Courses – Spring 2025 / Old Courses / READING EDITH WHARTON
Coordinators: Patricia Geehr, Arlene Curinga
We will read The Custom of the Country, published in 1913 after The House of Mirth (1905) and before The Age of Innocence (1920).
All three novels, set in the 19th century, portray the leisure-class of fashionable New York City with its virtues and its failings.
Willful and petulant Undine Spragg who “wants everything” is the novel’s heroine and studies countless customs related to conduct, speech, and attitude in her quest to excel. Yet, no matter her initiative and drive, Undine lives in an age that stifles women’s lives as is the custom of the country.
A WEEK / TUESDAY / 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
Other Classes:
- THE TWILIGHT ZONE
- HEALTH AND MEDICINE
- IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE, CAN IT?
- FLAWED GREATNESS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON
- PORTRAIT OF A LADY
- STAR-CROSSED LOVERS
- ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: A BRAVE NEW WORLD?
- WOMEN SPIES
- DAISY MILLER & WASHINGTON SQUARE
- BEETHOVEN: THE MIDDLE YEARS
- ALL THE KINGS MEN
- JAZZ AT NOON
- WORLD OF THEATRE
- THE SCARLET LETTER
- THE GREAT GATSBY
- TOCQUEVILLE'S DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA
- MEXICO: SOUTH OF OUR BORDER
- HISTORY OF MEDICINE
- HARLEM RENAISSANCE
- CONSTRUCTION: BEYOND BRICKS AND MORTAR
- ACTING WORKSHOP I
- THEATER TALKBACK
- BOOK CHATS
- ADVENTURES IN DINING
- FOOD: BEYOND JUST CALORIES
- TONI MORRISON: THE LEGEND
- INVISIBLE MAN BY RALPH ELLISON
- SIXTIES
- ELIZABETH GASKELL
- WEEK IN PARIS
- CLASSICAL MUSIC
- CREATIVE WORKSHOP
- MUSIC OF THE HEART
- EMILY DICKINSON CIRCLE
- SYMPOSIUM
- RUSSIAN GEOGRAPHY
- WATER
- FOLK MUSIC AND MELLOW ROCK
- CONTEMPORARY BRITISH CULTURE
- AUSTRALIA – THE LAND DOWN UNDER
- HUCKLEBERRY FINN
- AGING
- FASCINATING ISLANDS
- BLACK WOMENS VOICES
- THE NOBEL PRIZES
- WOMEN IN GREEK DRAMA
- THE NEAR EAST
- HISTORY OF GERMANY
- A PASSAGE TO INDIA
- INDIE FILMS
- SLAVERY'S ROLE IN U.S. CAPITALISTIST DEVELOPMENT
- RISE AND FALL OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
- READING THE RABBIS
- RACE RELATIONS IN AMERICAN POLITICAL THOUGHT
- MYTHOLOGY
- LITERARY HEROINES
- HOWARDS END
- HOUSE OF MIRTH
- FABULOUS FIFTIES
- COMEDY CENTRAL
- READING BLACK LIVES
- BORDERS AND BOUNDARIES
- MOZARTS WOMEN
- ANTISEMITISM: PAST, PRESENT, FACTS, MYTHS
- AFRICAN CONTINENT
- PRESENTERS SHOWCASE
- INVENTIONS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
- ACTING CLASS
- FOREIGN AFFAIRS
- LAW & ORDER
- POINT OF VIEW
- MODERN OPERA
- MOVERS & SHAKERS
- SOCRATES AND THE PROBLEM OF PHILOSOPHY
- FASCINATING NONFICTION
- GREAT CONVERSATIONS
- ORAL INTERPRETATION OF POETRY
- SHAKESPEARE: CYMBELINE