The Custom of the Country

Coffee tastes better with a good book.

Category: I read this book about 9 years ago, when I wrote my senior thesis about the theme of marriage in Edith Wharton’s fiction.

My thoughts: Every once in awhile, Edith Wharton strolls into my life to remind me what an absolute rock star she is. Although The Age of Innocence is the first Edith Wharton novel I fell in love with (not the first I read—that was Ethan Frome, which I did not care for), The Custom of the Country is probably my favorite Edith Wharton novel. This is a little odd because the main character, Undine Spragg, is a complete cow. In this novel, Edith Wharton gives us an unflinchingly unlikeable character. To call Undine Spragg selfish is the understatement of the decade. She uses the people around her, including her own parents, to get ahead. She marries and divorces without thought to the consequences of her actions. And yet…it is kind of hard to completely condemn her. As a woman, Undine is denied the opportunity to use her shrewdness and cunning in the business arena like the men around her, so she has to use it in other ways. Although she is a horrible person, she is a very compelling character (a bit like Michael Corleone in The Godfather). And she absolutely refuses to be beaten—she'sdefinitely a survivor. She was sometimes down, but could never be counted out (she is an interesting foil to Lily Bart, a Wharton character from The House of Mirth who I’ll hopefully get a chance to write about here). Also, Undine made me laugh when trash talking a character named Looty Arlington is (and with a name like that, who can blame her?)

When I first read the novel, I was struck by how Edith Wharton was able to portray the notion of how complicated marriage is—that some people fail to think of what married life will be like. Edith Wharton showed what happened after the wedding was over…that the marriage between a rich man and a beautiful woman does not necessarily lead to “happily ever after.” The reader also gets the feeling that Wharton believes people do not take marriage seriously.

I like to think that, in many ways, The Custom of the Country is the also story of the United States at the time. Through Undine Spragg’s story, we see the shift of power from old moneyed families to ruthless nouveau riches clans who elbowed their way to significance, the trend of American “dollar princesses,” newly minted states, and the emergence of the United States as a fledgling world power. In my opinion, The Custom of the Country is a perfect example of what a great writer Edith Wharton was.

Great passage: "The turnings of life seldom show a sign-post; or rather, though the sign is always there, it is usually placed some distance back, like the notices that give warning of a bad hill or a level railway-crossing."


Next up, The Warmth of Other Suns