She's not that into him: The Custom of the Country

Poor, pitiful Ralph Marvell - he fell madly in love with Undine and how has married her and they're off on that journey to Europe, the six-month honeymoon that rich people managed to arrrange a century ago - at least in this case Edith Wharton is well aware of the absurdity, any young lawyer who actually had to try to earn a living couldn't manage to take off for half a year, but she makes it clear that Marvell is never going to earn a living at law and doesn't really have to do so - unless Undine, the narcissistic and selfish bitch, burns through all their money. Ralph doesn't care - he's swooning and goggle-eyed and what he doesn't see but what we see so clearly is that she's just not that into him. She married him for money and status - and he would give all that up for love - or at least so he thinks - many rich people lament the burdens of wealth but do nothing to alleviate their heavy load. Marvell sees himself as a writer - though he's never able to finish anything, or maybe never able even to start. He seems to have some kind of vision during the honeymoon - at last seeing the great poem he could create - but does nothing about it. I think, I hope, that Wharton is presenting him as a sad dilettante - please don't let him become a great poet later in this novel! - she and Undine (or at least he) joke/s about traveling through Europe looking for adjectives, while any serious or even half-serious writer knows that adjectives are exactly what writers do not need - he would do better searching for ideas, images - and better still, actually try to write something. But he keeps trying to satisfy every one Undine's little whims and she is both ungrateful and obtuse: is it that she realizes he's not a wealthy as she'd first thought? is it that she's asexual (doubtful)? is it just a complete mismatch of sensibilities - the kind that characters in many novels settle into once they have children and become tolerant of their differences - but in this novel I think their relationship will inevitably implode. So sad - when will he see through their relationship? When he will see through himself?