The Custom of the Country in Never too Late to Read Classics

Jan 31, 2021 Sarah rated it it was amazing

I really enjoyed. Why do they make us read Ethan Frome in school? Its so dreadful, you avoid Wharton for the rest of your life. When I re-read Frome as an adult, I had much greater appreciation. Just as this novel - I would have so oversimplified it if I read it in my teens or 20's. I don't like Undine, but I have much more sympathy and understanding of her now. She's not evil, she doesn't even realize the damage she's caused - she certainly didn't intend it. She's just thoughtless. Vapid. If sh I really enjoyed. Why do they make us read Ethan Frome in school? Its so dreadful, you avoid Wharton for the rest of your life. When I re-read Frome as an adult, I had much greater appreciation. Just as this novel - I would have so oversimplified it if I read it in my teens or 20's. I don't like Undine, but I have much more sympathy and understanding of her now. She's not evil, she doesn't even realize the damage she's caused - she certainly didn't intend it. She's just thoughtless. Vapid. If she lived today (and she does), she'd spend her time watching the Kardashians and other "influencers." The social world has not changed, the fashions change, but not the need. I read an interesting essay by Claire Messud (never read her work, but now want to), who posited some interesting ideas about Undine, and possibly Edith. Edith was perhaps more sympathetic to Undine than you might think. Undine was a smart girl who wanted things -- yet every possibility of getting those things was closed to her as a pretty girl except for one . . . using her beauty to attract rich men. Undine was not stupid, nor lazy. She worked hard at her job - being attractive and the life of the party. She spent a great deal of energy and effort to be the "it" girl. She absolutely saw nothing wrong with expecting financial windfalls to come from her effort -- how else was she to get $$ for the material things she both needed and wanted? With every man that she uses to move up the ladder, she sighs a breath of relief, "At last, she had what she wanted." is a phrase used several times in the novel. Ah, but as soon as she reaches one level, she realizes that if she stands on tip-toe there's a whole other level just beyond her grasp - and her work starts all over again. Early in the novel a European man bemoans the condition of (upper class) American women - they are boring/childish/materially grasping because they aren't allowed to be anything else. American women are not expected, nor even allowed, to take an interest in their husband's work or financial condition. Is it this man's opinion that European (French?) women are expected to be more knowledgeable adult partners? That's the way I took it. Was that Edith's opinion? Maybe.

Was Undine an independent woman - not quite in the sense we think of a modern independent woman because she relied on men for money - but she sure wasn't about to let a man (or society) tell her how to behave. When things start breaking down with Raymond, husband #3, "She gradually began to be aware that her domination over him involved a corresponding loss of independence." Raymond expected Undine to understand financial matters, but "it was a proficiency no one had ever expected her to acquire." This inability to in any way be a financial partner made her less important to Raymond. Then the final death knell of this marriage, Madame Trezac tells Undine that she's not getting invites from Raymond's "set" because she's boring. Poor Undine. "It was impossible for Undine to understand a social organization which did not regard the indulging of woman as it first purpose." I don't know how that squares with her desires for 'independence.'

**Undine visits old beau Elmer's hotel suite, takes in its beauty and fashion, yet noting "there were no books in the room." For Undine, that's a positive, for me (and John Waters) its a big negative.

So old money, old New York Ralph - he cannot survive in this new world. Undine can and does very well. Edith herself (a divorced woman) gave up New York for Europe. I definitely did not get the feeling that Edith was passing any judgments here - just showing us the upper crust in all its questionable glory. ...more

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