Excellent Edwardian Novels You Can Read Right Now

Would you like to sin With Elinor Glyn On a tiger skin? Or would you prefer To err with her On some other fur?

The September 2012 issue of American Vogue pays tribute to Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist Edith Wharton with the story ‘The Custom of the Country’, photographed by Annie Leibovitz and styled by Grace Coddington. The editorial features model Natalia Vodianova alongside Elijah Wood, Juno Temple, Mamie Gummer, Jeffrey Eugenides, Jack Huston, Nate Lowman, Junot Diaz, Jonathan Safran Foer, Max Minghella and James Corden.

Natalia Vodianova for ‘The Custom of the Country’ American Vogue September 2012 by Annie Leibovitz & Grace Coddington

On The Customs of the Country, And How Edith Wharton Foretold Kim Kardashian and the Real Housewives

(All of the images in this post are paintings by John Singer Sargent, who apparently makes an appearance in “The Custom of the Country” in the character Popple, an artist who was a virtuoso at capturing dress, and left faces vague likenesses.)

I’m trying to think of an intelligent way to begin this post, but really all I can think of saying is that I read Edith Wharton’s “Custom of the Country” in four days, which I think says a lot about the novel. And what that says is that I fucking LOVED IT. I could not put it down. In fact, yesterday, during the snow storm, I walked back from the subway reading the final ten pages because I couldn’t wait to get home to see what happened to Undine Spragg, the society girl social climber who is the main protagonist of the story.

I think most creative people think a lot about what grants a work of art longevity. No one who’s really serious about their craft is like, “I want to write a book that sells well for a year, and then everyone throws in the garbage.” In order to do so, it’s a common misconception that you have to write about some obscure but intellectually challenging topic. The story has to be difficult enough that it can’t be too easy to read by a large segment of the population — if it’s not, then it’s “middle” or “low” brow, and thus disposable. 

The good news is that if Edith Wharton is any indication, the subject matter doesn’t have to be heady at all. In my opinion, the Custom of the Country is basically the story of Kim Kardashian imagined by an intelligent woman with an extraordinary writing talent. Undine Spragg is a beautiful girl from a small city in America with no discernible talent besides social climbing. She doesn’t want anything except to wear beautiful clothing and have more money than anyone else. It takes her until the end of the book to get exactly what she wants, and even though she’s a completely despicable, selfish person, you root for her the entire way up. Which is also how I would describe my feelings toward the union between Kim Kardashian and Kanye West (colloquially described as Kimye).

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Natalia Vodinaova, playing writer Edith Wharton, in Wharton’s summer residence, The Mount, in Lenox, Massachusetts. Photographed by Annie Leibovitz and styled by Grace Coddington for Vogue. September 2012.

A study of desire. Nothing would have interested Henry James more than watching his two friends Wharton and Morton Fullerton as they circled each other. Oscar de la Renta tulle blouse, black gilet, and bustle skirt.

HOW DID NOBODY TELL ME JEFFREY EUGENIDES WAS IN VOGUE?!

“With these old shirts, it’s extremely difficult to get the studs through—it makes you aware of what it was like to get dressed in the early 1900s and why you would maybe need a valet to help.”

Behind the Scenes: Jeffrey Eugenides on becoming Henry James for Annie Liebovitz’s Vogue Magazine shoot at Edith Wharton’s estate in the Berkshires. 

Check out that swagger on Teddy Roosevelt. 

This is the best thing that has happened in Vogue. Ever. 

Love these! Wish more magazines would go all out like this! 

I've posted some of these before but they are so wonderful - they deserved another posting.

The September 2012 issue of American Vogue pays tribute to Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist Edith Wharton with the story 'The Custom of the Country', photographed by Annie Leibovitz and styled by Grace Coddington. The editorial features model Natalia Vodianova alongside Elijah Wood, Juno Temple, Mamie Gummer, Jeffrey Eugenides, Jack Huston, Nate Lowman, Junot Diaz, Jonathan Safran Foer, Max Minghella and James Corden.

Writer Edith Wharton and her dogs. Photograph by E.F. Cooper. Newport, Rhode Island, USA, 1889-1890.

Source: Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University

Anyone else disturbed by how evil those dogs look?

This is great! I loved Edith Wharton and her NY. What an interesting time in America and in England. Things were so different and we didn’t have the Kardashians but there was still scandal!