In 1905, The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton's novel about the blighted aspirations of Lily Bart was published by Scribner's and  it was a reputable press in the early twentieth century.

Here, in the given sentence, the phrase "and it was a reputable press" creates a faulty structure. The sentence seems to suggest that The House of Mirth itself was a reputable press, which is illogical. Instead, Scribner’s (the publisher) is the reputable press, and this must be correctly presented. Thus, we can discard Option A.

Note that a comma is needed before "was published" to properly separate "Lily Bart" from the rest of the sentence. Here, the description of the author and the book is part of a non-essential modifier: "Edith Wharton's novel about the blighted aspirations of Lily Bart." By rule, such modifiers are separated from the main clause using commas. 

An easy way to visualise this is to strip down non-essential information to determine the main clause: "In 1905, The House of Mirth was published by Scribner's." The remaining sentence components merely describe the nouns in the main clause. To clarify, the phrase "Edith Wharton's novel about the blighted aspirations of Lily Bart" describes the noun "House of Mirth," and the phrase "a reputable press in the early twentieth century" describes the noun "Scribner's."

Considering these points, we note that only Option D follows this rule and presents a sensible sentence: "In 1905, The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton's novel about the blighted aspirations of Lily Bart, was published by Scribner's, a reputable press in the early twentieth century."

Option B can be eliminated because the correct verb form is "was published." Option C does not adhere to the modifier rule we discussed earlier, and the use of "being" creates an awkward structure. 

Hence, Option D is the correct choice.