Mary C. M. Phillips

She had everything she wanted, but she still felt, at times, that there were other things she might want if she knew about them.

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This week, I finished reading Edith Wharton’s, The Custom of the Country, starring your least favorite heroine and mine:  Miss Undine Spragg (perhaps the ugliest name an author has ever bestowed upon a character).

Undine Spragg:  material-girl, ladder-climber, MERCENARY.

I should point out that her initials are in fact “US” and some — some —  have suggested that Wharton was using social commentary on the obsession with materialism in her home country.  She grew up in New York City (Wharton, that is), got married to Teddy Wharton (who suffered from severe depression), won a Pulitzer Prize for The Age of Innocence, eventually divorced Teddy, then left the states to continue her writing in Europe.  She died in Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt.

Her unlikable (understatement! understatement!) character, Undine, is a pathetically self-centered, loathsome (albeit gorgeous) young woman.  The worst wife, mother, daughter, human being you could possibly imagine.  (She’s no Jack-the-Ripper, killing instantaneously, but spins her web slowly; manipulating good people into a slow kind of death; bankrupting them of their souls….and finances).

She’s set on making her way up the nouveau riche ladder by landing a rich husband, buying expenses dresses and getting in with “the right set.”  The ladder never seems to end for Undine.

But one has to wonder if she is solely to blame.

Because monsters (like Undine) are not born monsters.  They are created.

Spoiled rotten from crib to alter, she managed to dictate the lives of her middle-class (and eventually poor) parents via childhood/teenage dramatic tantrums and dark moods.

The word “No” never seemed to hold much weight for Undine.  Everyone (except her 3rd hubby) caved when confronted.  She always got her way.  Her miserable way.

The symptoms of Undine’s nervousness were unmistakable to Mr. and Mrs.
Spragg. They could read the approaching storm in the darkening of her
eyes from limpid grey to slate-colour, and in the way her straight
black brows met above them and the red curves of her lips narrowed to a
parallel line below. — The Custom of the Country

So although I may be completely exasperated with Undine, I’m not with  Wharton.

Not by a long shot. The Custom of the Country may be one of the best books I’ve ever read.

Next stop, Wharton’s Summer.

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Newland Archer (the main character in The Age of Innocence) is in love.  

And, although he may not recognize it, the reader does.

Wharton (like Jane Austen) brilliantly uses the powerful means of dramatic irony in her stories which allow the reader to be placed into a position of superiority.  As the reader grasps the inner thoughts of the characters, the characters themselves (poor things) are lost in a state-of- confusion.

In The Age of Innocence, I have the strong urge to shake Newland and shout “Wake up you moron!  Don’t you know that you’re in love!”

Here are just a few examples:

…He had the feeling of unexplained excitement with which, on half-holidays at school, he used to start off into the unknown…. 

…The longing was with him day and night, an incessant undefinable craving, like the sudden whim of a sick man for food and drink once tasted and long since forgotten…  

…he could not see beyond the craving, or picture what it might lead to, for he was not conscious….

And these words which scream LOVE from the rooftop:

…He simply felt that if he could carry away the vision of the spot of earth she walked on, and the way the sky and sea enclosed it, the rest of the world might seem less empty.  

From The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

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In attempting to read some of the greatest novels ever written, I read Kafka’s The Trial.

Ironically, I had just finished reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and found several similarities:

• the absurdity;
• the senseless accusations;
• the lack of communication;
• the lack (non-existence) of justice in the courtroom

The main difference between the two books was found in their aftereffect.  Alice in Wonderland didn’t make me want to KILL MYSELF!

Sarcasm there friends; no intervention calls please.

Reading The Trial was akin to reading someones nightmare journal; caught in that continuous style that lacks the discipline of paragraph usage; each sentence adding a sense of suffocation and feeling of paranoia.  Ugh.  One long dark ongoing train-of-thought/paranoid nightmare. So dark and disturbing.  Me no like.

Give me some Jane Austen.  Now!

Anyway, I couldn’t wait to be done with it….just to scratch it off my list and feel better about life.

Even if it means being delusional in my happiness.

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I have a few favorite literary fictional heroines:  

• Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice;
• Jane Eyre from Jane Eyre; and
• Dolores Price from She’s Come Undone

What makes them so special?  Why am I drawn to them?  Why do I respect them? I’ve been wondering what it is that makes their character so likable.

What impresses me the most, I’ve concluded, is the fact that they each have the courage to speak up for themselves.  They share the common thread of telling it like it is; no matter the cost.

I posed the question (“Who is your favorite fictional heroine?”) to a few friends.  Here’s how they responded:

*   *   *  

• Jody:  I think mine might be Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird.  
• Erin:  Becky Sharp from Vanity Fair (Thackeray), Lisbeth Salander from the Dragon Tattoo (crappy books, compelling character) and Helena (much ado).  Also, Imogene Hurdman from the Best Christmas Pageant Ever.  Those are the first that come to mind.
• Blair:  Nothing so lofty I am afraid, Rebecca Bloomwood, Bridget Jones and Jennifer Cavalleri
• Jennifer:  Nice choices! I liked She’s Come Undone, even though reading the book made me feel ill at certain parts. Such a story.  My fave will always be Elizabeth Bennet, because she says what she wants and doesn’t care what society thinks of her. I also like Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games, who was strong and brave and loved her family. I also like Alice from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, who never forgot her manors even in the strangest of places, and Jadis, The White Witch who ruled Narnia with a frosty fist.
• Jasmine:  Elizabeth Bennett, Harriet Vane, Miss Climpson,  Jo from Little Women, Imogen Quy from the detective series by Jill Paton Walsh. …. I could go on but that’s enough for now surely!
• Janice:  Elizabeth Bennet is one of my favorites too — but then again, so is Jo from Little Women and, of course, Scarlett O’Hara from Gone With the Wind.  Do we see a pattern here?

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