Introduction

The Custom of the Country, first published on 18 October 1913, has been described as Edith Wharton’s ‘most powerful’ novel, ‘her greatest book’, her ‘most ambitious masterpiece’ and a ‘tour de force’. In fact, neither professional nor personal conditions had been propitious—with 1913 also marking the culmination of a dramatic, at times traumatic, period in the author’s life. Yet real life for Wharton would prove in many respects a series of ‘adventures with books’ — a phrase she employed twice as titles of fragmentary, abandoned reminiscences — and, throughout, writing remained at its heart. In the years since publication, The Custom of the Country, has attracted an array of critical readings. Elizabeth Ammons interprets the work as ‘one of America’s great business novels’, throwing ‘a brilliant, satiric light on the institution of marriage, stripping it of all sentiment and sentimentality’.