THE HOUSE OF MIRTH

With Old World elegance, perfect diction, and a wide range of voices, Wanda McCaddon delivers a lovely performance of this Edith Wharton classic. A free-thinking, spirited young woman, Lily Bart pays a tragic price for rejecting the accepted behaviors of the aristocracy in 1890s New York City. Finding the social morés of the time restrictive and stuffy, Lily proceeds to live her own life at great personal cost. McCaddon's outstanding grasp of the material conveys the tight-laced men and women in Lily's social circle and brings a painful truth to Lily's downward slide as she is undone by disappointment, gossip, and inevitable scandal. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2014]