Gilded Age

Claire McMillan’s debut novel, Gilded Age (2012), a tribute to Edith Wharton, transforms Wharton’s The House of Mirth into a modern-day story of one young woman’s challenges finding love and independence. In 2012, Edith Wharton was back in vogue thanks to a slew of new books published that year to mark the 150th anniversary of her birth, which include The Age of Desire by Jennie Fields, based on Wharton’s life, and two debut novels which creatively reimagine her most famous works. The Innocents by Francesca Segal is a modern take on Wharton’s The Age of Innocence and McMillan’s Gilded Age is a rebirthing of The House of Mirth set among Cleveland, Ohio’s high society. McMillan stays true to Wharton though she competently satirizes an exclusive, one-percent community in a satisfyingly entertaining way.

Eleanor (Ellie) Hart is the stunningly beautiful and socially prominent, if a bit unconventional, protagonist of Gilded Age. Her recent return to the hotbed of Cleveland’s wealthy set causes tongues to wag, eyebrows to raise, cutting her to the core of her insecurities. She struggles with her need for love after a scandalous divorce and her desire to establish her own independence, something she knows nothing about.

The story’s unnamed narrator is Eleanor’s closest friend. A young wife expecting her first child, she tells the story of Eleanor’s return to Cleveland after leaving to see the world. The narrator says she herself had no problem reintegrating into Cleveland society after bringing her husband, Jim, a native Southerner, back to her home to raise a family. The narrator has known most of the people among whom she lives for most of her life, including her first romantic love, “Cinco” Van Alstyne. Van Alstyne’s blissful marriage seems a little too good to be true; at least the narrator seems to think so. The narrator’s thoughts reveal she is prone to bouts of jealousy.



Eleanor does not return to Cleveland with a proud spouse and a happy marriage. Instead, she returns disgraced after a high-profile divorce is made even worse by a watertight pre-nuptial agreement. There is also her stay in a rehab facility due to an undisclosed addiction. When Eleanor returns to the hellhole known as Cleveland, she has but one goal—to marry well. Eleanor has never aspired to pursue a career. It was never her style. Her best hope is to find someone who can keep her in the style to which she has always been accustomed, both before and during her first marriage.

However, Eleanor’s method of selling herself to the eligible bachelors of Cleveland high society backfires. Her drinking and smoking are frowned upon, especially by P. G., an outdoors-loving vegan. Her forwardness and sexual exploits do not sit well with the poet William Selden. She even alienates Randall LaForte, the one man most likely to be her ideal match, at least on paper. As Eleanor unsteadily makes her way through this elite society, she makes enemies of the women by flirting with their husbands.

Eleanor knows all too well that a woman’s sexual reputation matters; however, she clumsily navigates the sexual terrain, where old money meets new money. Booze-filled body shots mix with inherited jewels, lip piercings, and sexting during country house weekends. Though Eleanor’s beauty is a powerful and lusty tool, even it has its limitations and liabilities. Through one wrong move after another, she makes a mess of her second act, finding her options dwindling and her future prospects drying up. In the end, she is faced with a desperate choice.



McMillan writes with exacting detail, keeping an open mind that encompasses all of her characters. Her narrator views Eleanor’s escapades with a fair amount of judgment and disdain but also with sympathy and jealousy. Alternating the narration from the first person to third allows a better look into the mind of the narrator, showcasing her infallibilities as well as Eleanor’s. It is, at times, difficult to feel sympathy towards Eleanor, especially as men flock to her, but as a self-destructive hero, she invokes pity. Though she clearly states her goals, she blows chance after chance at the life she seeks until she runs out of chances. As her schemes fail, the tone of the story changes from comic to a tragic cautionary tale. When the narrator suffers brief domestic unhappiness, it is held in stark contrast to Eleanor’s far deeper ruin. The narrator blames Eleanor for her own poor decisions. Eleanor’s desire for acceptance renders her incapable of learning from her mistakes. When her divorce settlement is lost in a Ponzi scheme, Eleanor becomes lost in perpetual panic, and her desperation leads her to a more sinister kind of social climbing, one that doesn’t end well.

McMillan grew up in Pasadena, California. She is a lawyer who has practiced corporate litigation. She currently lives on her husband’s family farm outside of Cleveland along with her spouse and her two children.