From the Bookshelf of Reading with Style…
Find A Copy At
Group Discussions About This Book
No group discussions for this book yet.
What Members Thought
The custom of the country: money is the driving influence - wives are too busy spending it and husbands are too busy making it and neither cares enough beyond the money to pay attention to the other. Well, that's sort of the premise. It's certainly true for Undine Spragg, our main character. She is irresistibly beautiful, it seems, and men are attracted to her like moths to a flame on a summer evening. Money is essential to Undine - essential to making sure the right people notice her, because b
...more
Wharton is a genius. This has all the pieces that a Jane Austen novel has (the parties, the socialites, the witty conversations across gender lines, the social climbing, the titular rich vs. the rich rich), but it's so much better!
Because Wharton is meticulously unpacking the social and cultural milieu as she goes. She isn't precious about her characters, and doesn't refrain from judging them whether they are the winners or the victims of their time.
Undine learns a ton throughout the book, throu ...more
Because Wharton is meticulously unpacking the social and cultural milieu as she goes. She isn't precious about her characters, and doesn't refrain from judging them whether they are the winners or the victims of their time.
Undine learns a ton throughout the book, throu ...more
Feb 20, 2014
Anna Kļaviņa
marked it as gutenberg
May 15, 2014
Lavender
marked it as to-read
May 24, 2015
Lindy-Lane
marked it as to-read
May 31, 2015
Karen Michele Burns
marked it as to-read
Dec 24, 2015
Salma
marked it as to-read
Feb 26, 2016
Ali
marked it as to-read
Apr 12, 2017
Read Between The Lines
marked it as to-read
Apr 23, 2017
Juniper
marked it as to-read
May 04, 2017
Ev
marked it as to-read
Jun 15, 2017
Andra
marked it as to-read
Feb 11, 2024
Lindsay
marked it as to-read
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
z-own,
z-own-paperback
Jan 30, 2025
Kawther
is currently reading it
