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開本：32開 紙張：膠版紙 包裝：平裝 是否套裝：否 國際標準書號ISBN：9780451527561 作者：Edith 出版社：Oversea 出版時間：2000年02月
" 編輯推薦 "The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but theheart of fools is in the house of mirth," warns Ecclesiastes 7:4,and so does the novel by Edith Wharton that takes its title fromthis call to heed. New York at the turn of the century was a timeof opulence and frivolity for those who could afford it. But forthose who couldn't and yet wanted desperately to keep up with thewhirlwind, like Wharton's charming Lily Bart, it was something elsealtogether: a gilded cage rather than the Gilded Age.
From Library Journal
Wharton's account of the ill-fated life of Lily Bart receives aperfunctory treatment in this audio program. It is New York in theearly 20th century; Lily loves Lawrence Selden, but he sees her asa fortune hunter, with tragic consequences. The author excels atdelineating the ways money, romance, and social standing intertwinein the society of the time. Included is a lengthy introduction byWharton biographer R.W.B. Lewis that sets the work in the contextof the writer's life and career. Casual listeners may consider thepreface too long and scholarly, and those coming to the novel forthe first time may be put off by learning the outcome and byhearing Lewis's uncertainty about whether it is a masterpiece. AnnaFields handles the narration adequately but strains to createmasculine voices and makes most of the women too flighty. As aresult, the characters seem more trivial than Wharton intended. Notrecommended. Michael Adams, CUNY Graduate Ctr.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This textrefers to the AudioCassette edition.
Review
Uniquely authentic among American novels of manners. (LouisAuchincloss)
Uniquely authentic among American novels of manners. -- LouisAuchincloss"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 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 de*ions 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
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 Rehak --This text refers to the
edition.
From Library Journal
Wharton's account of the ill-fated life of Lily Bart receives a
perfunctory treatment in this audio program. It is New York in the
early 20th century; Lily loves Lawrence Selden, but he sees her as
a fortune hunter, with tragic consequences. The author excels at
delineating the ways money, romance, and social standing intertwine
in the society of the time. Included is a lengthy introduction by
Wharton biographer R.W.B. Lewis that sets the work in the context
of the writer's life and career. Casual listeners may consider the
preface too long and scholarly, and those coming to the novel for
the first time may be put off by learning the outcome and by
hearing Lewis's uncertainty about whether it is a masterpiece. Anna
Fields handles the narration adequately but strains to create
masculine voices and makes most of the women too flighty. As a
result, the characters seem more trivial than Wharton intended. Not
recommended. Michael Adams, CUNY Graduate Ctr.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text
refers to the edition.
Review
Uniquely authentic among American novels of manners. (Louis
Auchincloss)
Uniquely authentic among American novels of manners. -- Louis
Auchincloss
Review
Uniquely authentic among American novels of manners. (Louis
Auchincloss) 內容簡介 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. Its heroine, Lily Bart, is beautiful, poor, and
unmarried at 29. In her search for a husband with money and
position she betrays her own heart and sows the seeds of the
tragedy that finally overwhelms her. The House of Mirth is a lucid,
disturbing analysis of the stifling limitations imposed upon women
of Wharton's generation. Herself born into Old New York Society,
Wharton watched as an entirely new set of people living by new
codes of conduct entered the metropolitan scene. In telling the
story of Lily Bart, who must marry to survive, Wharton recasts the
age-old themes of family, marriage, and money in ways that
transform the traditional novel of manners into an arresting modern
document of cultural anthropology. --This text refers to an out
of print or unavailable edition of this title. 作者簡介 Edith Wharton was born Edith Newbold Jones on January 24, 1862,
during the American Civil War. Wharton published her first short
story in 1891; her first story collection, The Greater Inclination,
in 1899; a novella called The Touchstone in 1900; and her first
novel, a historical romance called The Valley of Decision, in 1902.
The book that made Wharton famous was The House of Mirth, published
in 1905. She died in 1937. --This text refers to the Paperback
edition. | | |
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