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georginam's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
sminismoni's review against another edition
4.0
Edith Warton once again takes us into guilded age New York, and presents the tale of Undine Spragg: possibly one of the most self-absorbed, superficial and inconsistent protagonists ever to grace a novel. She is an antiheroine in every sense of the word, yet can hardly be blamed for being a product of her time and circumstances. She discards old gowns and husbands almost at the same rate, perpetually in search of glamour, stimulation and most of all, money. Her narcissism often grates on the reader, as does her complete incapacity for any form of self-reflection. And yet, we are still left hanging on her every action, watching each audacious move with a mixture of affrontery and admiration. Warton leaves it up to us to decide if she has found satisfaction at the end, and overall the book is a great rags to riches rollercoaster.
burningupasun's review against another edition
4.0
Setting/World Building: 5/5
Main Character: 4/5
Other Characters: 4/5
Plot: 4/5
Writing: 5/5
Triggering/Issues: 5/5 (I mean, there's some old fashioned gender roles for obvious reasons, but this book is mostly delightfully free of triggers and anything too uncomfortable.)
AVERAGED TOTAL: 4.5 out of 5, rounded to 4.
I originally picked this book up because I had read in the news that they were making a miniseries version with Scarlett Johansson as Undine. That enticed me to give this book a try, and I'm glad I did! It was a bit of a slow read, as classic literature tends to be for me, but overall I really liked this book, as I usually do with the classic female writers.
As most of the books of that time were when they featured women, this one is (on a surface level) about a woman seeking a husband, multiple times over. Of course, the real intent of this book is an examination of society. At the time, I think it was intended to be about the difference between new American society and old European society, and the people who come out of each, as well as their differing values and ideals. Like Undine, Americans in society are shown to be flighty, constantly on the move and searching for the next best thing, willing to throw family and friends under the bus to get what they want. Undine's second-to-last husband Raymond details this well, with his comparison to how American's and their lack of roots resemble their towns and cities, hastily erected and torn down in a heartbeat. Wharton portrays European culture as the opposite, steeped in tradition, and relishing the importance of family and heritage. This whole conflict is portrayed really well in Undine's marriage to Raymond, and their fights when Undine thinks he should sell family heirlooms to fund her travel or desire to throw parties and buy expensive clothes. Undine stands for everything Wharton sees America as at the time, while Raymond represents the good and traditional European culture.
While the story is a study on these differences, I think in modern times it also makes an interesting piece on the patriarchy and the role of women at the time. Undine, an anti-hero, is literally created by the society she lives in. Everything she is as a person is due to the society she has grown up in, as a woman, and as an American. She seeks a husband because that is the best success she can have as a woman, her only way of supporting herself, and she continually seeks the next best husband partly because of those roles, but also because of the aforementioned ideals of the society she has grown up in. Her tendency to be vapid and self-absorbed, focused on clothing and jewels and money and unable to understand more complex things like art or theatre or politics or business; these are all apart of what society has raised her to be. ("Why haven't we taught our women to take an interest in our work? Simply because we don't take enough interest in them!") Undine is incredibly irritating at times, but at the same time an incredibly detailed, accurate character, and a fascinating study of the times.
I occasionally wished there was more of Undine's chapters and less of Ralph's, I found him a bit dry and dreary, though I do get that he was meant to be sort of a foil against Undine's American Society Girl. He was sort of an example of the melding of the two, yet still not with enough roots in the end, and destined to fail. Moffatt as the male example of Undine was incredibly well done, if the sort of character that just makes you feel a bit slimey and like if you met him in real life, you might need a shower after just seeing him, eugh. Also, there was something about him and his interactions with Paul (Undine's son) that gave me a really, really uncomfortable, creepy vibe. It was never explicitly stated, but for a moment (especially at the end) I thought the book was going to come right out and say that he was a pedophile. It never went there, thankfully, but that weird vibe remained and I'm curious if anyone else noticed it.
Anyway, all in all a great book. Not only did it get me into Wharton (and get her added to my mental list of favorite classic female writers), but now I am definitely looking forward to the miniseries!
Favorite Quotes: “Undine was fiercely independent and yet passionately imitative. She wanted to surprise every one by her dash and originality, but she could not help modelling herself on the last person she met.”
Main Character: 4/5
Other Characters: 4/5
Plot: 4/5
Writing: 5/5
Triggering/Issues: 5/5 (I mean, there's some old fashioned gender roles for obvious reasons, but this book is mostly delightfully free of triggers and anything too uncomfortable.)
AVERAGED TOTAL: 4.5 out of 5, rounded to 4.
I originally picked this book up because I had read in the news that they were making a miniseries version with Scarlett Johansson as Undine. That enticed me to give this book a try, and I'm glad I did! It was a bit of a slow read, as classic literature tends to be for me, but overall I really liked this book, as I usually do with the classic female writers.
As most of the books of that time were when they featured women, this one is (on a surface level) about a woman seeking a husband, multiple times over. Of course, the real intent of this book is an examination of society. At the time, I think it was intended to be about the difference between new American society and old European society, and the people who come out of each, as well as their differing values and ideals. Like Undine, Americans in society are shown to be flighty, constantly on the move and searching for the next best thing, willing to throw family and friends under the bus to get what they want. Undine's second-to-last husband Raymond details this well, with his comparison to how American's and their lack of roots resemble their towns and cities, hastily erected and torn down in a heartbeat. Wharton portrays European culture as the opposite, steeped in tradition, and relishing the importance of family and heritage. This whole conflict is portrayed really well in Undine's marriage to Raymond, and their fights when Undine thinks he should sell family heirlooms to fund her travel or desire to throw parties and buy expensive clothes. Undine stands for everything Wharton sees America as at the time, while Raymond represents the good and traditional European culture.
While the story is a study on these differences, I think in modern times it also makes an interesting piece on the patriarchy and the role of women at the time. Undine, an anti-hero, is literally created by the society she lives in. Everything she is as a person is due to the society she has grown up in, as a woman, and as an American. She seeks a husband because that is the best success she can have as a woman, her only way of supporting herself, and she continually seeks the next best husband partly because of those roles, but also because of the aforementioned ideals of the society she has grown up in. Her tendency to be vapid and self-absorbed, focused on clothing and jewels and money and unable to understand more complex things like art or theatre or politics or business; these are all apart of what society has raised her to be. ("Why haven't we taught our women to take an interest in our work? Simply because we don't take enough interest in them!") Undine is incredibly irritating at times, but at the same time an incredibly detailed, accurate character, and a fascinating study of the times.
I occasionally wished there was more of Undine's chapters and less of Ralph's, I found him a bit dry and dreary, though I do get that he was meant to be sort of a foil against Undine's American Society Girl. He was sort of an example of the melding of the two, yet still not with enough roots in the end, and destined to fail. Moffatt as the male example of Undine was incredibly well done, if the sort of character that just makes you feel a bit slimey and like if you met him in real life, you might need a shower after just seeing him, eugh. Also, there was something about him and his interactions with Paul (Undine's son) that gave me a really, really uncomfortable, creepy vibe. It was never explicitly stated, but for a moment (especially at the end) I thought the book was going to come right out and say that he was a pedophile. It never went there, thankfully, but that weird vibe remained and I'm curious if anyone else noticed it.
Anyway, all in all a great book. Not only did it get me into Wharton (and get her added to my mental list of favorite classic female writers), but now I am definitely looking forward to the miniseries!
Favorite Quotes: “Undine was fiercely independent and yet passionately imitative. She wanted to surprise every one by her dash and originality, but she could not help modelling herself on the last person she met.”
renardthefox's review against another edition
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Read for A233.
mdarceyhall's review against another edition
5.0
Everything wonderful about this novel and Edith Wharton has already been said, so I'll just say Undine Spragg is one bad bitch. Wharton always crafts some of the wildest female characters, full of desire beyond their station in life. Undine has the social climbing dreams of Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair, the manipulation skills of Isabella Thorpe in Northanger Abbey, and the diva demands of Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl. I always enjoy Wharton's ruthless criticism of consumerism, capitalism, and our image-obsessed culture, and it's scarily relevant today. 4 stars for plot + 1 bonus star for Wharton's cheeky zingers every other page.
erickibler4's review against another edition
3.0
This is another dip into the Lifetime Reading Plan well.
Undine Spragg is a beautiful but spoiled little Midwestern bourgeois princess. She goads her parents into relocating to New York City, where she hopes to realize her dream of marrying well, entering "society" as she sees it, and living a life of ease and entertainment, surrounded by all the things lots and lots of money can buy.
A succession of marital adventures (each with an aristocrat of a different type) teach her nothing about living a truly fulfilling life. Undine is sort of a proto-Scarlett O'Hara. But unlike Scarlett, she never undergoes any refining hardship, and thus, never develops her character into someone the reader can truly like.
This is a didactic book, in which Wharton shows us how the prevailing definitions and behaviors of success in business create such "perfect monsters" as Undine. A perceptive mouthpiece of a character states this theme outright in the first third of the book. "The custom of the country" has created her. The remainder of the book merely hammers the lesson home over and over again. Although there are some surprises and reversals, Undine is allowed to remain the same spoiled Undine she was from the beginning.
Undine Spragg is a beautiful but spoiled little Midwestern bourgeois princess. She goads her parents into relocating to New York City, where she hopes to realize her dream of marrying well, entering "society" as she sees it, and living a life of ease and entertainment, surrounded by all the things lots and lots of money can buy.
A succession of marital adventures (each with an aristocrat of a different type) teach her nothing about living a truly fulfilling life. Undine is sort of a proto-Scarlett O'Hara. But unlike Scarlett, she never undergoes any refining hardship, and thus, never develops her character into someone the reader can truly like.
This is a didactic book, in which Wharton shows us how the prevailing definitions and behaviors of success in business create such "perfect monsters" as Undine. A perceptive mouthpiece of a character states this theme outright in the first third of the book. "The custom of the country" has created her. The remainder of the book merely hammers the lesson home over and over again. Although there are some surprises and reversals, Undine is allowed to remain the same spoiled Undine she was from the beginning.
champers4days's review against another edition
3.0
Our dear Miss Wharton creates a perfectly unrepentant, narcissistic anti-heroine in Custom of the Country. Undine Spragg's father rises from social and economic obscurity to wealth, and during that rise creates a daughter who has the utterly fantastic ability to get whatever she wants, only to be wretchedly dissatisfied after her desires are met.
Undine's blindness to the fact that she ruins the lives of everyone around her while on this path of dissatisfaction is staggering - hence the narcissism. But it's an uncertain self-love, as she desperately tries to fit into whatever society she perceives to be better-off than her current circle. She reminds me of what an ignoble version of House of Mirth's Lily Bart would be if Bart got everything she wanted (which, of course, she does not).
I won't ruin the ending here, but suffice to say, Undine never learns from her past mistakes and makes everyone else around her miserable, while being mostly miserable herself. It's Wharton, so of course the book is expertly written, but the characters' downfalls are pretty painful to read...
Undine's blindness to the fact that she ruins the lives of everyone around her while on this path of dissatisfaction is staggering - hence the narcissism. But it's an uncertain self-love, as she desperately tries to fit into whatever society she perceives to be better-off than her current circle. She reminds me of what an ignoble version of House of Mirth's Lily Bart would be if Bart got everything she wanted (which, of course, she does not).
I won't ruin the ending here, but suffice to say, Undine never learns from her past mistakes and makes everyone else around her miserable, while being mostly miserable herself. It's Wharton, so of course the book is expertly written, but the characters' downfalls are pretty painful to read...
dannb's review against another edition
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Undine Spragg is a loathsome, deplorable narcissist... in an unhappy life. Wharton captures it all.
sleepingsaha's review against another edition
5.0
Oh, Undine — Lily Bart aspires to be her, Blair Waldorf grudgingly respects her, Daisy Buchanan understands her. I went into this novel knowing very little about it and I think that’s the way to do it, because I really could not predict what Undine, as well as the men she’s puppeteering, would be capable of. Wharton is brilliant at setting, and especially at varying setting based on the narrator’s POV. That’s part of what makes the book so compelling. I was also captured by the ferocity of Undine’s feelings, from her resentment to her longing to her self-interested curiosity. I feel like this would fit well into an “I support women’s rights and women’s wrongs” theme, and I also feel that the book raises intriguing questions about nationalism / Americanness, narrativizing one’s own life, and what we owe to not just our partners but our parents, our children, and the people we have once loved. The only thing I wish were different about this novel is the ending, which I felt wrapped things up too neatly and was a bit heavy-handed (I liked this better than “The Age of Innocence” but the ending of that one has stayed with me!). Still, I’m so glad I read this and I think it’ll be one of my favorites of the year!