The Custom of the Country (Modern Library Torchbearers) - Softcover

Wharton, Edith

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0375758070 ISBN 13: 9780375758072

Publisher: Modern Library, 2001

Synopsis

The classic satire of New York society and the American Dream through the misadventures of an insatiable young striver—with an introduction by Jia Tolentino, author of Trick Mirror

Ambitious and wholeheartedly materialistic, Undine Spragg is a beautiful heiress who sees men as a means to an end. New York millionaires and French aristocrats fall at her feet, but each conquest is merely a stepping-stone in Undine’s quest for power and position—and in her elusive search for happiness.

A biting satire from one of America’s greatest writers, The Custom of the Country features an antiheroine as compelling and driven as Scarlett O’Hara, a sharp-eyed critique of the marriage market and its objectification of women, and a knowing send-up of Gilded Age snobbery. 

The Modern Library Torchbearers series features women who wrote on their own terms, with boldness, creativity, and a spirit of resistance:
 
AMERICAN INDIAN STORIES · THE AWAKENING · THE CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY · THE HEADS OF CERBERUS · LADY AUDLEY’S SECRET · LOVE, ANGER, MADNESS · PASSING · THE TRANSFORMATION OF PHILIP JETTAN · VILLETTE

About this title

From the Publisher:

10 1.5-hour cassettes

From the Inside Flap:

Highly acclaimed at its publication in 1913, The Custom of the Country is a cutting commentary on America's nouveaux riches, their upward-yearning aspirations and their eventual downfalls. Through her heroine, the beautiful and ruthless Undine Spragg, a spoiled heiress who looks to her next materialistic triumph as her latest conquest throws himself at her feet, Edith Wharton presents a startling, satiric vision of social behavior in all its greedy glory. As Undine moves from America's heartland to Manhattan, and then to Paris, Wharton's critical eye leaves no social class unscathed.

About this edition

• Publisher: Modern Library
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0375758070
• ISBN 13: 9780375758072
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416