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''The House of Mirth'' (1905), by Edith Wharton, is the story of Lily Bart, a well-born, but penniless woman of the high society of New York City, who was raised and educated to become wife to a rich man, a hothouse flower for conspicuous consumption. As an unmarried woman with gambling debts and an uncertain future, Lily is destroyed by the society who created her.〔''Benét's Reader's Encyclopedia'' Third Edition (1987) p. 486.〕〔Wharton, Edith. "Introduction to the 1936 Edition of ''The House of Mirth''." In Singley, Carol J., ed. (2003). (''Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth: A Casebook'' ), p. 33. Oxford University Press. Retrieved May 18, 2014.〕 Written in the style of a novel of manners, ''The House of Mirth'' was the fourth novel by Edith Wharton (1862–1937), which tells the story of Lily Bart against the background of the high-society of upper class New York City of the 1890s; as a genre novel, ''The House of Mirth'' (1905) is an example of American literary naturalism.〔Wharton, Edith. "Introduction to the 1936 Edition of ''The House of Mirth''." In Singley, Carol J., ed. (2003). (''Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth: A Casebook'' ), p. 33. Oxford University Press. Retrieved May 18, 2014.〕 ==Title== The title of the novel, ''The House of Mirth'' (1905), is derived from the Christian Old Testament, from the Book of Ecclesiastes, 7th chapter, verse 4: Edith Wharton’s original title for the manuscript was ''A Moment's Ornament'', which plainly stated the facts-of-life of the story of the socialite woman Lily Bart; and directly addressed the social limitations imposed upon her, as such, by the mores of the social class and social stratum to which she belonged by birth, education, and breeding. The manuscript title, ''A Moment's Ornament'', refers to the Romantic imagery of the first stanza of the poem “She was a Phantom of Delight” (1804), by William Wordsworth (1770–1850), which describes an ideal of beauty of the type that narrowly circumscribed the life of Lily Bart: 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The House of Mirth」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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