I recently enjoyed Edith Wharton's "The Custom of the Country". With its settings in the US and France, this 1913 work bears some thematic resemblance to the international novels of Henry James. Wharton's work, though, does not foreshadow the modernist use of stream of consciousness as does the later work of James; stylistically, Wharton is working with in the tradition of realism, so that one can associate her with William Dean Howells as much as with James.

Writing in this realist tradition and, as one might expect from the author of a pioneering work on interior decoration, scrutinizing in detail dwellings and their contents, Wharton narrates the merciless struggle of midwestern transplant to New York Undine Spragg for upward social mobility. Architecture, furnishings, decor, dress, and accessories not only reflect social and psychological states but also serve to pivot the plot.

I suspect Americans and Europeans, men and women, and young and old will react variously to the novel. I was impressed by its shrewd observation of manners and mores, impressed by its wit and irony, and gripped by the narrative of the odious protagonist's irrepressible social ascent. I remember reading somewhere that "Downton Abbey" creator and beneficiary of a Conservative title hand-out Julian Fellowes was rooting for Undine all the way; that tells us as much about Tory peers as Wharton's work.

I bought the Penguin Classics edition, pictured in this post. I recommend purchasing another edition, as pages fell out of this brand new book as if it were a cheap pulp paperback of old. What a disappointment!

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