Summer

I'm on the side of those reviewers who think this is one of Wharton's best. That it's a short novel does not diminish its skillfulness or impact. In fact, its concision is its great strength, and I think Wharton, who was a diligent editor of her own works, recognized that.

Other reviewers have revealed most of the story, which is unfortunate because its plot twists are best appreciated by first-time readers unaware of where the story goes and how it is resolved. (The first time I read it, I actually gasped aloud at several points.) I'd rather say something about its language and tone.

Nobody writes sentences with the clarity and precision of Edith Wharton. There are passages in "Summer" to die for. Her descriptions of the New England countryside ripening into summer alongside her evocations of young Charity's blossoming sexuality are beautifully written. Maybe this juxtaposition is a little obvious or even corny but it totally worked for me. Wharton's prose has always had an almost sensuous rhythm to it and it's never been put to better use than in this story of sexual awakening and first love.

The radical shift of tone in "Summer" is also remarkable. (Spoiler ahead.) There is a slight sense of foreboding from the beginning but for the most part you feel drawn in to the sweet romance of this lonely and impressionable girl. Then - BOOM - reality sets in, and a heart-tugging idyll turns into a horror story. The scenes toward the end, especially the trip up and down the mountain, are nothing short of gothic horror. Wharton had a pretty jaded view of the options women faced, and "Summer" is consistent with the bleak vision she first articulated in "The House of Mirth."

"Summer" is beautiful, shocking, and very sad.

There are several editions of "Summer." Purchase the Penguin edition with the Intro by Elizabeth Ammons. It's only a few bucks more and will give you added perspective on the book and Wharton.

I'm a great fan of Edith Wharton, but I had never gotten around to reading "Summer," the short novel about small town life in the Berkshires that is a kind of companion to the wintry "Ethan Frome." I find the decayed rural life in both novels to be overdrawn, with the whiff of fastidious distaste that would be natural for a woman of Wharton's social class.

On the other hand, no one writes better than she about those who do not fit in to whatever social and moral strictures surround them, whether it's the upper class society where Lily Bart struggles to remain in "The House of Mirth" or the provincial small town milieu of North Dormer from which Charity Royall, the protagonist of Summer," longs to break free. There are many tensions in Charity's life--sexual desire, a mysterious background, a complex father-figure, fear of the world outside North Dormer, and a desire to break the rules of North Dormer. Wharton's great achievement in "Summer" is to keep all of these tensions in perfect harmony. Almost until they end, they pull on Charity with equal strength. I was reminded of Robert Frost's sonnet "The Silken Tent," whose many ties hold up the tent swaying in the summer air. It is only when one goes taut that one is "of the slightest bondage made aware."

M. Feldman

"Summer" is one of those books that you will think about for a long, long time. Set in the small village of North Dormer in New England, this story unfolds far from Wharton's more famous world of the Van der Luydens and the Mingotts. "Summer" has a little of the feel of "Ethan Frome", but is painted in brighter colors. Our protagonist Charity Royall is naive and unsophisticated, yet she can face facts and deal with the consequences of her actions. We feel as if the Fates have moved to New England and have woven for Charity on a future over which she has little control. The bright summer skies and flowers are overshadowed by the Mountain which broods in the distance, and the reader has a sense of foreboding about Charity's future as she develops her relationship with the sophisticated Lucius Harney. She yearns to develop herself to his level of social ability and breadth of knowledge, all the while knowing her limitations in breeding and background. The reader admires her despite her unattractive faults, such as her undervaluing of what her guardian has given her. Often she is cruel and thankless. The end was, I thought, satisfying: Wharton did not do to Charity what she did to Lily Bart in "House of Mirth", and Charity seems to have learned to be--well--more charitable.

I liked this book more than I liked "Ethan Frome", "Twilight Sleep", or "The Reef". While "Summer" may not be in the same class as "House of Mirth" or "Age of Innocence", it is I think comparable to "Glimpses of the Moon".

Like all other Edith Wharton novels, Summer is highly evocative - it creates the illusion of actually being there; you can practically feel the oppressive, judgmental, small town atmosphere of North Dormer, the summer months, the rain laden clouds, the ever-present "Mountain", the dusty library with it's crumbling books; it's walls practically closing in... And like her other novels, Summer is poetic - it's more about what is left unsaid than what is articulated.

Briefly, the novel is about a young girl on the threshold of youth, oppressed by her small town. She has the added burden of her past to carry - she has been rescued from her social outcast of a mother after her father has been sent to prison. Her guardian, now a widower, is in love with her. She is acutely conscious of his loneliness and his dependence on her and is contemptuous of that dependence.

She is pretty, smart, strong willed, and passionate. Like all Edith Wharton's heroines, she is capable of enormous emotional depth. She falls in love with a visitor to North Dormer, a young, privileged architect from New York. She has to battle to keep her romance from the ever vigilant, prying eyes of her guardian and even the entire town.

Edith Wharton evokes in 'Summer' the feeling of intense romance that she evokes in 'The Age of Innocence' without quite calling it love. Charity, the young heroine of 'Summer' offers her lover the freedom of 'choosing to do the right thing', before discovering that she is pregnant. She now has to understand what her mother may have gone through when she gave her up. She also has to understand what she has to offer to her relationship, and the terror of facing her best might not be quite enough for her young man.

There is a certain inevitability to her choosing to get married to her guardian without telling her lover about the child. Intellectually, I know that it is the only course allowed for her given that it is the only graceful way saving her pride and her child; keep the feeling that her lover would have chosen her if she had not gotten into a preemptive marriage, alive. Still, there is something not quite appetizing about her guardian, standing in loco parentis, marrying her. And even though I can see her acquiescing - he would be lonesome without her - I can't quite see her mastering her contempt, sometimes compassion, to be quite wife-like.

The book is worth a read. And once you get into the mind of the protagonist, it is hard to put down the book until you get to the last page.

What Edith Wharton did for winter in her cold, depressed, repressed love story "Ethan Frome", she does for summer in this hot, sweaty, passionate love story of the same name.
Charity Royall is a girl from the Mountain, an isolated group of people living in poverty on the edges of society, who is rescued and raised by Mr. Royall, a lawyer living in a near-by town. Her life is pretty good for a while- she's bored and restless as any small town teenager would be, but she's dealing with it- until her drunken caretaker corners her in her room one night and proposes marriage. This act, coupled with Charity's new found infatuation with a visiting out-of-towner, pushes Charity to take chances and sow her wild oats. Needless to say, this causes a number of problems, including escalating tension with Mr. Royall, and the shameful secret she hides concerning her birth history and her estranged kin.
Set in summer, with every page dripping the sweat and sultriness of the season, this book powerfully captures the heated passions of both Charity and those around her, from the obsessed older man who has turned from father to wanna-be husband, to the smooth out-of-towner who may or may not be using Charity for the good time she is offering. The characters seem to live inside a covered pot of boiling water, the steam slowly building until the lid threatens to blow. Wharton expertly captures the passions, obsessions, and frustrations of these characters, and creates memorable characters that transcend the borderline cliche backgrounds that Wharton has given them.
While ultimately "Summer" is not the boiled down masterpiece that "Ethan Frome" is- mainly thanks to a drawn out ending that seems to ramble slightly- it is still a must read, and serves as an excellent counterpart to the aforementioned classic.

cute. not wonderful

Okay,I fully admit to not being a reader of the classics but every once in a while I have to give one a try (I usually pick a small one). I gave this one a try four times and could never get past chapter two. Took it to work to loan to co-workers. It would leave and then come back quickly, each time abandoned. I found Wharton's storytelling lifeless. Maybe it's just this particular book and possibly I'll give her another try but certainly not in the near future.

To me, the descriptions of the people and their homes,environments, lifestyles, beliefs, attitudes, and behavior -- from the unbelievably poor mountain people where the main character was born, to the town where she grew up, to the city where she travels -- are stunningly vivid and accurate, not unlike the sociological contrasts of today.

I found myself caring deeply about nearly everyone in this book, and while the ending is rather heartbreaking, it is also touchingly believable.

Wharton is expert at conveying the social norms by which people are pressured to live. Her stories provide insight into the late 1800s and early 1900s in New England, and therefore into the social norms that have influenced generations to come.

Her integration of economic factors in her human relationship stories is realistic and honest.

As with other works I have read by this author, I found the confusing use, misuse, and overuse of commas and semi-colons distracting. And it surprises me that someone with her deep social awareness refers so often to women as girls, and men as men.

None of these drawbacks kept me from being engrossed in the story, though.

This is the first Edith Wharton book I've read, and I found the plot pretty weak. It's about a young woman who falls in love with a man from a higher social class, and the struggles she finds. I gather Wharton's Ethan Frome is on a similar subject, and might be better written. Fine for a quick read, but nothing to get excited about.