The House of Mirth

By: Edith Wharton

Narrated by: Magda Allani

A New York 'it' girl, Lily Bart is a beauty of slender means and costly tastes, sought after at all the high society parties in town. Her outstanding looks and charm make it a given that she will soon be married to a man of exceptional wealth and status. One by one, the multimillionaires she meets fall at her feet, but somehow Lily finds herself incapable of making a purely mercenary match and so finds herself caught up in a destructive tussle between her emotional and financial needs.

Hilarious and deeply moving by turn, Edith Wharton's masterpiece is a riveting social satire that ponders the question of whether it is possible for those with inner beauty and moral aesthetics to survive amongst the moneyed elite and whether that elite is itself able to refrain from the destruction of the living beauty it so desperately tries to feign. Although set at the turn of the 20th century, the issues it addresses are as relevant today as they were then.

Public Domain (P)2016 Magda Allani