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. (Summary from Wikipedia).

The Achilleid is the third and unfinished work by the Roman poet Publius Papinius Statius. In its introduction, it promises to present the life of the hero Achilles from his youth as a pupil under the centaur Chiron to his death at Troy. The author died however before writing most of the poem, leaving only one and a half books completed. The part that remains though holds interest for being unusual, bringing an account of the hero's early life and an episode in which his mother, Thetis, di...

Wharton's novel The Age of Innocence is set against an exclusive society background in which she reveals how Newland Archer is often the victim of, rather than the key player in, the events. The plot is constructed on a pattern of ironic misunderstandings: for example, Newland is unaware that Ellen's decision not to sue for divorce was for his and May's sake rather than to conceal her past. Furthermore, Newland remains largely blind to the manipulations of a wife he persists in seeing as i...