The House of Mirth on Slate's Audio Book Club

I listened to this book chitchat (mp3 here) for a good fifteen minutes yesterday while waiting in my office for a tutee to show up. And I was surprised by how, despite some pretentious allusions to "binaries" (okay, binaries aren't that pretentious) interesting and enjoyable the talk was--particularly the discussion of Lawrence Selden's role as Lily's savior-cum-destroyer. Edith Wharton really loves those paralyzed, almost effeminiate men, doesn't she?

I'm an unbelievably huge fan of the House of Mirth, whose true strength to me is its quality as a re-read and the fact that, as one of the critics said, every time I open it I want Lily to do something different despite my knowledge of her fate, and I always cry at the end.

I also think the Terrence Davies' movie adaptation with Gillian Anderson and Eric Stoltz is even better than Scorcese's stab at Wharton, The Age of Innocence. Here's an interesting interview with Davies in which he talks about the differences between the novels and films. So go Netflix it if you haven't seen it. If you're anything like me, you will weep tears of satisfying bitterness and then rewind to the make-out scenes repeatedly.