The House of Mirth (AmazonClassics Edition) recap

Lily Bart, beautiful but nearly penniless, moves through wealthy New York society in search of a marriage that can preserve her expensive way of life. She loses the cautious Percy Gryce after choosing time with Lawrence Selden and accepts money from Gus Trenor that she mistakes for investment profits. Trenor later demands intimacy as payment, while Bertha Dorset repeatedly uses Lily to protect her own reputation. Lily refuses to expose Bertha with compromising letters, and scandal costs her friends, her aunt's expected inheritance, and eventually her social position. Attempts to work fail as her health and confidence decline. When the reduced legacy finally arrives, she repays Trenor and burns the letters. After encountering Nettie Struther, a woman she once helped, Lily returns alone to her room and dies after taking too much sleeping medicine. Selden comes to offer love only after her death and finally recognizes evidence of her integrity.

Lily Bart meets Lawrence Selden at Grand Central and accepts tea in his apartment, an innocent visit that could become damaging gossip. Leaving the building, she is seen by Simon Rosedale and conceals whom she visited. At Bellomont, Lily plans to attract Percy Gryce, a rich and conventional bachelor. Her skillful attention interests him, but Selden's arrival revives the freer, less practical side of her nature. Lily and Selden acknowledge their attraction during a private walk, though neither turns it into a commitment. Bertha Dorset, who wants Selden's attention and resents Lily, undermines Lily's courtship. Percy withdraws, and Lily leaves the visit without the proposal that might have secured her future.

Lily's losses at bridge and the costs of fashionable life exceed her small income. She asks Gus Trenor to invest money for her, and he begins giving her sums he describes as profits. Relieved, she spends more freely and assumes his help is a friendly financial service. She also acquires a packet of letters written by Bertha Dorset to Selden after a cleaning woman tries to sell them. The letters could give Lily power over Bertha, but she does not use them. At a public tableau, Lily's beauty makes a strong impression on Selden and the assembled guests. Their emotional understanding deepens, yet hesitation and circumstance again prevent a clear declaration or engagement.

Rumors connect Lily with Gus Trenor, and Grace Stepney ensures that Mrs. Peniston hears them. Trenor, angry that Lily avoids him, lures her to his empty town house and reveals that the supposed investment returns were largely his own money. He insists that her attention was the expected payment and physically intimidates her before she escapes. Shaken and ashamed, Lily goes to Gerty Farish rather than explain herself publicly. Selden, influenced by what he has seen and heard, leaves without making the proposal Lily had hoped for. Mrs. Peniston dies soon afterward. Instead of the large inheritance Lily expected, the will leaves her only ten thousand dollars and gives the bulk of the estate to Grace, deepening Lily's financial and social danger.

Lily travels on the Dorsets' yacht in the Mediterranean, initially believing the invitation restores her place. Bertha is conducting an affair with Ned Silverton and has brought Lily partly to distract George Dorset and the other guests. When George becomes suspicious, Bertha protects herself by excluding Lily and encouraging the implication that Lily has behaved improperly with him. Lily is left ashore and publicly disgraced. Selden helps manage the immediate crisis but does not offer the unquestioning loyalty she needs. Carry Fisher later finds Lily a place with the newly rich Gormers, yet Bertha's influence reaches that circle too. Lily's refusal to publish Bertha's letters preserves Bertha's position at the cost of her own possible rehabilitation.

Rosedale considers marriage but now judges Lily too socially damaged to advance him unless she uses Bertha's letters to recover power. Lily refuses that bargain. As money runs out, she tries paid work, first assisting in fashionable enterprises and then sewing hats in a millinery shop. She lacks the speed and training for the work, and insomnia, medicine, and anxiety impair her further. She loses the position and moves into a modest boarding house. Gerty and Carry offer intermittent help, but Lily resists permanent dependence. Her aunt's delayed legacy is approaching, and it will be just enough to settle the debt to Trenor that Lily now fully understands.

Lily visits Selden and leaves him with a farewell that acknowledges the best part of their bond without asking him to rescue her. She burns Bertha's letters, giving up her last means of coercion. After receiving the ten-thousand-dollar legacy, she writes a check repaying Gus Trenor in full. A chance meeting with Nettie Struther, once helped by Lily through Gerty's charity, leads Lily into Nettie's modest home, where the young mother's trust and happiness briefly reveal a kind of belonging Lily has never secured. Back in her room, Lily takes more chloral than usual and dies in her sleep, whether by resolved intention or exhausted miscalculation remaining uncertain. Selden arrives the next morning prepared to speak his love, finds her dead, and discovers the financial record that helps him understand her conduct too late.

Lily receives her aunt's ten-thousand-dollar legacy and uses it to repay Gus Trenor in full, removing the financial obligation that has burdened her. Before doing so, she visits Selden's rooms intending to speak openly, but leaves without securing a future with him. She burns Bertha Dorset's letters, surrendering the evidence that could have restored her social power by exposing Bertha. After spending time with Nettie Struther and her baby, Lily returns to her boarding house with a brief sense of the domestic trust she has missed. She takes an increased dose of chloral to sleep and dies during the night; the narration leaves some ambiguity about how deliberately she accepted the risk. Selden arrives the next morning ready to declare his love and finds her dead. Beside her, he sees the checkbook recording her repayment to Trenor and understands part of the truth behind the rumors. Their final unspoken reconciliation comes too late to change the outcome.