The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton

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The Custom of the Country Summary
Edith Wharton

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The Custom of the Country Summary

Modern American marriage customs and divorce are two of the main themes in Wharton's novel. As Charles Bowen, a character who serves as a social analyst, observes, it is "the custom of the country" for a man to slave away to pay for "his wife's extravagances" without ever telling her anything about the work he does. The consequence is that there is little if any shared life in many American marriages. The center...

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The Custom of the Country Short Guide

Characters

Social Concerns

Techniques

Themes

Key Questions

Literary Precedents

Project Gutenberg eBooks (1)

The Custom of the Country

160,110 words, approx. 534 pages

THE CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY I “Undine Spragg—how can you?” her mother wailed, raising a prematurely-wrinkled hand heavy with rings to defend the note which a languid “bell-b... Read more

Edith Wharton Biographies (8)

Edith (Newbold Jones) Wharton

3,042 words, approx. 11 pages

The breadth of Edith Wharton's achievement makes definition of her place in literary history difficult. For fifty years she wrote prolifically, and her audience ranged from scholars to readers of popu... Read more

Edith (Newbold Jones) Wharton

10,907 words, approx. 37 pages

Perhaps the most striking thing about Edith Wharton 's reputation as a novelist is the fact that she has been "reclaimed" so many times. This fact seems all the more remarkable when one reflects that... Read more

Edith (Newbold Jones) Wharton

10,894 words, approx. 37 pages

While at the close of her career Edith Wharton was sometimes regarded as passe, a literary aristocrat whose fiction about people of high social standing had little to tell about the masses, particul... Read more

Edith (Newbold Jones) Wharton

9,059 words, approx. 31 pages

Although Edith Wharton is better known as a novelist than a short-story writer, she was in fact writing and publishing stories well before her debut as a novelist in 1902. Her first published story ... Read more

Edith (Newbold Jones) Wharton

9,451 words, approx. 32 pages

Henry James observed in an August 1902 letter to Edith Wharton's sister-in-law, Mrs. Cadwalader Jones, that Wharton "must be tethered in native pastures, even if it reduces her to a back-yard in New Y... Read more

Edith Wharton

387 words, approx. 2 pages

Edith Wharton (1861-1937), American author, chronicled the life of affluent Americans between the Civil War and World War I.Edith Wharton was born Edith Newbold Jones in New York City, probably on Jan... Read more

Edith Wharton

3,538 words, approx. 12 pages

During the early decades of the twentieth century--at a time when New York City could ban women from smoking in public--one American woman published works which discussed love outside of marriage, sca... Read more

Edith Wharton

11,252 words, approx. 38 pages

Biography EssayWhile at the close of her career Edith Wharton was sometimes regarded as passe, a literary aristocrat whose fiction about people of high social standing had little to tell about the mas... Read more

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The Custom of the Country SummaryEdith Wharton

The Custom of the Country Summary

Study Pack

The Custom of the Country Short Guide

Project Gutenberg eBooks (1)

Edith Wharton Biographies (8)

The Custom of the Country Summary
Edith Wharton