Single-minded and spoilt, Undine Spragg arrives in New York determined to procure for herself a social status to match her family's wealth. Ambition, greed and an arresting beauty soon secure her path to marriage... and also to divorce. The Custom of the Country (1913) is a sophisticated commentary on both – touching on the implications for a woman of ending a marriage at a time when the author herself was navigating that very situation. As the splendidly mismatched Undine and Ralph travel to Europe, Wharton contrasts the pecuniary motivation of the nouveau riche in America with European ideals of tradition, and through her array of characters and subtle insights into society, she delivers a novel every bit as immersive and entertaining as The Age of Innocence.
