Last of a group of full-length Wharton novels in a "Library of America" compilation. This novel was really quite good, but I didn't like it as much as the other three. Perhaps because the central character (beautiful and vacuous Undine Spragg) and several of the other main characters just weren't very likable. (Which no doubt was the author's intent.)I was reading this at the gym concurrently with reading Balzac's Lost Illusions at the house, and there were quite a few similarities. Ralph Marvell reminded me of Lucien Chardon in a backwards sort of way. In both books, folks were trying to penetrate societal classes to which they didn't belong. Both stories were quite focused on business dealings, though Wharton could never match Balzac in that arena.
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