>. Orig. published 1913
> Audiobook
> Set in New York City
> Undine Spragg- obsessed with being accepted into New York's high society, heartless, egocentric, materialistic
> Title: indictment of America as hugely materialistic....plot focuses on marriage market, compares European priority on ideals to American focus on work..
> Men v. women: women set apart as separate, trained to focus on the material without any understanding of how it comes about
> LibraryThing Review: Edith Wharton's damning portrait of the never satisfied, social climbing, money grubbing American is an excellent read. Follow the marital career of Undine Spragg and cringe throughout the entire story. Undine represents all that is base and ugly about the upstart American women contrasted with the elegant, complex European social system. I particularly love the closing, as Undine ponders her awareness that there is one thing she cannot have. She cannot be the wife of an asmbassador because she has been divorced. How crushing! To me, this is a harsher, clunter Edith Wharton than I am used to, yet still wonderful!
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