The Custom of the Country

By: Edith Wharton

Narrated by: Lorna Raver

From New York to Europe, the apartments of the nouveau riche to ancient French estates, Edith Wharton tells the story of Undine Spragg, a girl from a Midwestern town with unquenchable social aspirations. Though Undine is narcissistic, pampered, and incredibly selfish, she is a beguiling heroine whose marital initiation into New York high society from its trade-wealthy fringes is only the beginning of her relentless ambitions.

Wharton weaves an elaborate plot that renders a detailed depiction of upper-class social behavior in the early 20th century. By using a character with inexorable greed in a novel of manners, she demonstrates some of the customs of a modern age and posits a surprising explanation for divorce and the social role of women, which still resonates for the modern audience today.

Public Domain (P)2011 Tantor

Entertaining

This was a good listen, though at times I struggled to have compassion for our protagonist,,, but all together an entertaining and interesting look at society & women.

Fluctuating volume makes this a tough listen

Love this book and was looking forward to rereading it after many years, but the volume fluctuates so much it is jarring. In particular, Undine is voiced much louder than the narration, as if she is shouting. I'm not looking for a monotone, far from it, but I don't want to startle every time Undine speaks. It is unsettling. Is there any way this could be remastered because otherwise the performance is very good.

worthwhile

Loved it and the performance was excellent. Nice look at the historical aspect of the story.

Audio on voice vacillates, inaudible at times

This particular narration, by Lorna Raver, is engaging in her voicing of the characters, but there is a huge technical problem with the audio fluctuating from too loud to almost inaudible. As the narrator raises and lowers her tone, she also alternates her volume, so that I have to turn up the volume on my device to hear her at all, and then within a few seconds, when she is portraying another character, I'm blasted in both ears. This has happened using headphones, my phone speakers, and on my car stereo. I've lost lines and had to backtrack and play them again, and been blasted numerous times. I'm going to ask for a refund for this reading.

Absolute nightmare with headphones

The narrator screams, whispers, and seemingly turned away from her mic half the time she recorded this. You will be adjusting volume the whole time