Okay, I'm surprised by that.

[neadods]

Wow, I'm the only vote for The Custom of the Country in the previous poll? Poor Edith Wharton. That is a *great* book, y'all - what Sister Carrie would have been if Carrie had more than two brain cells to knock together. TBH, I've never figured out why, what with the current fashion for scheming, bored, rich, social-climbing housewives, it hasn't been made into a movie.

Comments

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

It *is* a great book, but you put it up against To Kill a Mockingbird . . .

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Point.

[cedara]

Honestly? Never heard of it. *shrugs*

[neadods.livejournal.com]

It's undeservedly obscure. Think Jane Austen only even more sarcastic and with a Hampdens accent.

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

i never heard of the book.... its good?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I adore it. It's turn of the last century society, red in tooth and tiara. There are a lot of parallels to Sister Carrie; it's as if Wharton looked at Dreiser and said "No, honey, THIS is how it goes!"

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

ah
i regret to inform you i never read, or even remember hearing of, sister carrie.. obviously i have my reading list for the summer

i read virology novels, and mysteries...and SF...so i likely missed these

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Sister Carrie was required English Lit reading that I ended up liking. Custom of the Country is apparently being forgotten entirely.

[tempestsarekind.livejournal.com]

I tried to read it once, and it didn't take at all. One of these days I'm going to give it another go, but...in the meantime, if I were handing out books to strangers, I'd have to go with a Wharton novel that I could actually recommend, on account of actually having read it. :)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Well, as I'd be the one handing it out and I love it... :D

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

I've never read it, but it'll definitely be on my list now.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Oh, do read it. The heroine is an unrepentant bitch, but I have to admire her dedication to a goal.

[fyrdrakken]

Having been using your book rec posts to save titles to my Amazon wishlist for possible later reading, I was pleased to find that this one was another of those out-of-copyright free-digital-edition titles. So, I "bought" it, though no telling when I'll get around to reading it...

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

OH? oh cool... going to get it!

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Sister Carrie's also in free editions. So you can try 'em both at your leisure without cost.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

To get a taste for Wharton, try her equally free short story Xingu. It's my favorite short ever.

[fyrdrakken]

Thanks for that -- picked it up and Sister Carrie as well.

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

"what Sister Carrie would have been if Carrie had more than two brain cells to knock together"

I've never heard of The Custom of the Country, but now I'm moved to try it out, because PLEASE YES. I trudged through Sister Carrie in ninth grade ranting that there was no reason for her to end up in any of those situations if she had any remotest amount of Not Utterly Stupid. It made me lose trust for awhile in men's ability to write a female protagonist.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Undine (the anti-heroine of Custom) ends up with many of the same types of men, but while she started out with the "innocence" required of a woman of the time, she learns rapidly and dedicates everything to her deliberate climb upwards, the occasional wrong turn notwithstanding.

Custom of the Country was written by a woman. And that does make all the difference. Like Austen, Wharton subverted the idea of the woman as sweet and helpless.