The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton, tells the story of Lily Bart, a 29-year-old beauty living among New York's upper class. Lily's primary goal in life is to find a husband who can relieve the financial hardship she has endured since her childhood years as an orphan. Though unlike the women who surround her, Lily is unwilling to marry without both love and money. Being on the market for too long, Lily falls prey to gossip and slander and is pushed out of the community in which she has devoted her life to belonging. Wharton charts the course of Lily's life, providing, along the way, a wider picture of a society in transition, a rapidly changing New York where the old certainties of manners, morals, and family have disappeared and the individual has become an expendable commodity ("The House of Mirth," ReadPrint.) The House of Mirth is truly a great American classic because the insight into life that it provides through the characters, plot, and theme are just as effective to readers today as they were when the book was published in 1905.
             The House of Mirth is full of literary devices that have assisted in preserving its value throughout the ages. The story is set in the early 1900s. Social context is the most important thing to keep in mind while reading House of Mirth. Lily's world is one in which women, and their activities, are extremely restricted ("House," Shmoop.) Though the setting is one that we are not familiar with, Wharton's amazing description of the whimsical upper-class environment of the early 1900's New York paints such a clear picture of it that the reader almost feels like they are a part of it. Because Wharton helps the reader gain such a clear understanding of her world, the book has been able to withstand the test of time. Those reading the novel countless years later will not be confused by the unfamiliar culture and lifestyle of the characters in the novel.
             There are many examples of Wharton's skilled u...