This early work by Edith Wharton was originally published in 1905 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. ‘The House of Mirth’ tells the story of Lily Bart, a woman who is torn between her desire for luxurious living and a relationship based on mutual respect and love. Edith Wharton was born in New York City in 1862. Wharton’s first poems were published in Scribner’s Magazine. In 1891, the same publication printed the first of her many short stories, titled ‘Mrs. Manstey’s View’. Over the next four decades, they — along with other well-established American publications such as Atlantic Monthly, Century Magazine, Harper’s and Lippincott’s — regularly published her work.