The custom of the country: money is the driving influence - wives are too busy spending it and husbands are too busy making it and neither cares enough beyond the money to pay attention to the other. Well, that's sort of the premise. It's certainly true for Undine Spragg, our main character. She is irresistibly beautiful, it seems, and men are attracted to her like moths to a flame on a summer evening. Money is essential to Undine - essential to making sure the right people notice her, because being noticed by the right people is the purpose of Undine's life.

I couldn't help but be exasperated with her. She is such a shallow, shallow person. I complain when authors give us only one-dimensional characters. In this case, it is because the character is truly one-dimensional and Wharton presents her perfectly. There is more to say about Undine, but the only way I know of doing so would be a spoiler. The minor characters are, for the most part, also well-drawn and, of course, Wharton's setting of "society" completes the picture.

I waffled between 4- and 5-stars. Ask me on a different day, it might be a different answer. It feels too long since I've read Edith Wharton and it was a pleasure to return. I hope I don't wait too long again for the next one.

《Venite fra noi e parlate la nostra lingua, senza saperne i veri significati; volete le stesse cose che vogliamo noi , ma non sapete perché le vogliamo; scimmiottate le nostre debolezze, esagerate le nostre follie, ignorate e mettete in ridicolo tutto quello che sta a cuore a noi - venite da alberghi grandi come città, e da città fragili come carta, dove non c'è tempo neppure di dare il nome alle strade, e gli edifici vengono demoliti prima che siano asciutti, e la gente è orgogliosa di cambiare come noi lo siamo di mantenere quello che abbiamo... e noi siamo così stupidi da pensare che solo perché ci copiate e adottate il nostro gergo, voi possiate capire le cose che secondo noi rendono la vita degna e onorevole!》
Amen.

Questo lo sfogo del terzo marito nei confronti dell'odiosa Undine, il vecchio e il nuovo a confronto.
Credevo che Rebecca Sharp fosse la peggiore arrampicatrice sociale, ma Undine Spragg è molto peggio.
È riuscita a rendere insopportabile persino la lettura. Alla fine non ne potevo più di frivolezze, arazzi e collane di perle.
Va detto che dietro alla storia di questa spietata donna c'è anche uno studio accurato della società e soprattutto della nobiltà di fine ottocento, la stagione vissuta in Europa fra viaggi e svaghi, il confronto fra Vecchio e Nuovo Mondo.
È un bel libro, interessante, ma alla lunga un po' stancante, lo avrei preferito più conciso e meno incentrato sulla futilità di Undine. Ho trovato più interessanti i pochi capitoli dedicati ai malcapitati uomini incappati sul suo cammino.

Is Undine Spragg the most odious fictional character ever?

I know The Custom of the Country is more than a century old, but Undine Spragg is certainly one of the most despicable characters in all of literature. She uses people. She’s vain. She lies. She’s horribly superficial. She treats her child like a pawn. She’s greedy. Long before the term was coined, she was a shop-a-holic. All she cares about is looking fashionable and making her way up society. And once she’s there, she’s bored and wants more.

AND YET!

And yet she keeps on going. She’s tenacious, stubborn. She uses what assets she has (basically her youth and looks) to their full advantage. And wow, can she ever read people, especially men. When she’s down, she figures out a way to get back on top. That’s got to be admirable, right?

And in a way, she’s the product of a consumerist society, one that doesn’t care how you get something as long as you get it.

I’m a huge Wharton fan. I loved The Age Of Innocence and really liked The House of Mirth and Ethan Frome. Watching the highly addictive new HBO series The Gilded Age made me think I should finally read this book, and I was right. There are passages of absolute brilliance, and Wharton seems to have a love-hate relationship with her protagonist as she works her way up from Midwestern nobody to New York society and then graduates to the jet set (steamer set?) and aristocratic circles in Europe.

Apparently Gilded Age creator Julian Fellowes has said The Custom of the Country has inspired his work. There are definitely echoes of Custom in Gilded Age.

I’ll never forget Undine. I think I even like and admire Scarlett O’Hara more, because she at least did what she did for her family. Spragg thinks only of herself. Which, I suppose in this day of self-styled “freedom warriors,” is pretty relevant.

An excellent book. I can see that Edith Wharton and I will be spending a lot more time together.

The heroine of the story, Undine Spragg, is a spoiled, shallow, self-centered, conniving social climber. She is supremely unsympathetic, equally as fascinating as she is repellent. Her goal is to position herself within privileged society and she pursues this end with ruthless determination. But as the saying goes, you should be careful what you wish for. Undine finds that marrying into "the right" family or even having access to fabulous sums of money doesn’t bring satisfaction. Her restless, acquisitive nature always drives her to seek more and better.

She had everything she wanted, but she still felt, at times, that there were other things she might want if she knew about them.

The Custom of the Country is a pointed commentary on the role of women and the acceptable social norms of the time. Wharton shows that Undine is both a product of the prevailing culture and a victim of it. In the context of a society that offers women few choices and values the creation of wealth over all else, her behavior becomes understandable and even pitiable.