Rating: 
Summary: Another Edith Wharton Success
Review: This is the fourth Edith Wharton book I have read. I read it a couple of months after reading The House of Mirth, and The Custom of the Country actually makes a great companion piece to it.
Custom of the Country is hard to love. We loathe the selfishness of its main character, Undine Spragg, who always gets her way even if it ruins her parents or husband. We marvel at her self-centeredness and her lack of awareness of what she is doing to others. And she doesn't even have the spirit that a similar character, Scarlett O'Hara, has--something that make us root for Scarlett despite her character.
On the other hand, the House of Mirth is easy to love. Its protagonist, Lily Bart, cries out for our sympathy and love. She realizes she is caught by unfair societal requirements and wants to break free of them. She is unable to do so, and it causes tragedy.
But both Undine and Lily are caught in the same web. They both cannot be truly happy because they cannot see a way out of their upbringing. The main difference is that Lily is aware of her problem and Undine is not.
But we should have sympathy for Undine, and we should judge Lily more harshly. Shouldn't Lily, being aware that making her way in society is not a way to happiness, figure a way to break through of society's rules? Shouldn't we feel sorry for Undine who never figures out that social climbing will not make her truly happy?
It is Wharton's genius to show us the flip-sides of how American aristocratic society harmed its great society ladies in these two richly written, beautiful books. Everyone who has read and loved The House of Mirth should read this book.
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Summary: The Heroine is a True American
Review: To anyone who has read The Custom of the Country, the idea that Undine Spragg is the perfect personification of America would be something to think about. To those who haven't read it, my humble advice is that they read it and form an opinion on that subject. For now, I'll explain my reasoning: Undine is decidedly ambitious,and the levels of her ambition are often praised and lamented by other characters. She is a social climber, and she uses other people as the rungs in her ladder. So do many business moguls, however. So do normal people. We simply refer to it as 'doing what has to be done,' or 'having a way with people,' or even 'brown nosing.' Monopolies are built with these adverbs as their hammer and nails. Our way of life is founded on them. Yet we relish our dislike for Undine Spragg for attempting to build her life in this way, the only way she was taught. We do not notice that the essence of Undine is floating all around us. It built the house we live in and produced the computer we are using right now. It is the essence of Cold Ambition. It builds itself up with or without help, reaches its peak, sees a better peak, and climbs even higher. Success is never achieved, because to profess success is to say that we can do no better now. We are raised to believe that that idea is profane. We can always do better and go higher. Just read the last line of The Custom of the Country. It's a killer.I think Undine was dangerous, personally. If I knew her, I would stay away from her as well as I could. But just look at the thoughts that this book brings out. Read it and join in the fun.
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Summary: A woman trapped by society and personal greed.
Review: Undine Spragg - a beautiful women with very little intelligence. Her petulant behaviour carries us through this novel as she uses her family to propel herself through the ranks of New York society. She marries to further her stature and soon discovers that moving in the right circles only takes her so far without the money to maintain the lifestyle she craves. Undine discards the people of her life as they fail to provide the monetary support she needs and looks to affairs and friendships to cover her shortcomings financially. It would be easy to hate her character except for the fact that she is not smart enough to realize the hurt she causes those around her, she never seems to hurt them intentionally they just get in the way of her greed and ambition. At times I even pitied her. Other readers thought she was content by the end of the book, but I don't think Undine will ever be content, there will always be greener pastures...
Rating: 
Summary: Wharton's Best
Review: What a marvelous author Edith Wharton is! I like to copy passages from her books just to feel how beautifully she constructs her sentences and paragraphs. I've also read Ethan Frome, Summer, House of Mirth, and Age of Innocence; they are all terrific novels. But The Custom of the Country is her best. Could there be a worse mother, wife, or daughter than Undine? And yet, she is too pathetic to hate; she is so needy and dependent upon material things. She's perhaps the most unliberated woman in literature! Do read this novel; you will love it and learn from it.
Rating:
Summary: Simply brilliant
Review: What an incredible book this is. I'm so glad the other reader-reviewers here also appreciate it for what it is: a haunting masterpiece by one of America's most gifted novelists. The tragedy of Undine Spragg is not the legacy of pain and desolation she leaves behind her, it's the fact that American society of that time created the monster she was; she was its perfect Frankenstein. I also agree with one other reviewer who wrote that this book would translate well to film.
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