The Custom of the Country | Ideas for Group Discussion
The Custom of the Country lacks two things that are normally considered prerequisites for a popular work of fiction: a sympathetic leading character whom a reader may identify with, and a clear moral center of consciousness by which the actions of the leading characters may be judged. The absence of these two elements may account for why the novel is a puzzling experience for many readers who bring certain expectations to it as a work of realistic fiction. These two missing elements may also account for the novel's success. Wharton is tackling much of the same territory as she did...
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