The Custom of the Country

Edith Wharton's lacerating satire on marriage & materialism in turn-of-the-century New York features her most selfish, ruthless, & irresistibly outrageous female character.

Undine Spragg is an exquisitely beautiful but ferociously acquisitive young woman from the Midwest who comes to New York to seek her fortune. She achieves her social ambitions--but only at the highest cost to her family, her admirers, & her several husbands. Wharton lavished on Undine an imaginative energy that suggests she was as fascinated as she was appalled by the alluring monster she had created. It is the complexity of her attitude that makes The Custom of the Country--with its rich social & emotional detail & its headlong narrative power--one of the most fully realized & resonant of her works.

Considered by many to be her masterpiece, Edith Wharton’s second full-length work is a scathing yet personal examination of the exploits & follies of the modern upper class. As she unfolds the story of Undine Spragg, from New York to Europe, Wharton affords us a detailed glimpse of what might be called the interior décor of this America & its nouveau riche fringes. Through a heroine who is as vain, spoiled, & selfish as she is irresistibly fascinating, & through a most intricate & satisfying plot that follows Undine’s marriages & affairs, she conveys a vision of social behavior that is both supremely informed & supremely disenchanted. 

This edition features a new introduction & explanatory notes & reset text.