WhatI'm reading + NOTD pt. 93

The Custom of the Country follows the career of Undine Spragg, recently arrived in New York from the Midwest and determined to conquer high society. Glamorous, selfish, mercenary and manipulative, her principal assets are her striking beauty, her tenacity, and her father's money. With her sights set on an advantageous marriage, Undine pursues her schemes in a world of shifting values, where triumph is swiftly followed by disillusion. Wharton was recreating an environment she knew intimately, and Undine's education for social success is chronicled in meticulous detail. The novel superbly captures the world of post-Civil War America, as ruthless in its social ambitions as in its business and politics. 

Edith Wharton (January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and designer. Wharton combined an insider's view of American aristocracy with a powerful prose style. Her novels and short stories realistically portrayed the lives and morals of the late nineteenth century, an era of decline and faded wealth. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1921, the first woman to receive this honour. Despite not publishing her first novel until she was forty, Wharton became an extraordinarily productive writer. In addition to her fifteen novels, seven novellas, and eighty-five short stories, she published poetry, books on design, travel, literary and cultural criticism, and a memoir. 

The protagonist, Undine Spragg, is a young woman, a superficially beautiful woman who glitters and consumes and believes herself to be entitled to everything she takes from others, because it's not really taking, in her view, it's more like receiving what she deserves for simply existing. And for that reason, it was hard at times to finish the book. Undine is such a despicable character; her selfishness is hard to stand. She gets away with everything and nothing bad happens to her, the only ones that suffer are the ones around her. 

Nail polish is Essence, from the line Show Your Feet, with the name Flamingo rose. The colour is pink with small glitter that is almost invisible on the nails. The application is not the best, I don't know, the nail polish just doesn't look nice on the nails. 

Have a great day!