Edith Wharton: House of Mirth (1905)

[jserraglio]

A great novel by one of the greatest English novelists. The brilliant dialogue regularly compares with Oscar Wilde's, and Wharton's take on upper-crust society is far more caustic. One serious flaw in the narrative perspective is the shameful anti-Semitic portrayal of Simon Rosedale's character. No way to get around it, though critics have often tried to ignore it as they have Scott Fitzgerald's in Gatsby. cf. https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-tu ... verso=true