Custom of the Country

Edith Wharton’s piercing novel Custom of the Country comes to life in this audio experience, read by the author herself. Wharton, that masterful chronicler of late 19th Century New York Society, invites listeners directly into the tumultuous world of Undine Sprague. We follow this beautiful and relentlessly ambitious socialite from Apex City as she navigates the intricate rules of love, marriage, and social climbing. Her journey, which stretches from the drawing rooms of New York to the salons of France, is a fascinating study of desire and consequence, marked by broken hearts and shattered lives in her single-minded quest for a happiness she can never quite define. Each episode of this podcast allows Wharton’s own voice and impeccable prose to guide us through Undine’s maneuvers, offering a rich immersion into the customs and hypocrisies of a gilded age. It’s more than an audiobook; it’s an intimate encounter with a classic work of fiction, revealing new layers in its critique of society and ambition. For anyone drawn to nuanced characters and timeless social drama, this podcast provides a compelling, direct connection to one of literature’s greatest observers.