Parting Thoughts for The Custom of the Country
Until I learned it was satire, my parting thoughts were "good riddance" because it was my least favorite of the four Edith Wharton novels I've read.
Now that I realize it was satirical, I think my parting thoughts are more about Edith Wharton herself and piecing together why she would write such a novel with such an utterly unlikeable main character.
She moved to France permanently in 1910 (and is buried there). She wrote The Custom of the Country in 1913 (the same year she divorced her husband). I wonder if The Custom of the Country (and Undine herself) was a parting shot at the life she'd lived until that point?
It certainly seems like a novel that would have burned bridges.