Blurbs
Until 24/4/22: Edith Wharton’s writing is really packed together. I think Undine is a very pitiable character, but her story is admittedly a nice way to cram your head with strange particulars about her class and time, and Wharton’s unsettlingly dated vocabulary makes you wonder: was reading for fun supposed to be this hard?

Until 24/4/23: Undine’s shallow understanding of the bigger picture around high-class society is symptomatic of a world where the best a woman could do in the advent of the sexual revolution was to do precisely as Undine had done: become a shining jewel for others to admire and nothing more.

Until 24/4/29: If you followed all the rules and excelled at it, all you could ever be was an Undine Spragg.

Until 24/4/30: If Undine Spragg couldn’t do business, no woman could.

See pp.182-184 for Bowen’s insight into the custom of the country