Criticism > Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism > The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton - Wai-Chee Dimock (essay date October 1985)


The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton - Wai-Chee Dimock (essay date October 1985)

Wai-Chee Dimock (essay date October 1985)

SOURCE: Dimock, Wai-Chee. “Debasing Exchange: Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth.” PMLA 100, no. 5 (October 1985): 783-92.

[In the following essay, Dimock examines the ways in which the society of The House of Mirth is based on terms of commerce.]

“… you got reckless—thought you could turn me inside out and chuck me in the gutter like an empty purse. But, by gad, that ain't playing fair: that's dodging the rules of the game. Of course I know now what you wanted—it wasn't my beautiful eyes you were after—but I tell you what, Miss Lily, you've got to pay up for making me think so.” …

“Pay up?” she faltered. “Do you mean that I owe you money?”

He laughed again. “Oh, I'm not asking for payment in kind. But there's such a thing as fair play—and interest on one's money—and hang me...

[The entire page is 8270 words long]

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