What does Undine and Sintram mean?

In Undine, first published in 1811, a water sprite marries a knight. In Sintram, a knight undertakes a semi-allegorical quest.

Who is Undine Spragg?

If Undine Spragg, the heroine of Wharton’s novel “The Custom of the Country,” were alive today, she would have a million followers on Instagram and be a Page Six legend. When “The Custom of the Country” begins, Undine is a desperate newcomer to New York, two years sprung from the fictional town of Apex.

Where is Undine Spragg from?

Apex City

Where is Apex in custom of the country?

Ambitious and greedy, Undine Spragg — note her initials: U.S. — comes from the fictional city of Apex, which is somewhere in the Midwest, but unimportant now that Undine’s mounting New York’s social ladder, two, three, four rungs at a time.

What is a custom in a country?

A custom (also called a tradition) is a common way of doing things. It is something that many people do, and have done for a long time. Usually, the people come from the same country, culture, or religion. Many customs are things that people do that are handed down from the past.

What happens to Undine after the wedding?

After the wedding night, Undine is transformed because she has acquired a human soul. She reveals her true nature as a water-spirit to her husband, who chooses to remain with her. It is Uncle Kühleborn, the most powerful water-spirit in the region.

What is the meaning of Custom of the Country?

1 a usual or habitual practice; typical mode of behaviour. 2 the long-established habits or traditions of a society collectively; convention.

How long is the custom of the country?

The average reader will spend 8 hours and 45 minutes reading this book at 250 WPM (words per minute). First published in 1913, Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country is a scathing novel of ambition featuring one of the most ruthless heroines in literature.

When was custom of the country written?

1913

What year is custom of the country set?

The Custom of the Country is a 1913 tragicomedy of manners novel by American Edith Wharton. It tells the story of Undine Spragg, a Midwestern girl who attempts to ascend in New York City society.

How does the custom of the country satirize the institution of marriage?

How does The Custom of the Country satirize the institution of marriage? Its protagonist, Undine Spragg, goes through a series of husbands, in an age when divorce was taboo. Its protagonist, Undine Spragg, falls in love with the caretaker of her sickly husband.

What Edith Wharton knew a century?

As Jia Tolentino points out in her review What Edith Wharton Knew, a Century Ago, About Women and Fame in America, ‘Undine gets the essentials: that to be beautiful, for a woman, is to be seen, which is to be wanted, which is to be handed the ability to exploit an economic system’.

Is Edith Wharton a feminist?

One of her more perceptive critics, Blake Nevius, writing in 1953, accused Wharton of a “lurking feminism.” Feminist concerns do appear in her work, although she did not associate herself with the feminist movement of her time. …

What was Edith Wharton known for?

Edith Wharton, née Edith Newbold Jones, (born January 24, 1862, New York, New York, U.S.—died August 11, 1937, Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt, near Paris, France), American author best known for her stories and novels about the upper-class society into which she was born.

Is Edith Wharton a modernist?

1Critical dissonance over Edith Wharton’s modernist practices has intensified over the last decade, and although few view her nowadays as the “literary aristocrat” Parrington had firmly ensconced in the nineteenth century (153), Wharton’s relationship with modernism and modernist writing continues to be an increasingly …

Is the Age of Innocence a modernist novel?

But The Age of Innocence has a lot more in common with the era’s robustly demanding works of modernist fiction than is commonly acknowledged. It is less a sentimental return to a lost world than it is an exploration of new ideas about individual freedom, romantic intimacy, and social life.

What is Edith Wharton’s writing style?

Edith Wharton’s style included the use of subtle dramatic irony. Her writing style is called social realism, a style of the later part of the nineteenth century. It prevailed mostly as a reaction to the romanticism that had taken up most of the century in its grip. Edith Wharton was also a talented designer.

What should I read by Edith Wharton?

Reading Pathways: Edith Wharton

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton.
The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton.
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton.

Why does Newland Archer walk away?

He contemplates the power of their past relationship and cannot reconcile it with the docility that it would now be negated to. Newland realizes that he is unable to bring the same zealousness to the relationship that it deserves; it is in honor of that memory that he walks away.

Who wrote Age of Innocence?

Edith Wharton

What was Edith Wharton’s maiden name?

Edith Newbold Jones

Who wrote Ethan Frome?

What year does Age of Innocence take place?

1870s

Who was Edith Wharton’s father?

George Frederic Jones