House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

First published in 1905, THE house OF MIRTH greatly surprised the ny society it so deftly chronicles, portraying the moral, social and monetary restraints on a female who dared to say the privileges of marriage with out assuming the obligations.

Lily Bart, beautiful, witty and sophisticated, is established with the aid of 'antique money' and courted with the aid of the developing tribe of nouveaux riches. however as she nears thirty, her foothold turns into precarious; a terrible woman with luxurious tastes, she wishes a husband to preserve her social status and to keep her within the luxurious she has come to anticipate. whilst many have sought her, something - fastidiousness or integrity- prevents her from making a 'suitable' match.