Edith Wharton

Name: The Custom of the Country — Chapter XV
Author: Edith Wharton

The Custom of the Country — Chapter XV (1913)

Summary

“The Custom of the Country — Chapter XV”, published in 1913, is a work by Edith Wharton. It explores elements such as Undine, Ralph and Fairford.

Quotes from The Custom of the Country — Chapter XV (Edith Wharton)

Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country — Chapter XV (1913)

“ When he entered the house the hall was still dark and the small over-furnished drawing-room empty. The parlour-maid told him that Mrs. Marvell had not yet come in, and he went upstairs to the nursery. But on the threshold the nurse met him with the whispered request not to make a noise, as it had been hard to quiet the boy after the afternoon's disappointment, and she had just succeeded in putting him to sleep. Ralph went down to his own room and threw himself in the old college arm-chair in which, four years previously, he had sat the night out, dreaming of Undine. ”

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Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country — Chapter XV (1913)

“ Why does the European woman interest herself so much more in what the men are doing? Because she's so important to them that they make it worth her while! She's not a parenthesis, as she is here--she's in the very middle of the picture. I'm not implying that Ralph isn't interested in his wife--he's a passionate, a pathetic exception. But even he has to conform to an environment where all the romantic values are reversed. Where does the real life of most American men lie? In some woman's drawing-room or in their offices? ”

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Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country — Chapter XV (1913)

“ He never comes near me, Laura: I have to hunt him down to get a glimpse of him!"
Slender and shadowy in her long furs, she bent to kiss Mrs. Fairford and then turned back to Ralph. "Yes, I knew I'd catch you here. I knew it was the boy's birthday, and I've brought him a present: a vulgar expensive Van Degen offering. I've not enough imagination left to find the right thing, the thing it takes feeling and not money to buy. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country — Chapter XV (1913)

“ Bowen took leave, and Laura sat silent, watching her brother under lowered lids while she feigned to be busy with the kettle. Ralph presently emptied his cup and put it aside; then, sinking into his former attitude, he clasped his hands behind his head and lay staring apathetically into the fire. But suddenly he came to life and started up. A motor-horn had sounded outside, and there was a noise of wheels at the door.
"There's Undine! I wonder what could have kept her." He jumped up and walked to the door; but it was Clare Van Degen who came in. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country — Chapter XV (1913)

“ All my sympathy's with them, poor deluded dears, when I see their fallacious little attempt to trick out the leavings tossed them by the preoccupied male--the money and the motors and the clothes--and pretend to themselves and each other that THAT'S what really constitutes life! ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country — Chapter XV (1913)

“ Bowen paused to light another cigarette, and then took up his theme. "Isn't that the key to our easy divorces? If we cared for women in the old barbarous possessive way do you suppose we'd give them up as readily as we do? The real paradox is the fact that the men who make, materially, the biggest sacrifices for their women, should do least for them ideally and romantically. And what's the result--how do the women avenge themselves? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country — Chapter XV (1913)

“ Then again, in this country the passion for making money has preceded the knowing how to spend it, and the American man lavishes his fortune on his wife because he doesn't know what else to do with it. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country — Chapter XV (1913)

“ He paused. "The fact that the average American looks down on his wife."
Mrs. Fairford was up with a spring. "If that's where paradox lands you!"
Bowen mildly stood his ground. "Well--doesn't he prove it? How much does he let her share in the real business of life? How much does he rely on her judgment and help in the conduct of serious affairs? Take Ralph for instance--you say his wife's extravagance forces him to work too hard; but that's not what's wrong. It's normal for a man to work hard for a woman--what's abnormal is his not caring to tell her anything about it."
"To tell Undine? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country — Chapter XV (1913)

“ He escaped again just before you came. Undine promised she'd have the boy here at four. It's not as if it had never happened before. She's always breaking her engagements."
"She has so many that it's inevitable some should get broken."
"All if she'd only choose! Now that Ralph has had into business, and is kept in his office so late, it's cruel of her to drag him out every night. He told us the other day they hadn't dined at home for a month. Undine doesn't seem to notice how hard he works."
Bowen gazed meditatively at the crumbling fire. "No--why should she?" ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country — Chapter XV (1913)

“ The emotional centre of gravity's not the same in the two hemispheres. In the effete societies it's love, in our new one it's business. In America the real crime passionnel is a 'big steal'--there's more excitement in wrecking railways than homes. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country — Chapter XV (1913)

“ The man's again--I don't mean Ralph I mean the genus he belongs to: homo sapiens, Americanus. Why haven't we taught our women to take an interest in our work? Simply because we don't take enough interest in THEM."
Mrs. Fairford, sinking back into her chair, sat gazing at the vertiginous depths above which his thought seemed to dangle her.
"YOU don't? The American man doesn't--the most slaving, self-effacing, self-sacrificing--?"
"Yes; and the most indifferent: there's the point. The 'slaving's' no argument against the indifference To slave for women is part of the old American tradition ”

Edith Wharton

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