Edith Wharton

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

The Custom of the Country — Chapter XXIII (1913)

Summary

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

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

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

“ Ralph was angry, sore, ashamed. He felt as if Laura, whose hand he instantly detected, had taken a cruel pleasure in her work, and for an instant he hated her for it. Then a sense of relief stole over him. He was glad he could look about him without meeting Undine's eyes, and he understood that what had been done to his room he must do to his memory and his imagination: he must so readjust his mind that, whichever way he turned his thoughts, her face should no longer confront him. ”

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Source: Wikisource

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

“ There had been a hard minute to live through when he came back to his old brown room in Washington Square. The walls and tables were covered with photographs of Undine: effigies of all shapes and sizes, expressing every possible sentiment dear to the photographic tradition. Ralph had gathered them all up when he had moved from West End Avenue after Undine's departure for Europe, and they throned over his other possessions as her image had throned over his future the night he had sat in that very room and dreamed of soaring up with her into the blue... ”

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Source: Wikisource

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

“ No woman ever knows she's discontented till some man tells her so. My God! I've seen smash-ups before now; but I never yet saw a marriage dissolved like a business partnership. Divorce without a lover? Why, it's--it's as unnatural as getting drunk on lemonade."
After this first explosion Mr. Dagonet also became silent; and Ralph perceived that what annoyed him most was the fact of the "scandal's" not being one in any gentlemanly sense of the word. ”

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Source: Wikisource

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

“ There was no one with whom he could speak of Undine. His family had thrown over the whole subject a pall of silence which even Laura Fairford shrank from raising. As for his mother, Ralph had seen at once that the idea of talking over the situation was positively frightening to her. There was no provision for such emergencies in the moral order of Washington Square. ”

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Source: Wikisource

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

“ The blood rushed to Ralph's forehead as he looked over the man's arm and read: "Society Leader Gets Decree," and beneath it the subordinate clause: "Says Husband Too Absorbed In Business To Make Home Happy." ”

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Source: Wikisource

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

“ Laura, though usually so yielding, defended herself. "What's the use of encouraging him to speak of her when he's never to see her? The sooner he forgets her the better."
Ralph pondered. "Later--if she asks to see him--I shan't refuse."
Mrs. Fairford pressed her lips together to check the answer: "She never will!"
Ralph heard it, nevertheless, and let it pass. Nothing gave him so profound a sense of estrangement from his former life as the conviction that his sister was probably right. He did not really believe that Undine would ever ask to see her boy ”

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Source: Wikisource

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

“ One more white and sun-touched glory had gone from his sky; but there seemed no way of connecting that with such practical issues as his being called on to decide whether Paul was to be put in knickerbockers or trousers, and whether he should go back to Washington Square for the winter or hire a small house for himself and his son. ”

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Source: Wikisource

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

“ Dagonet's notion of the case was almost as remote from reality. All he asked was that his grandson should "thrash" somebody, and he could not be made to understand that the modern drama of divorce is sometimes cast without a Lovelace. ”

Edith Wharton

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

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