Description

Book Synopsis
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. 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 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 dissullusion.Wharton was recreating an environment she knew intimately, and Undine''s education for social success is chronicled in meticulou

Trade Review
'Wharton captures with masterly ease the world of post-Civil War America in this brilliantly-written and highly-entertaining novel.' Charles Osborne, Sunday Telegraph

The Custom of the Country

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    A Paperback / softback by Edith Wharton, Stephen Orgel

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      Book details

      Publisher Oxford University Press
      Published 9 October 2008
      ISBN-13 9780199555123
      978-0199555123
      ISBN-10 0199555125
      Also in:
      Contemporary Fiction Books by Edith Wharton

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      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. 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 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 dissullusion.Wharton was recreating an environment she knew intimately, and Undine''s education for social success is chronicled in meticulou

      Trade Review
      'Wharton captures with masterly ease the world of post-Civil War America in this brilliantly-written and highly-entertaining novel.' Charles Osborne, Sunday Telegraph

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