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Loading... The Custom of the Country (1913)by Edith Wharton
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Excellent writing but I didn't really like or connect with the characters. The protagonist, Undine, is one of the most self-centered, materialistic fictional characters I've ever encountered on the written page. I do still plan to try reading The Age of Innocence, which is Wharton's Pulitzer Prize winning novel. Otherwise, I'm generally not a big fan of stories set during the Gilded Age. ( ) This was a tough one. Wharton is such a skilled writer with a keen observant eye for her social milieu, but I really think she missed her mark with Custom. I've had an ongoing argument with my partner about whether this could be considered a feminist work; I think it is one of her few novels that is pointedly anti-feminist, and more socially conservative. By creating the monstrous character of Undine Spragg, who is horrible in such an over-the-top way, Wharton seems to be satirizing the social climbers who are willing to trample on relations and customs in order to achieve material success. The older more established New York families seem to be the only ones who see Undine for what she is, and Ralph Marvell is the only truly good person, a tragic hero whose old ideas of marriage are not able to cope with Undine's need for riches and glory. Some critics have called the novel a satire on marriage and divorce. Undine is a satirical character in that she is a pure consumption machine who has no character arc - she represents the voracious capitalism of the era that corrupts everyone who touches it. Elmer Moffat is the male counterpart, the crude business genius who confidently knows what he wants, which is more stuff. Everyone else resists Undine's corruption, although it is hinted that her neglected son Paul will eventually succumb to the amoral pursuits of his putative parents. Ghastly though our anti-heroine is, I found it difficult to put down. The end is a one-page triumph for the authot. In this edition the editor's asterisks are somewhat irritating, leading to endnotes listed by page number, explaining such things as Pegasus was "the winged horse of the muses", which isn't quite the case! Edith Wharton was did not like the "new rich" who were taking over New York around the turn of the century, and in "The Custom of the Country" she makes it very clear why. The heroine, Undine Spagg, a midwestern beauty who comes to New York in search of the social advancement she has always craved, is not likeable, but she is VERY compelling. The story traces the ups and downs of her quest for the level of social advancement that will finally make her happy. Along the way, the novel pillories the new rich, and holds the old rich up to a regretful examination. The book is a great read -- you may not like Undine, but you do want to find out what she does next -- and extremely witty. Wharton's ability to turn a phrase was unparalleled. I wish someone would -- could -- write a book like this about today's 1%. Firstly: how can you fail to love a novel whose main character is UNDINE SPAGG? This story of manners and morals in Gilded Age Manhattan and Paris centers on a shallow woman whose beauty entraps the men who strive to install her in their trophy cases. Out of all her suitors, only the point of view of her first husband, Ralph, is heard. In his mundane upper class life, he seeks in Undine a purpose and a direction for himself, realizing too late, and tragically, that she sees nothing beyond improving her social standing and acquiring clothing and jewels. As she continues on her upward trajectory, Undine leaves behind the parents who funded her voyage and her young son. Obstacles in the form of her own transparency and the unforgiving social strictures trip her up, but never for long. The author sees her and the hypocrisy that surrounds her, especially in regards to the place of women of that time, all-powerful at evening soirees but with nothing to do but depend upon the business success of their husbands. A cruel world for sure, but most others are starving in unheated tenements, so it's hard to muster up much sympathy for Undine and her cohort.
The first time I read Edith Wharton’s novel “The Custom of the Country,” which was published in 1913, I felt at once that I had always known its protagonist and also that I had never before met anyone like her. The values of Undine Spragg—who, in the course of the novel, makes a circuitous and sinister journey from Midwestern rube to ruby-drenched new-money empress—are repulsive, and her attempts to manipulate public attention are mesmerizing. For my money, no literary antiheroine can best Undine—a dazzling monster with rose-gold hair, creamy skin, and a gaping spiritual maw that could swallow New York City. People like her have been abundant in American culture for some time, but I never feel invested in their success; more often, I idly hope for their failure. With Undine, however—thanks to the alchemical mix of sympathy and disdain that animates Wharton’s language in the novel and allows her to match Undine’s savagery with plenty of her own—I find myself wanting her to get everything she desires. Edith Wharton's "The Custom of the Country" turned 100 this year, and the adventures of its heroine, Undine Spragg, remain as brazen today as when she first advanced upon the American scene. Belongs to Publisher SeriesIs contained inHas the adaptationIs abridged inHas as a study
Edith Wharton's classic story of one woman's quest for wealth and status after the turn of the twentieth century Beautiful, selfish, and driven, Undine Spragg arrives in New York with all of the ambition and naivete that her midwestern, nouveau riche upbringing afforded her. As cunning as she is lovely, Undine has but one goal in life: to ascend to the upper echelons of high society. And so with a single-minded tenacity, Undine continues to maneuver through life, finding all the while that true satisfaction remains just beyond her grasp. Hailed by Elizabeth Hardwick as "Edith Wharton's finest No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.52Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1900-1944LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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