'Rattray's landmark volume of contributed original essays is the first full-length study of Wharton's 1913 'great American novel'.' American Literary Scholarship 'The writing of all the essays is clear, the arguments cogent, the research standards high. Rattray's Reassessment is a credit to the series.' The European Legacy

• Introduction, Laura Rattray; Chapter 1 The Custom of the Country, Susan Goodman; Chapter 2 When the Reading Had to Stop, Shafquat Towheed; Chapter 3 'Don't Cry – It ain't that Kind of a Story', Bonnie Shannon McMullen; Chapter 4 Worst Parents Ever, Carol J. Singley; Chapter 5 Crude Ascending the Staircase, Emily J. Orlando; Chapter 6 'It's Better to Watch', Jessica Schubert McCarthy; Chapter 7 A 'Mist of Opopanax', Pamela Knights; Chapter 8 Landscape with the Fall of Undine, Margaret P. Murray; Chapter 9 Girls from the Provinces, Julie Olin-Ammentorp; Chapter 10 Men at Work in The Custom of the Country, William Blazek; Chapter 11 'Lost in Translation', Hildegard Hoeller; Notes Notes, Laura Rattray;