The House of Mirth (1905), by Edith Wharton, is a novel about New York socialite Lily Bart attempting to secure a husband and a place in rich society. It is one of the first novels of manners in American literature, and one of the first to openly explore how American Victorian society offered little social mobility for women. Edith Wharton (born Edith Newbold Jones) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer.