The Custom of the Country
4
Edith Wharton
Originally published in 1913, The Custom of the Country is a full length novel about the incessant rise of Undine Spragg, an attractive, vivacious woman of the American Mid-West who is fuelled by ambition, and greed, combined with an all too obvious disregard for the feelings of anyone else except herself. Using marriage and divorce as the means to an end, Undine is at once a loathsome creature yet at the same time one with whom the reader can associate with or even root for. She is an archetype anti-heroine; perhaps a step removed or rather a continent displaced from say Becky Sharpe. While Wharton's plot is almost by necessity presented as a complex web revolving around Undine's exploits, it is at the same time secondary to the presentation of Undine's character. There's no sense of evolution in the way she is presented, it's clear from the first words, Mrs Spragg's impassioned and frankly rhetorical question, that Undine has a way about her.
AD
More Details:
Author
Pages
Publisher
Published Date
Community ReviewsSee all
"What the hell, Edith?? Usually, you and I get along, but Undine?? The spoiled brat?? Her life was not as exciting as the description purported it would be. There was little to no character development. While the book's final line is powerful in sending that exact point home, I was still left unsatisfied. It's hard to go through 46 chapters only to find the protagonist hasn't changed by the end, and there wasn't enough else in the story to hold my interest otherwise."
K R
Kayla Randolph
"This is the second Edith Wharton novel I have read and I loved it! I'm going to have to go through all of her novels now that I have discovered what a brilliant writer she was. Undine Spragg might be one of the most delicious villains in literary history. I hated her throughout the entire book!"