The Custom Of The Country — Edith Wharton

Edith Whartons satiric anatomy of American society in the first decade of the twentieth century appeared in 1913 it both appalled and fascinated its first reviewers and established her as a major novelist The Saturday Review wrote that she had assembled as many detestable people as it is possible to pack between the covers of a six hundred page novel but concluded that the book was brilliantly written and should be read as a parable It follows the career of Undine Spragg recently arrived in New York from the midwest and determined to conquer high society Glamorous selfish mercenary and manipulative her principal assets are her striking beauty her tenacity and her fathers money With her sights set on an advantageous marriage Undine pursues her schemes in a world of shifting values where triumph is swiftly followed by dissullusion Wharton was recreating an environment she knew intimately and Undines education for social success is chronicled in meticulous detail The novel superbly captures the world of post Civil War America as ruthless in its social ambitions as in its business and politics