The narrative style and point of view was a bit dry. It would be a challenging read for modern audiences, but the payoff in the final chapters is very much worth the slog.

I loved this. So cool to read thoughts on the messed-up lives of Gilded Age socialites from a Gilded Age socialite. Lily was the perfect protagonist for this tragic tale: I liked her a little bit, felt sorry for her a little bit, and enjoyed watching her decline. Yikes. Wharton made the characters' emotions really come alive with some beautiful descriptions. The pacing felt slow but relentless. I'm looking forward to reading more Wharton!

a beautiful book about a girl who cannot stop taking Ls

A tale of bullying in the Gilded Age.

oh poor manipulative lily u were an awful main character who would swim in self pity. this girl would be like “woe is me im broke” but also have a gambling addiction like make it make sense. the drama was very good tho so that’s where 4 stars came from

Lily Bart’s tragedy is that she is neither human nor ornament enough.

Recommend the essay by Pamela Knights that serves as the Introduction to the Everyman’s Library version for further insight into the commentary on womanhood and the turn of the century moment.

Find it keenly fitting that Lily could not make it in her role stitching hats. Brought up to be an ornament herself, she can not slum it making a living stitching clothing that is itself, mainly ornamental.

As a drama (and at times comedy — Wharton is pretty funny) of manners, maybe I respond better to this more than British narratives of manners because I recognize the insidious, unspoken Catholic and capitalistic rules dominating everything here. I believe all of these people. Lily is at times a little vapid but she’s also played upon by forces beyond her comprehension merely because she has a heart.

Is that heart misguided? Absolutely. She openly admits that she yearns for the luxuries promised to her only if she plays the game well. But that’s the tragedy is it’s not her fault. More than anything Lily leaves this novel never getting a fair shake to be a person who COULD know what they wanted.

Wharton is such a good writer that I felt oddly conscious that I was being played upon myself and letting my critical faculties down in moments. There’s some beautifully strung words in this novel that kind of blindly celebrate the simplicity of lives lived on the edge of poverty without ever considering that you could both have a fulfilling life and not have to live it so treacherously.

Then there are other times where Wharton’s prose only elevates moments of undoubtable truth. The passage where Lily is succumbing to her medicine and hallucinating the baby in her arms feels, remarkably, like it could’ve only been written by someone who has experienced the approach of death themselves.

After that ending I need to go back and re read the entire book.
Every character meant something and represented something in this novel.
I must admit I got quite bored of it in the middle section or middle to end but chapter 13 of part II might have beeen the best piece of literature I have every read.
Wharton is a versatile writer in symbolism and what she wants the reader to take from each of her novel. Lily Bart represented youth, innocence and femininity. She appeared like a superficial character but deep down she was struggling against her fate throughout the whole novel.

Edith Wharton can create the most human, complex, individualistic characters, make them desire more from life, make them try to do their best regardless of the social situation or imperfect personalities. Those characters will make us root for them and crave their victory and happiness because ourselves we want them to prove to us that life can be changed with individual effort. The whole story will be framed with the most gorgeous writing and narrative you can possibly imagine, and this story will most likely break your heart.

/spoilers/
I knew from the start that Edith Wharton is far too much interested in complex sociological analysis to not try to prove me with this book that a woman of Lilys time can't afford to be rocked by doubts, desires and mistakes. From the first chapter I wanted her to succeed so bad and couldn't be mad at her for wrong choices she made. She wanted to be way more free and way more powerful than her position could allow her to be but in the same time she wasn't able to reach for it compromising what she thought was a honorable thing to do. Truly a tragic story, cried like a baby.

This was a book I have returned to after twenty years. Last time I read it, I was younger than the 29 year old Lily, this time around, far older. And both times my heart bled for her. Brought up to be an ornamental beauty to adorn society and marry well, she was provided without the financial means to do so, being foisted on to an aunt after the death of her parents. Her relationships with society women are bordering on toxic, as each one seems to constantly assess the the other to see what gain a friendship between them could bring them, how it could advance their standing in society. Lily's relationships with men are no better as she looks to them only in terms of whether or not they would make her a suitable husband as she reaches the realisation that she needs to marry, and marry fast, in order to sustain her way of living. The book focuses on the economic realities of marriage, with women as the commodities to be be bought and sold on the market. Divorce is derided, while at the same time, a divorced woman is easily forgiven as soon as she manages to marry again, provided the new husband is wealthy enough. There are some utterly beautiful sentences, and when I reached the end this time around, even knowing what was coming, I could not help but feel bereft as Lily's fate was revealed.