Reading Order
Custom of the CountryThe Custom of the Country Reading Order
The Custom of the Country (1913) by Edith Wharton is the most satirically fierce of her New York novels — the story of Undine Spragg, the beautiful, amoral, and utterly self-centered daughter of a midwestern businessman, who rises through New York society by marrying and discarding a succession of increasingly distinguished husbands. Undine is one of American literature's great antagonists — a character Wharton draws with enough intelligence to make her formidable and enough vulgarity to make her terrifying — and the novel is Wharton's most comprehensive critique of the new American money culture that she saw replacing the old aristocracy of taste and manners. The title comes from a satirical pamphlet about American divorce, and the novel treats Undine's serial marriages as the 'custom' — the normal thing — of a society organized entirely around acquisition.
Where to start
The Custom of the Country (1913) — the complete novel; no prequel required
Complete Custom of the Country Book List
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The Custom of the Country
Edith Wharton·1913
Custom of the Country — Frequently Asked Questions
How does The Custom of the Country relate to The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence?
All three novels are set in or around New York high society and all three examine the collision between social codes and individual desire. The key difference is in their protagonists: Lily Bart in The House of Mirth is a victim of the social system she is too refined to play ruthlessly; Newland Archer in The Age of Innocence is a man trapped between duty and desire; and Undine Spragg in The Custom of the Country is a villain who wins. Reading all three together gives you Wharton's full critique of the New York social world from multiple angles.
Is Undine Spragg meant to be a villain?
Yes and no. Wharton makes it clear that Undine is selfish, manipulative, dishonest, and indifferent to the suffering she causes — and she wins, which is the novel's bitter joke. But Wharton also analyzes the social conditions that produce Undine: a culture that gives women no legitimate path to power except through marriage, that educates them to want things but not to earn them, and that values beauty and social position over intelligence or character. The Custom of the Country can be read as a critique of Undine and as a critique of the culture that made her — Wharton is both horrified by Undine and aware that she is the logical product of American materialism taken to its extreme.
Where should I start with Edith Wharton?
Most readers encounter Wharton through The House of Mirth (1905) or The Age of Innocence (1920), both of which are slightly more sympathetic to their protagonists and therefore somewhat easier to love. If you want Wharton at her most satirically brilliant and psychologically cold, however, The Custom of the Country is the place to start — Undine Spragg is Wharton's most fully realized character, and the novel's mordant comedy is unique in her work. Ethan Frome (1911), though also by Wharton, is set in rural Massachusetts and has a completely different tone — bleakly tragic rather than satirically social — and can be read independently of the New York novels.
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