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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.
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Subjects
Fiction, Divorced women, Upper class, Remarried people, Americans, Social life and customs, Classic Literature, Literature, Romance, American fiction (fictional works by one author), Fiction, humorous, Divorced people, fiction, New york (n.y.), fiction, Paris (france), fiction, Fiction, general, Fiction, family life, Fiction, humorous, generalPlaces
New York (N.Y.), Paris (France), France, New York, New York (State)Showing 11 featured editions. View all 61 editions?
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The custom of the country
1998, Doubleday
in English
- 1st New York Public Library collector's ed.
0385487231 9780385487238
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The custom of the country
1997, Scribner Paperback Fiction
in English
- 1st Scribner Paperback Fiction ed.
0684825880 9780684825885
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Edith Wharton's 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. 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 father's 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 disillusion. Wharton was re-creating an environment she knew intimately, and Undine's education for social success is chronicled in meticulous detail. The novel superbly captures the world of post-Civil War Ameria, as ruthless in its social ambitions as in its business and politics. - Back cover.
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July 12, 2024 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
October 5, 2021 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
October 17, 2011 | Edited by WorkBot | merge works |
August 18, 2010 | Edited by IdentifierBot | added LibraryThing ID |
October 23, 2008 | Created by ImportBot | Imported from Oregon Libraries MARC record |