This confirmed again to me that I just don’t enjoy books about high society. I did understand all the points being made... but my goodness the social ins and outs were laboured. Sorry, but this book didn’t do it for me. I did love Age of Innocence a lot...so I do appreciate Wharton’s writing...I was torn between feeling sorry for Lily and seriously not liking her. I get that she was brought up to be the way she was (not unlike Estella in Great Expectations) but equally I felt that, aged 29, she had no autonomy away from that. I quite like a nasty protagonist...so it wasn’t that ...i think it was that no one in the book had a personality or sides to them other than the ones they were give to fit the story..So please forgive me if you love this book but I just didn’t.