When describing it in her introduction to Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth: A Case Book, Carol Singley states that the novel "is a unique blend of romance, realism, and naturalism, [and thus] transcends the narrow classification of a novel of manners.

Wharton considered several titles for the novel about Lily Bart; [c] two were germane to her purpose: A Moment's Ornament appears in the first stanza of William Wordsworth's (1770–1850) poem, "She was a Phantom of Delight" (1804), that describes an ideal of feminine beauty: She was a Phantom of delight When first she gleam'd upon my sight; A lovely Apparition, sent To be a moment's ornament: Her eyes as stars of twilight fair; Like twilight's, too, her dusky hair; But all things else about her drawn From May-time and the cheerful dawn; A dancing shape, an image gay, To haunt, to startle, and waylay.

[e] "Mirth" contrasted with "mourning" also bespeaks a moral purpose as it underscores the frivolity of a social set that not only worships money, but also uses it ostentatiously solely for its own amusement and aggrandizement.

At the time the novel takes place, Old New York high society was peopled by the extraordinarily wealthy who were conditioned by the economic and social changes the Gilded Age (1870–1900) wrought.

She also had license to criticize the ways New York high society of the 1890s had changed without being vulnerable to accusations of envy motivated by coming from a lower social caste.

She went on to declare unabashedly that: [I]n spite of the fact I wrote about totally insignificant people, and 'dated' them by an elaborate stage-setting of manners, furniture and costume, the book still lives and has now attained the honour of figuring on the list of the Oxford University Press.

That the life and death of Lily Bart matters to modern readers suggests that Wharton succeeded in her purpose: to critique "a society so relentlessly materialistic and self-serving that it casually destroys what is most beautiful and blameless within it.

Lily admires lawyer Lawrence Selden, but he is too poor for her to seriously consider marrying; instead, her only prospects are the coarse and vulgar Simon Rosedale, a financier, and the wealthy but dull Percy Gryce.

Lacking an inheritance or a caring protector, she adapts to life as a ward of her strait-laced aunt, Julia Peniston, from whom she receives an erratic allowance, a fashionable address, and food, but little direction or parenting.

To avoid having to spend time alone with Julia, the Trenors, Simon Rosedale, or anyone else she considers a possible source of embarrassment or boredom, Lily begins to accept invitations from people with whom she would not ordinarily socialize.

Following Carry's advice, the Wellington Brys throw a large "general entertainment"[12] featuring tableaux vivants portrayed by a dozen fashionable women in their set, including Miss Bart.

[h][14] As the curtain opens on this last scene, the gasp of approval heard from the audience is not so much for Reynolds' interpretation of Mrs. Lloyd as it is for the loveliness of Lily Bart herself — marking the pinnacle of her social success but also the annihilation of whatever reputation is left to her.

Feeling trapped and disgraced, Lily turns to thoughts of Selden as her savior and has a change of heart towards him as she looks forward to his next visit at four o'clock.

To divert the attention and suspicion of their social circle away from her, Bertha insinuates that Lily is carrying on a romantic and sexual liaison with George by instructing her not to sleep on the yacht in front of their friends at the close of a dinner the Brys held for the Duchess in Monte Carlo.

Undeterred, Lily fights to regain her place in high society by advising Mr. and Mrs. Gormer on their entry into the aristocracy, but when the couple learn of the "scandalous" personal background of their new secretary, they chase her out rather than risk losing their new standing.

She obtains a job as personal secretary of Mrs. Hatch, a disreputable woman who nearly succeeds in marrying a wealthy young man in Lily's former social circle.

She then finds a job in a milliner's shop; unaccustomed to working-class manual labor, her rate of production is low, and the quality of her workmanship is poor, exacerbated by her increased use of the drug.

Touched by Lily's exhausted state, and eager to show her how she has profited from her help, she invites her back to her modest tenement home, and introduces her to the baby.

The combination of the social pressures and conventions of her reference group and her refusal to "settle" numerous times to save herself portend a fateful destiny where she becomes complicit in her own destruction.

Her extraordinary beauty should have served her well to find a wealthy husband with the requisite social status that would have secured her place in upper-class New York society.

However, her inner longing to become free of her society's social conventions, her sense of what is right, and her desire for love as well as money and status have thwarted her success in spite of a number of eligible admirers over the ten years she has been on the marriage market.

Challenges to her success are her advancing age—she is 29 as the novel begins—the loss of her father's wealth, and the death of her parents which has left her orphaned without a caring protector, her constant efforts to "keep up with the Joneses"(4),[m] the very modest but erratic "allowance" from her strait-laced Aunt Julia, and her gambling debts which make her the subject of vile gossip.

To protect Lawrence Selden's reputation, she refuses to use damning evidence against her nemesis, Bertha Dorset, which would have recouped her ruined social standing.

It is from Selden's description, assessment and admiration of Lily's outward characteristics that we glean those attributes that contribute to New York high society's perception and misperceptions of who she is.

She reflects that she has put herself in his power by her clumsy dress-maker fib and her refusal to allow him to take her to the station which would have given him the prestige of being seen by members of the society with whom he was aspiring to gain acceptance.

Percy Gryce — A conservative, rich, but shy and unimaginative young eligible bachelor on whom Lily, with the support of her friend Judy Trenor, sets her sights.

This includes poring over lists to decide which guests are the most desirable to invite, which have been "stolen" by another conflicting event, and which unmarried men and women should be set up together.

Although Gus accepts romantic favors from Mrs. Fisher in exchange for paying her bills and investing her money in the stock market, he considers her a "battered wire-puller"(94)[1] in comparison to the fresh and unsullied Miss Bart.

Carry is also known for bringing newcomers into high society such as Rosedale and the Wellington Brys, who had managed the miracle of making money in a falling market.

After the fling with Bertha ends, Ned participates in a scheme to help a purportedly wealthy but disreputable woman to marry the younger brother of Gwen and Evie Van Osburgh.