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Lily Bart
''The House of Mirth'' is a 1905 novel by American author Edith Wharton. It tells the story of Lily Bart, a well-born but impoverished woman belonging to New York City's high society around the end of the 19th century. Wharton creates a portrait of a stunning beauty who, though raised and educated to marry well both socially and economically, is reaching her 29th year, an age when her youthful blush is drawing to a close and her marital prospects are becoming ever more limited. ''The House of Mirth'' traces Lily's slow two-year social descent from privilege to a tragically lonely existence on the margins of society. In the words of one scholar, Wharton uses Lily as an attack on "an irresponsible, grasping and morally corrupt upper class." Benstock, Shari (1994). "A critical history of the '' House of Mirth.''" In Ross C Murfin (series) & Shari Benstock (Eds.), ''Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism: Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth''. pp. 309-325. Before publication as a book ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton (; born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and interior designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray realistically the lives and morals of the Gilded Age. In 1921, she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Literature, for her novel ''The Age of Innocence''. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1996. Among her other well known works are ''The House of Mirth'' and the novella ''Ethan Frome''. Biography Early life Edith Wharton was born Edith Newbold Jones on January 24, 1862 to George Frederic Jones and Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander at their brownstone at 14 West Twenty-third Street in New York City. To her friends and family she was known as "Pussy Jones". She had two older brothers, Frederic Rhinelander and Henry Edward. Frederic married Mary Cadwalader Rawle; their daughter was landscape archite ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theory Of The Leisure Class
''The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions'' (1899), by Thorstein Veblen, is a treatise of economics and sociology, and a critique of conspicuous consumption as a function of social class and of consumerism, which are social activities derived from the social stratification of people and the division of labor; the social institutions of the feudal period (9th–15th c.) that have continued to the modern era.Bain, Jonathan. 2008.Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) 'Conspicuous Leisure'" Social Philosophy (Spring 2008) L 2044 Polytechnic Institute of New York University. Retrieved 2021 May 11. Veblen discusses how the pursuit and the possession of wealth affects human behavior, that the contemporary lords of the manor, the businessmen who own the means of production, have employed themselves in the economically unproductive practices of conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure, which are useless activities that contribute neither to the economy nor to th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rake (character)
In a historical context, a rake (short for rakehell, analogous to "hellraiser") was a man who was habituated to immoral conduct, particularly womanizing. Often, a rake was also prodigal, wasting his (usually inherited) fortune on gambling, wine, women, and song, and incurring lavish debts in the process. Cad is a closely related term. Comparable terms are " libertine" and "debauchee". The Restoration rake was a carefree, witty, sexually irresistible aristocrat whose heyday was during the English Restoration period (1660–1688) at the court of King Charles II. They were typified by the "Merry Gang" of courtiers, who included as prominent members the John Wilmot; George Villiers; and Charles Sackville, who combined riotous living with intellectual pursuits and patronage of the arts. At this time the rake featured as a stock character in Restoration comedy. After the reign of Charles II, and especially after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the cultural perception of the r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parvenu
A ''parvenu'' is a person who is a relative newcomer to a high-ranking socioeconomic class. The word is borrowed from the French language; it is the past participle of the verb ''parvenir'' (to reach, to arrive, to manage to do something). Origin The word ''parvenu'' typically describes a person who recently ascended the social ladder, especially a ''nouveau riche'' or "new money" individual. The famous Margaret Brown, who survived the sinking of the ''Titanic'' in 1912, was portrayed as a "new money" individual, most notably in the "climbing social classes" musical '' The Unsinkable Molly Brown'', because of her impoverished Irish immigrant roots and lack of social pedigree. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defines a ''parvenu'' as: "A person from a humble background who has rapidly gained wealth or an influential social position; a nouveau riche; an upstart, a social climber. Also in extended use. Generally used with the implication that the person concerned is unsuited ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chloral Hydrate
Chloral hydrate is a geminal diol with the formula . It is a colorless solid. It has limited use as a sedative and hypnotic pharmaceutical drug. It is also a useful laboratory chemical reagent and precursor. It is derived from chloral (trichloroacetaldehyde) by the addition of one equivalent of water. History Chloral hydrate was discovered in 1832 by Justus von Liebig in Gießen when a chlorination ( halogenation) reaction was performed on ethanol. Its sedative properties were observed by Rudolf Buchheim in 1861, but described in detail and published only in 1869 by Oscar Liebreich; subsequently, because of its easy synthesis, its use became widespread. It was widely used for sedation in asylums and in general medical practice, and also became a popular drug of abuse in the late 19th century. One recreational user was the poet and illustrator Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Chloral hydrate is soluble in both water and ethanol, readily forming concentrated solutions. A solution of c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hatmaking
Hat-making or millinery is the design, manufacture and sale of hats and other headwear. A person engaged in this trade is called a milliner or hatter. Historically, milliners, typically women shopkeepers, produced or imported an inventory of garments for men, women, and children and sold these garments in their millinery shop. Many milliners worked as both milliner and fashion designer, such as Rose Bertin, Jeanne Lanvin, and Coco Chanel. The millinery industry benefited from industrialization during the nineteenth century. In 1889 in London and Paris, over 8,000 women were employed in millinery, and in 1900 in New York, some 83,000 people, mostly women, were employed in millinery. Though the improvements in technology provided benefits to milliners and the whole industry, essential skills, craftsmanship, and creativity are still required. Since the mass-manufacturing of hats began, the term milliner is usually used to describe a person who applies traditional hand-craftsmanshi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social Stratification
Social stratification refers to a society's categorization of its people into groups based on socioeconomic factors like wealth, income, race, education, ethnicity, gender, occupation, social status, or derived power (social and political). As such, stratification is the relative social position of persons within a social group, category, geographic region, or social unit. In modern Western societies, social stratification is typically defined in terms of three social classes: the upper class, the middle class, and the lower class; in turn, each class can be subdivided into the upper-stratum, the middle-stratum, and the lower stratum. Moreover, a social stratum can be formed upon the bases of kinship, clan, tribe, or caste, or all four. The categorization of people by social stratum occurs most clearly in complex state-based, polycentric, or feudal societies, the latter being based upon socio-economic relations among classes of nobility and classes of peasants. Whether socia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naïveté
Naivety (also spelled naïvety), naiveness, or naïveté is the state of being naive. It refers to an apparent or actual lack of experience and sophistication, often describing a neglect of pragmatism in favor of moral idealism. A ''naïve'' may be called a ''naïf''. Etymology In its early use, the word ''naïve'' meant "natural or innocent", and did not connote ineptitude. As a French adjective, it is spelled ''naïve'', for feminine nouns, and ''naïf'', for masculine nouns. As a French noun, it is spelled ''naïveté''. It is sometimes spelled "naïve" with a diaeresis, but as an unitalicized English word, "naive" is now the more usual spelling. "naïf" often represents the French masculine, but has a secondary meaning as an artistic style. “Naïve” is pronounced as two syllables, in the French manner, and with the stress on the second one. Culture The naïf appears as a cultural type in two main forms. On the one hand, there is 'the satirical naïf, such as Candide'. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joshua Reynolds
Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was a founder and first president of the Royal Academy of Arts, and was knighted by George III in 1769. Early life Reynolds was born in Plympton, Devon, on 16 July 1723 the third son of the Rev. Samuel Reynolds, master of the Plympton Free Grammar School in the town. His father had been a fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, but did not send any of his sons to the university. One of his sisters was Mary Palmer (1716–1794), seven years his senior, author of ''Devonshire Dialogue'', whose fondness for drawing is said to have had much influence on him when a boy. In 1740 she provided £60, half of the premium paid to Thomas Hudson the portrait-painter, for Joshua's pupilage, and nine years later a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pièce De Résistance
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