"He seemed to be stumbling about in his inherited prejudices like a modern man in mediaeval armour…and the whole archaic structure of his rites and sanctions tumbled down about him."
Such a beautiful resonant quote. It got me thinking how it applies to many characters in my favorite books. Whether it is psychological trauma, displacement due to natural disasters, societal changes or times of war, we invest in a character and get to follow as they navigate what happens when their "structure of rites and sanctions" is destroyed and when their "inherited prejudices" are laid bare. We get to explore how they choose to face these realities and consider how we would act in their scenarios. I hope I would be stronger than Ralph, but of course I always want to believe I'll be the one who can make the heroic choices. I'm glad my collected cast of literary characters with their cautionary or inspiring stories now live with me. With each great book I read I learn again how true it is that story has always been the way that humans pass wisdom to succeeding generations. I can never be sure what an author like Wharton intended to say in her creation, I only know what I've extracted from it. I guess that's why reading great books at different times leads us to glean different understandings.
Shocked when Ralph took his life, I did not see that coming. I expected he would have another health crisis and move ever closer to Clare, who he was kissing vehemently only a dozen pages before. A dramatic end to Book 4, like a Netflix season finale.
Ralph’s mental torment is described very movingly. But the shock of the ending pulled me out of the immersion in that world, to think about the mechanics of the plot. I enjoy the abrupt changes and occasional jumps in the timeline but I sometimes feel like the convalescents in the Riviera hotel, reading volumes of a book out of sequence or with missing parts.
The parallel world of business of Moffat and Mr. Spragg, and the shadowy figures of Rolliver and Driscoll,
… are snagging my notice. I think somewhere earlier on someone says that business has its own customs, so one person can follow two different codes of behaviour
I was devastated when Ralph killed himself but not surprised - it was foreshadowed throughout Book 4, especially with the narrative buildup of Ralph (and Clare) investing in the shady Apex scheme and Moffat sleazily putting him off about getting a timely return on the investment. The fact that Ralph needed that money to keep custody of his son with his family made me hate Undine even more. (Toward the beginning if Book 5, she is described as explicitly thinking of Paul as a good “acquisition.”)
Tracking the role of the pearls is really intriguing as a narrative device, Haley, especially when I think about what pearls are: the secretions of a mollusk around an irritant like sand - that is, something beautiful harvested from pain. And then there’s Undine the nacreous, lacquered sea creature herself - and even (possibly) hints of Gilded Age excess like Oysters Rockefeller. Wharton the sharp-eyed social observer and author layers the references on in her brilliantly concise descriptions - word pearls, so to speak, that also hurt.
I was furious that Ralph didn't realise that he had the perfect means to keep Paul! All he had to do was to threaten Undine to reveal her previous divorce from Moffat if she did not give up her plan to take Paul away. I can't believe he was so weak as to kill himself rather than take a stand to save his son. I wash my hands of the whole lot of them.
While I agree that that would have been the most logical option, I think it demonstrated quite well how much of a prisoner Ralph is of his own upbringing where appearances mean everything and scandal is to be avoided at all cost. If (like Undine) he wouldn't care so much about his family's reputation, he wouldn't have hesitated to drag her through the courts to secure custody of Paul in the divorce proceedings. I think he even said this himself somewhere? It made me feel really sad for him, because if he'd for once taken a page out of Undine's book and tore himself free from the shackles of reputation, he never would have found himself in the situation where he could lose his son.
I agree Ralph would not have wanted a public scandal, but all he would have had to do was threaten to tell Raymond or, even better, Raymond's mother about the previous divorce.
Maybe, but I think logic abandoned him the moment he heard he wasn't going to get the money Mofatt promised him and that Mofatt had been married to Undine as well.
It's ironic that if Undine had stayed with Moffatt she may have been happier as well as not harming Ralph. Both amoral and obsessed with money they are well suited
I was thinking the same thing! Also, there's definitely something in that being the one time that her parents successfully stood up to Undine's will and separated them. The Spraggs have otherwise seemed helpless in the face of Undine; I'm not sure if that was their one big misstep, or if it's just easier for us to say "They'd be perfect for each other!" in a destructive way than it would be for a parent.
One thing I'm fascinated by is some of the echoes/contrast with Undine and Ralph. Their respective relationships with the Van Degens caught my eye: Undine and Peter had an affair which was scandalous but fell short of becoming anything respectable or emotionally reciprocal, while Clare and Ralph had mutual feelings in the past (and ongoing at least for her) set aside for reasons related to societal acceptance. Undine and Peter got along better when she was together with Ralph (and able to string him along), while Ralph and Clare reconnect when he is abandoned by Undine. Both Undine and Ralph accept a Van Degen's money. Undine takes it to get away from her marriage (both to travel, and then by selling the pearls to fund her search for a new marriage). Ralph accepts Clare's money to try and hang on to their son (who in a way personifies the connection between them). The whole scheme there is another interesting instance of them both going to Elmer: he gave Undine the idea to extort Ralph via custody of Paul, then agreed to a deal with Ralph to make the necessary money to pay her (and played dumb about why it was needed). Even structurally, we saw most of Undine's perspective of their relationship (obviously we see more of her POV in general) when she was trying to get him, and we've seen more of his POV when she's trying to get *away* from him.
He had ideas of elevating her mind and tastes when they married, but not only does she remain essentially unchanged, he later discovers she was never who he thought in the first place. And as she climbs higher *her way* (materially/socially/financially), she only drags him down. From the start she didn't enjoy her time alone with him; his lofty ideals and tastes are pushed aside to earn money for her; even the true joy he finds in parenthood is eventually sacrificed in the wake of her unending hunger and selfishness. She captures him, discards him, uses him up and moves on. It's so tragic.
I just finished Jia Tolentino's article about *The Custom of the Country*, which I may have read when it originally came out in 2019 in the *New Yorker* — it could be one thing steering me to view Undine Spragg as the perfect Insta influencer. Now that I've finished *The Custom of the Country*, I couldn't agree more with Tolentino about Wharton's sharp depiction of the "fame economy" for women — and Tolentino's conclusion about the shallow feminism a contemporary Undine might be lauded for today (think "lean in") felt like a knife to my heart. Has feminism become so devalued that it's all about surface aspirations? Say it ain't so.
it's fascinating to me that Wharton doesn't show big events themselves, or their direct aftermath, but several years down the road. she does this with ralph & undine's marriage, with paul's birth, with ralph's death, and with other plot points in book 5 that I won't spoil. it seems the events themselves aren't as important as what leads to them and what results from them.
I finished book 4 around midnight last night, completely unable to put it down as I raced through this section. And then I sat there in shock at those final lines. I will admit, throughout the novel I've been thinking, "Yeah, Undine completely sucks and she's really horrible, but to call her a monster? Maybe that's a bit much."
And then I got to the end of book 4 and felt my whole perspective shift. Yes, Ralph took his own life, but she pushed him to a breaking point (more than once), and his suicide is a direct result of her actions. She really is a monster. Justice for Ralph!!
I felt exactly the same ! In my comments on book 4 I even said that even though her values are not aligned with mine I could admire her resilience and determination…. But now I do agree she is a monster !! Poor Ralph!!
I had to put the book down for a week after book 4. I had predicted Undine would use her son to get 'what she wanted' after Moffat cleverly drops the hint and wrote at the end of chapter 3 'How could you Undine Spragg?’. But I never thought Ralph would be parted from Paul or end his own life. I felt heartbroken, never have I exhaled and gasped more than in reading this book.
Are there really people in the world like Undine? She becomes more and more ruthless with each turn of the page.
I also love the gaps in the story, it's so clever. Details that don't need to be spelled out, and we can imagine what is happening behind the scene. It also mirrors Undine's way of thinking and her goal for more. She's very good at not being 'interested in business', but wanting it to provide endlessly. She has an endless appetite that I don't think will ever be satiated or content. The system almost encourages and allows her to carry on as she does with it's double standards. The facade it presents, both in the US and in France. She knows how to play it to her own advantage.
Oh man, I'm not going to lie, that was a super bummer. I thought about responding through a mental health lens (am therapist in real life) and had several responses in my mind about that and then scrapped the whole thing and instead landed on unintended consequences. Wharton has really done a masterful job at slowly turning the temperature up on the stakes. We watched Undine drain money and resources from those around her (including her parents who have moved into a closet essentially) and then watched her abandon (neglect?) her son out of malice for being in her way. She used Ralph in whatever way she could before leaving him and then refusing to return when he was ill. Wharton did a real service to showing how significant Undine's reach was by having the most horrible consequence happen while Undine was not even in the country which seems like a specific choice-- showing how far reaching her destruction can go. I'll be curious if there is any kind of reflection on Undine's part about this change and while I don't expect her to feel responsible, I am curious if she can connect that this is at least precipitated in some way by the choices and actions she has made.
Ralph, no!
"He seemed to be stumbling about in his inherited prejudices like a modern man in mediaeval armour…and the whole archaic structure of his rites and sanctions tumbled down about him."
Such a beautiful resonant quote. It got me thinking how it applies to many characters in my favorite books. Whether it is psychological trauma, displacement due to natural disasters, societal changes or times of war, we invest in a character and get to follow as they navigate what happens when their "structure of rites and sanctions" is destroyed and when their "inherited prejudices" are laid bare. We get to explore how they choose to face these realities and consider how we would act in their scenarios. I hope I would be stronger than Ralph, but of course I always want to believe I'll be the one who can make the heroic choices. I'm glad my collected cast of literary characters with their cautionary or inspiring stories now live with me. With each great book I read I learn again how true it is that story has always been the way that humans pass wisdom to succeeding generations. I can never be sure what an author like Wharton intended to say in her creation, I only know what I've extracted from it. I guess that's why reading great books at different times leads us to glean different understandings.
Shocked when Ralph took his life, I did not see that coming. I expected he would have another health crisis and move ever closer to Clare, who he was kissing vehemently only a dozen pages before. A dramatic end to Book 4, like a Netflix season finale.
Ralph’s mental torment is described very movingly. But the shock of the ending pulled me out of the immersion in that world, to think about the mechanics of the plot. I enjoy the abrupt changes and occasional jumps in the timeline but I sometimes feel like the convalescents in the Riviera hotel, reading volumes of a book out of sequence or with missing parts.
The parallel world of business of Moffat and Mr. Spragg, and the shadowy figures of Rolliver and Driscoll,
… are snagging my notice. I think somewhere earlier on someone says that business has its own customs, so one person can follow two different codes of behaviour
I was devastated when Ralph killed himself but not surprised - it was foreshadowed throughout Book 4, especially with the narrative buildup of Ralph (and Clare) investing in the shady Apex scheme and Moffat sleazily putting him off about getting a timely return on the investment. The fact that Ralph needed that money to keep custody of his son with his family made me hate Undine even more. (Toward the beginning if Book 5, she is described as explicitly thinking of Paul as a good “acquisition.”)
Tracking the role of the pearls is really intriguing as a narrative device, Haley, especially when I think about what pearls are: the secretions of a mollusk around an irritant like sand - that is, something beautiful harvested from pain. And then there’s Undine the nacreous, lacquered sea creature herself - and even (possibly) hints of Gilded Age excess like Oysters Rockefeller. Wharton the sharp-eyed social observer and author layers the references on in her brilliantly concise descriptions - word pearls, so to speak, that also hurt.
I was furious that Ralph didn't realise that he had the perfect means to keep Paul! All he had to do was to threaten Undine to reveal her previous divorce from Moffat if she did not give up her plan to take Paul away. I can't believe he was so weak as to kill himself rather than take a stand to save his son. I wash my hands of the whole lot of them.
While I agree that that would have been the most logical option, I think it demonstrated quite well how much of a prisoner Ralph is of his own upbringing where appearances mean everything and scandal is to be avoided at all cost. If (like Undine) he wouldn't care so much about his family's reputation, he wouldn't have hesitated to drag her through the courts to secure custody of Paul in the divorce proceedings. I think he even said this himself somewhere? It made me feel really sad for him, because if he'd for once taken a page out of Undine's book and tore himself free from the shackles of reputation, he never would have found himself in the situation where he could lose his son.
I agree Ralph would not have wanted a public scandal, but all he would have had to do was threaten to tell Raymond or, even better, Raymond's mother about the previous divorce.
Maybe, but I think logic abandoned him the moment he heard he wasn't going to get the money Mofatt promised him and that Mofatt had been married to Undine as well.
And also, he's too honourable to do that.
It's ironic that if Undine had stayed with Moffatt she may have been happier as well as not harming Ralph. Both amoral and obsessed with money they are well suited
I was thinking the same thing! Also, there's definitely something in that being the one time that her parents successfully stood up to Undine's will and separated them. The Spraggs have otherwise seemed helpless in the face of Undine; I'm not sure if that was their one big misstep, or if it's just easier for us to say "They'd be perfect for each other!" in a destructive way than it would be for a parent.
One thing I'm fascinated by is some of the echoes/contrast with Undine and Ralph. Their respective relationships with the Van Degens caught my eye: Undine and Peter had an affair which was scandalous but fell short of becoming anything respectable or emotionally reciprocal, while Clare and Ralph had mutual feelings in the past (and ongoing at least for her) set aside for reasons related to societal acceptance. Undine and Peter got along better when she was together with Ralph (and able to string him along), while Ralph and Clare reconnect when he is abandoned by Undine. Both Undine and Ralph accept a Van Degen's money. Undine takes it to get away from her marriage (both to travel, and then by selling the pearls to fund her search for a new marriage). Ralph accepts Clare's money to try and hang on to their son (who in a way personifies the connection between them). The whole scheme there is another interesting instance of them both going to Elmer: he gave Undine the idea to extort Ralph via custody of Paul, then agreed to a deal with Ralph to make the necessary money to pay her (and played dumb about why it was needed). Even structurally, we saw most of Undine's perspective of their relationship (obviously we see more of her POV in general) when she was trying to get him, and we've seen more of his POV when she's trying to get *away* from him.
He had ideas of elevating her mind and tastes when they married, but not only does she remain essentially unchanged, he later discovers she was never who he thought in the first place. And as she climbs higher *her way* (materially/socially/financially), she only drags him down. From the start she didn't enjoy her time alone with him; his lofty ideals and tastes are pushed aside to earn money for her; even the true joy he finds in parenthood is eventually sacrificed in the wake of her unending hunger and selfishness. She captures him, discards him, uses him up and moves on. It's so tragic.
I just finished Jia Tolentino's article about *The Custom of the Country*, which I may have read when it originally came out in 2019 in the *New Yorker* — it could be one thing steering me to view Undine Spragg as the perfect Insta influencer. Now that I've finished *The Custom of the Country*, I couldn't agree more with Tolentino about Wharton's sharp depiction of the "fame economy" for women — and Tolentino's conclusion about the shallow feminism a contemporary Undine might be lauded for today (think "lean in") felt like a knife to my heart. Has feminism become so devalued that it's all about surface aspirations? Say it ain't so.
it's fascinating to me that Wharton doesn't show big events themselves, or their direct aftermath, but several years down the road. she does this with ralph & undine's marriage, with paul's birth, with ralph's death, and with other plot points in book 5 that I won't spoil. it seems the events themselves aren't as important as what leads to them and what results from them.
I think it also reflects undine's lack of concern with the mechanics of how she gets what she wants, as long as she gets what she wants.
I finished book 4 around midnight last night, completely unable to put it down as I raced through this section. And then I sat there in shock at those final lines. I will admit, throughout the novel I've been thinking, "Yeah, Undine completely sucks and she's really horrible, but to call her a monster? Maybe that's a bit much."
And then I got to the end of book 4 and felt my whole perspective shift. Yes, Ralph took his own life, but she pushed him to a breaking point (more than once), and his suicide is a direct result of her actions. She really is a monster. Justice for Ralph!!
I felt exactly the same ! In my comments on book 4 I even said that even though her values are not aligned with mine I could admire her resilience and determination…. But now I do agree she is a monster !! Poor Ralph!!
I had to put the book down for a week after book 4. I had predicted Undine would use her son to get 'what she wanted' after Moffat cleverly drops the hint and wrote at the end of chapter 3 'How could you Undine Spragg?’. But I never thought Ralph would be parted from Paul or end his own life. I felt heartbroken, never have I exhaled and gasped more than in reading this book.
Are there really people in the world like Undine? She becomes more and more ruthless with each turn of the page.
I also love the gaps in the story, it's so clever. Details that don't need to be spelled out, and we can imagine what is happening behind the scene. It also mirrors Undine's way of thinking and her goal for more. She's very good at not being 'interested in business', but wanting it to provide endlessly. She has an endless appetite that I don't think will ever be satiated or content. The system almost encourages and allows her to carry on as she does with it's double standards. The facade it presents, both in the US and in France. She knows how to play it to her own advantage.
Oh man, I'm not going to lie, that was a super bummer. I thought about responding through a mental health lens (am therapist in real life) and had several responses in my mind about that and then scrapped the whole thing and instead landed on unintended consequences. Wharton has really done a masterful job at slowly turning the temperature up on the stakes. We watched Undine drain money and resources from those around her (including her parents who have moved into a closet essentially) and then watched her abandon (neglect?) her son out of malice for being in her way. She used Ralph in whatever way she could before leaving him and then refusing to return when he was ill. Wharton did a real service to showing how significant Undine's reach was by having the most horrible consequence happen while Undine was not even in the country which seems like a specific choice-- showing how far reaching her destruction can go. I'll be curious if there is any kind of reflection on Undine's part about this change and while I don't expect her to feel responsible, I am curious if she can connect that this is at least precipitated in some way by the choices and actions she has made.