This text is an updated edition of George Eliot's classic tale. The novel is a masterly evocation of diverse lives and changing fortunes in a provincial community.
The Penguin English Library Edition of The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton 'It was characteristic of her that she always roused speculation, that her simplest acts seemed the result of far-reaching intentions' A searing, shocking tale of women as consumer items in a man's world, The House of Mirth sees Lily Bart, beautiful and charming, living among the wealthy families of New York but reluctant to finally commit herself to a husband. In her search for freedom and the happiness she feels she deserves, Lily is ultimately ruined by scandal. Edith Wharton's shattering novel created controversy on its publication in 1905 with its scathing portrayal of the world's wealthy and the prison that marriage can become. The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.
In Jackson, Mississippi, there are lines that are not crossed. Black maids raise the white children, but no one trusts them not to steal the silver. Aibileen is a black maid, raising her seventeenth white child, but with a bitter heart after the death of her son. Minny is the sassiest woman in Mississippi; she can cook like nobody's business, but she can't keep her lip buttoned. And Skeeter is a white woman with a degree but no ring on her finger. Home from college, Skeeter discovers her beloved maid Constantine has disappeared without a trace. And as different as they may be, these three women will come together for a clandestine project that will put all of them at risk.
But The Help is not just about race, it's about how women, whether mothers or daughters, the help or the boss, relate to each other. It's about the dramas of domestic life: pride, competition on the cooking and home front complex emotions about the raising of young children, and that horrible feeling that those who look after your children may understand them, deal with them and love them, even, better than you . . .
