The Custom of the Country Chapter 4

In which Undine Spragg confronts the everyday frictions of familial obligation and social aspiration, negotiating the cost of an opera box as a symbol of her yearning for acceptance and status in New York society. Her restless reflections on past summers and present disappointments reveal a young woman determined to transcend provincial limitations, even as she grapples with the uneasy alliances of kinship and the elusive nature of social success.