Who first published The House of Mirth?
The House of Mirth
&Mirth The House of Mirth is a 1905 novel by the 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 turn of the last century.[lower-alpha 1] 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."[2]
A Bride from the Bush
A Bride from the Bush is the first novel written by E. W. Hornung. He started writing the book while working as a tutor for Charles Joseph Parsons in Mossgiel Station, New South Wales, Australia. The novel was initially published by Smith, Elder & Co. as a serial in the "Cornhill Magazine", and then published in book format by the same company in October 1890. As with "Tiny Luttrell" and "The Unbidden Guest", two of Hornung's other early novels, "A Bride from the Bush" points out flaws in British society by presenting the country through an Australian perspective. A reviewer from "The New York Times" called the novel "a most piquant contrast between civilization and crudity". The writer Thomas Alexander Browne called the titular character of "A Bride from the Bush" "a libel to Australian womankind". A "Punch" editor made the opposite claim, arguing that the protagonist of the novel is more kind-hearted and attractive than actual Australians.