Edith Wharton's The Custom of the Country is usually regarded generically as a picaresque novel. But a novel cannot be considered picaresque without a picaroon. Undine Spragg is anything but a picaroon, who, by definition, survives by her wits; tends towards criminal behaviour of a financially remunerative nature, but never causes physical harm; explores the various customs and cultures of the society into which she is inserted through the episodic nature of the text and her malleable identity; brings a complete sense of ingenuousness, so that the impressions garnered on her travels through the cultural country may be left to the reader for judgement and evaluation. Ultimately, the picaroon is a charming rogue who succeeds; however, Undine is witless, vicious in her narcissism, careers from one tier of upper-class society to another, completely disingenuous, ruthless, distasteful to the reader and, ultimately, a failure. She is not the subject of The Custom of the Country, nor is she an agent of the customs or the country.

The most famous picaresque novels tend to be eponymous: Roderick Random, The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.