Reviews

The Custom of the Country by Linda Wagner-Martin, Edith Wharton

buildingtaste's review against another edition

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dark sad tense slow-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

3.0

Last book of my 20s. I guess it’s kind of a fitting one. I think I expected this to be faster paced and funnier, but it was just brutal. Definitely not a typical Wharton heroine, Undine had a lot in common with Carrie Meeber, right down to the final vignette of her haunted by wanting ever more. 

relright's review against another edition

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5.0

Wowee - legitimately one of the best books I’ve read in awhile. This is the 1913 story of Undine, a spoiled rotten beautiful daughter of recently rich midwesterners who have come to gilded age New York City specifically to help their daughter rise in life to the position Undine thinks she deserves. However Undine doesnt just seek wealth but also prestige in names and connections but she is also impatient and believes that money can be procured for her indulgences because that is how her father has always provided for her. In this she marries Ralph Marvell a man from a well placed NYC society family who not only does not have great monetary wealth but thinks himself a novelist and has unwittingly picked Undine thinking she was untainted by the airs of his class. Quickly they tire of each others company and differing lifestyles - Ralph pining for the understated grace of his cousin Clare Van Degan and Undine starting to covet the money of Clare’s husband Peter Van degan and scheming for how to gain access to it. Also hovering around the edges is a fellow midwesterner upwardly mobile businessman Elmer Moffatt who Undine is clearly keen to hide her prior connection with and begins to mildly blackmail undine and her father alike.  Further intrigues, drama, and bad behavior continues the whole novel through about two decades of Undine’s life. Like a gilded age real housewife you can’t decide if you despise Undine’s bratty behavior or are rooting for her success. After starting reading it I found news that Sofia Coppola intends to adapt this book as a mini series and I will be a thorn in the side of everyone I know until it exists because only Sofia Coppola will best be able to portray this type of anti-heroine with both savage honesty yet humanizing grace. I say if you only read one classic book this year I recommend this one.

adson814's review against another edition

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5.0

Great book :)

I really enjoyed reading. I felt like a lot of the situations still happen in today's world, a little too often. But that's life. I think any good faithful woman would enjoy this book. Or maybe anyone who believes you don't always get what you want.

eyeball83's review against another edition

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funny relaxing slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

plankpot's review against another edition

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medium-paced

3.25

digitalcage's review against another edition

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4.0

A surprising study of a character (a true antiheroine--an American terror) and a time and place (upper-class New York and Paris, late 19th Century). Carefully, ruthlessly observed and unflinchingly audacious in the portrait it paints and the story it tells.

chrisg's review against another edition

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Not a good fit when reading Middlemarch.

jryberg's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

colleen_stearns's review against another edition

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dark funny tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

overbooked_va's review against another edition

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challenging 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

An absolute master, Wharton creates a uniquely American fully realized protagonist in Undine Spragg. With behavior both repellant and fascinating, Undine indefatigably climbs the social ladder of American and European society. Wharton skewers her characters with incisive wit and a rueful affection. The Custom of the Country is not only a portrait of it’s time but also shockingly contemporary.