The Custom of the Country

Wharton’s sly and delicious novel about the ambitious social ascent of Undine Spragg, now in a Penguin Vitae edition, with a foreword by Sofia Coppola

A Penguin Vitae Edition

Considered by many to be her masterpiece, Edith Wharton’s second full-length work is a scathing yet personal examination of the exploits and 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 and its nouveau riche fringes. Through a heroine who is as vain, spoiled, and selfish as she is irresistibly fascinating, and through a most intricate and satisfying plot that follows Undine’s marriages and affairs, she conveys a vision of social behavior that is both supremely informed and supremely disenchanted. 

Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was born Edith Newbold Jones. A member of a distinguished New York family, she was educated privately in America and abroad. During her life, she published more than forty volumes: novels, stories, verse, essays, travel books, and memoirs.
 
Sofia Coppola is a director, producer and screenwriter. Her films include The Virgin Suicides (1999), Lost in Translation (2003), Marie Antoinette (2006), Somewhere (2010), The Bling Ring (2013), The Beguiled (2017), and On the Rocks (2020). She won the 2004 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation. She has written an adaptation of The Custom of the Country.
 
Sarah Blackwood is co-founder and co-editor of the Avidly Reads short book series with NYU Press. She is currently Chair of the Department of English at Pace University. Her writings have appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, Slate, and The Hairpin. Blackwood is the introducer to the Penguin Classics edition of Wharton’s The Age of Innocence.