Synopsis
THE CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY marks Edith Wharton's return to the satiric tone of THE HOUSE OF MIRTH. She follows bored, passive Ralph Marvell, a gentle young man with the heart of a poet, as he squanders his family's modest inheritance in an attempt to find happiness. But the real star of Wharton's narrative is the beautiful, ambitious, and blatantly amoral schemer, Undine Spragg, who manipulates her nouveau-riche Midwestern parents into taking her East. There she rampages through New York society in search of a wealthy husband--who turns out, disastrously, to be Ralph Marvell. Wharton savages the vulgar Spraggs, who live only for money and what it can bring, while appreciating the culture and traditional values of the old guard. But her satiric eye spares no one: with the genteel Marvell family, Wharton illustrates how completely a corrupt society can affect individual characters no matter how they try to resist. Considered one of Edith Wharton's greatest novels, THE CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY is also notable for the author's understanding of the power of the media--of gossip and sensationalism--even in the 1870s.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 1997-08-01 |
| Size | | Height: | 8.3 in | | Width: | 5.5 in | | Thickness: | 1.0 in | | Weight: | 19.2 oz |
Publisher's Note
First published in 1913 and regarded by many critics as her most substantial novel, The Custom of the Country is Edith Wharton's powerful saga about the beautiful, ruthless Undine Spragg. A woman of extraordinary ambition and exuberant vitality, Undine is consigned by virtue of her sex to the shadow world of the drawing room and boudoir. Marriage remains the one institution through which she can exercise her will as she entrances man after man, marrying one after the other with protean facility and almost monstrous avidity. A novel that ranges from New York to Paris, from Apex City, Kansas, to Reno, Nevada, The Custom of the Country stands as a dark satire of American business, society, and the nouveaux riches, and as Edith Wharton's contribution to the tradition of the American epic.
Industry Reviews
"...as a work of satire it is powerful... Mrs. Wharton is a good hater..."
Bookman - William Lyon Phelps
"... a return to the rich, sure ground of New York and the novel of manners, only this time the central character in the conflict of social groups is not a victim but an invader... The story of how she hews her way through the old New York ranks is vivid and fascinating."
Louis Auchincloss
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