
• A review section that tests your knowledge

Classic literature or modern modern-day treasure â€" you'll understand it all with expert information and insight from CliffsNotes study guides.

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With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa

• ISBN13: 9780891419068
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

For fans who have been been waiting to devour Darker After Midnight, as well as new readers tempted by the seductive thrills of her Midnight Breed novels, New York Times bestselling author Lara Adrian offers up a tantalizing appetizer in A Taste of Midnight. In this spellbinding eBook novella of otherworldly desire, a woman whose destiny was born from a blood kiss discovers that second chances do come . . . even for immortals.
 
A shimmering holiday gala lights up an ancient castle in the Scottish Highlands, but beautiful widowed Breedmate Danika MacConn feels alone in the crowd. Even among the friends and festivity of the Darkhaven celebration, she canâ€! ™t forget her lost love, a fallen warrior of the Order. Her brief return to her mate’s homeland has become treacherous after rejecting the advances of a dangerous Edinburgh crime boss with a taste for blood sport. As Danika seeks to expose the vampire and his dark trade, she discovers an unexpected ally in his forbidding, enigmatic henchman, Brannoc, a man who exudes heat, danger, and dark menaceâ€"and seems somehow achingly familiar. Bran has his own reasons for wanting to keep Dani out of his employer’s business . . . and his own secrets he means to keep buried. The last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a woman who tempts the wildest part of his Breed natureâ€"especially when that woman is Danika MacConn, the one woman capable of bringing him to his knees.
 
Contains a preview of the hotly anticipated nightcap of Lara Adrian’s Midnight Breed series, Darker After Midnight!For fans who have been been waiting to devour Darker Af! ter Midnight, as well as new readers tempted by the seduct! ive thri lls of her Midnight Breed novels, New York Times bestselling author Lara Adrian offers up a tantalizing appetizer in A Taste of Midnight. In this spellbinding eBook novella of otherworldly desire, a woman whose destiny was born from a blood kiss discovers that second chances do come . . . even for immortals.
 
A shimmering holiday gala lights up an ancient castle in the Scottish Highlands, but beautiful widowed Breedmate Danika MacConn feels alone in the crowd. Even among the friends and festivity of the Darkhaven celebration, she can’t forget her lost love, a fallen warrior of the Order. Her brief return to her mate’s homeland has become treacherous after rejecting the advances of a dangerous Edinburgh crime boss with a taste for blood sport. As Danika seeks to expose the vampire and his dark trade, she discovers an unexpected ally in his forbidding, enigmatic henchman, Brannoc, a man who exudes heat, danger, and dark menaceâ€"and seems! somehow achingly familiar. Bran has his own reasons for wanting to keep Dani out of his employer’s business . . . and his own secrets he means to keep buried. The last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a woman who tempts the wildest part of his Breed natureâ€"especially when that woman is Danika MacConn, the one woman capable of bringing him to his knees.
 
Contains a preview of the hotly anticipated nightcap of Lara Adrian’s Midnight Breed series, Darker After Midnight!The climactic novel in Lara Adrian's New York Times bestselling Midnight Breed series--and her hardcover debut--Darker After Midnight invites readers to enter a thrillingly sensual world where danger meets desire. Kiera Hudson wakes to find herself imprisoned. Experiencing nightmares and visions, she slowly realises that she has been subjected to a series of sinister tests and operations. Addicted to blood and in pain, Kiera knows that if she is to sur! vive she will need to escape from her cage. But who is the wer! ewolf th at secretly visits her during the night and can Kiera trust him? Where are her friends and why hasn’t Potter come to rescue her as he promised? With no word or message from Luke and Potter, she fears that they might be dead.

But with only a chair and a book for comfort in her cage, can Kiera escape? And even if she does, what will she find on the other side of her cell walls?

‘Vampire Breed’ Book Four in the Kiera Hudson Series.

'Wolf House" (Potter's Story) Now available!

'Vampire Holllows' Book Five in the Kiera Hudson Series coming February 2012!Kiera Hudson wakes to find herself imprisoned. Experiencing nightmares and visions, she slowly realises that she has been subjected to a series of sinister tests and operations. Addicted to blood and in pain, Kiera knows that if she is to survive she will need to escape from her cage. But who is the werewolf that secretly visits her during the night and can Kiera trust him? Where! are her friends and why hasn’t Potter come to rescue her as he promised? With no word or message from Luke and Potter, she fears that they might be dead.

But with only a chair and a book for comfort in her cage, can Kiera escape? And even if she does, what will she find on the other side of her cell walls?

‘Vampire Breed’ Book Four in the Kiera Hudson Series.

'Wolf House" (Potter's Story) Now available!

'Vampire Holllows' Book Five in the Kiera Hudson Series coming February 2012!In The Wall Street Journal, Victor Davis Hanson named With the Old Breed one of the top five books on epic twentieth-century battles. Studs Terkel interviewed the author for his definitive oral history, The Good War. Now E. B. Sledge’s acclaimed first-person account of fighting at Peleliu and Okinawa returns to thrill, edify, and inspire a new generation.

An Alabama boy steeped in American history and enamored of such heroes as Georg! e Washington and Daniel Boone, Eugene B. Sledge became part of! the war ’s famous 1st Marine Divisionâ€"3d Battalion, 5th Marines. Even after intense training, he was shocked to be thrown into the battle of Peleliu, where “the world was a nightmare of flashes, explosions, and snapping bullets.” By the time Sledge hit the hell of Okinawa, he was a combat vet, still filled with fear but no longer with panic.

Based on notes Sledge secretly kept in a copy of the New Testament, With the Old Breed captures with utter simplicity and searing honesty the experience of a soldier in the fierce Pacific Theater. Here is what saved, threatened, and changed his life. Here, too, is the story of how he learned to hate and killâ€"and came to loveâ€"his fellow man.

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