Friday Finds: The Custom of the Country

The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton

Friday Finds is hosted by Should Be Reading

Here’s the blurb from the publisher:

First published in 1913, Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country is a scathing novel of ambition featuring one of the most ruthless heroines in literature. Undine Spragg is as unscrupulous as she is magnetically beautiful. Her rise to the top of New York’s high society from the nouveau riche provides a provocative commentary on the upwardly mobile and the aspirations that eventually cause their ruin. One of Wharton’s most acclaimed works, The Custom of the Country is a stunning indictment of materialism and misplaced values that is as powerful today for its astute observations about greed and power as when it was written nearly a century ago.

I really need to make notes when I come across books I want to read. I saw this one mentioned somewhere and got so excited that I added it to my Goodreads list and then promptly forgot where I saw it. If you recently mentioned this book, then thank you!

Doesn’t it look good? I wish I could just lock myself in a room for a year just so that I could read all the classics that I’ve been wanting to.

6 thoughts on “Friday Finds: The Custom of the Country”

I’ve never read any of Wharton’s work. I think I’m intimidated because I remember my sister moaning and groaning as she read Ethan Frome in high school.

I’ve never read Wharton either, but I’m ready and willing (if only I had about 10 more hours a day!!!). I have notes everywhere on books I want to read. It is out of control.

so funny–i picked up a journal with book spines on the cover for this very purpose! i am now writing down where i read about books and take notes while reading books. i’m such a good little reader…this week. ahahah.

as for wharton…i only read classics during the school year. that’s my deal. in the summer, all bets are off and i read anything i can get my hands on!!

I must’ve read this before I started keeping a reading journal. So it had to have been prior to 1995. I’ve read several books by Wharton and I vaguely remember this being one of my favorites. The Age of Innocence and The Children are both very good, too.