Course Schedule – Fall 2023 / 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:

• THEATER TALKBACK
• SOCIAL EVENTS
• FOOD: BEYOND JUST CALORIES
• INVISIBLE MAN BY RALPH ELLISON
• ELIZABETH GASKELL
• WEEK IN PARIS
• CREATIVE WORKSHOP
• EMILY DICKINSON CIRCLE
• SYMPOSIUM
• RUSSIAN GEOGRAPHY
• CONTEMPORARY BRITISH CULTURE
• AUSTRALIA – THE LAND DOWN UNDER
• HUCKLEBERRY FINN
• AGING
• FASCINATING ISLANDS
• BLACK WOMEN’S 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
• READING BLACK LIVES
• BORDERS AND BOUNDARIES
• MOZART’S WOMEN
• ANTISEMITISM: PAST, PRESENT, FACTS, MYTHS
• AFRICAN CONTINENT
• PRESENTER’S SHOWCASE
• INVENTIONS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
• ACTING CLASS
• LAW & ORDER
• POINT OF VIEW
• MODERN OPERA
• MOVERS & SHAKERS
• SOCRATES AND THE PROBLEM OF PHILOSOPHY
• GREAT CONVERSATIONS
• ORAL INTERPRETATION OF POETRY

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