Summer Paperback – July 4, 2019

[Note: do not read the spoiler review by "George & Georgia Eliot" on this site before you read the book (I'm glad I didn't) since the reviewer reveals the plot line even in the title of the review. Hey, thanks a lot. Don't you know you're supposed to put "spoiler alert" on things like that?] As for SUMMER itself, it was a delightful surprise from Wharton. One of the few books in which she actually admits that her characters have sex (oh, my) and actually does it tastefully and in strict accordance with the characters' natures and the plot itself. The ending was a stunning surprise, and this from a huge Wharton fan, who found this book accidentally for the Kindle. Thank you, those who made this book available for free, but I would've paid to read this one. SUMMER is one of the best books Wharton ever wrote. Thumbs up on character development, irony, plot, dialogue, etc. Great read. 5*

Like _House of Mirth, Edith Wharton's 1917 short novel _Summer _ shows a relatively aware young woman being ground up by social convention. Wharton is so linked with Henry James that no one seems to have noticed the extent to which she was a late naturalist, chronicled inexorable destruction. An argument could be made that Charity is rescued from her hereditary fate up in the mountains (the Berkshires) and that the prime upholder of convention takes pity on her plight, but _Summer_ is close to _Ethan Frome_ in more than a New England location. More pragmatic than some of those confronted with destruction in other Wharton works, Charity makes the best of her very limited options, but happiness is more fleeting than a New England summer is.The lack of female solidarity in _Summer_ is especially striking. Lily Bart had one devoted female friend. Charity has none, and the professional woman she turns to is far and away the most vicious character in the book.Most of the book is about the blooming of a love crossing social boundaries that I find tedious. Others, including, I think Wharton herself, enjoyed chronicling Charity's first experience of love with an out-of-towner whose life and commitments are elsewhere, but for me it is the portrait of small-town busybodies and the eventual narrow corner into which Charity paints herself (with the help of social hypocrisy and her lack of education or any marketable skills ) that are interesting.Susan Minot's introduction is helpful in placing the book within the course of Edith Wharton's life. A particularly important continuity across Wharton's work Minot observes is that "Wharton's heroines are not hapless victims; they understand their helplessness." I am not convinced that this enables them to keep their dignity, but the awareness of their plight and the unreasonability of social judgments heightens the tragedies (in contrast to Stephen Crane's _Maggie_ to take one example).

I get the impression that academics and critics place great value on this short work of this famous author. I read her books as I eat my vegetables because I believe both are good for me. I am not the ideal reader as I am a man who slipped from middle to old age some years ago. This book gives a view of a brief period of time and focuses on people who didn't particularly interest me. In reading about this book, I gather that true Wharton scholars are impressed yet puzzled by her ultimate purpose in this book. I am not sure it excuses my confusion.

This book, dealing rather heavily on youth, sexuality and betrayal, might seem out of date to today's blase' teens, growing up in a world where over-the-top sexuality comes oozing out of every pore of the omnipresent media, and many of them have not only seen it all, but done it all.However, it is beautifully and sensitively written, and one can well imagine that in its time (World War I era), it was not considered appropriate reading for the young (or old) of the gentrified class of which Wharton herself was so well known a member.The naivete' of it's protagonist brings about an unhappy and bitter lesson in the machiavellian nature of men when pursuing sexual pleasure - I must say that although there were dark foreshadowings, I was surprised that things turned out quite as harshly as they did, given the historical and social context of Miss Wharton's work. Finally, the "resolution" at its conclusion is neither neat nor complete.Quite a story for the genteel Miss Wharton and highly recommended.

This is the 3rd Edith Wharton book I've read and I've enjoyed all 3. I like the way she develops the characters and invests you in them. I love rooting for them, but boy, does she give them obstacles to surmount.

Reading Edith Wharton is a deep pleasure and a privilege. "Summer" reminds one of her powers to perceive both the outer and inner world in all their richness and complexity, and to recreate them in her perfectly chosen words and rhythms.She is also a natural storyteller, weaving her spell and drawing us in: unveiling her struggling, imperfect characters in all their passion and humanity, while placing them in a poetic/realistic world which is exquisitely and convincingly rendered.Both Charity Royall and Lawyer Royall are deeply realized people, each caught in the web of his history and character, while life--and the passing wind of Lucius Harney-- shows them itsstrength and bends them to what is meant to be. It is a magnificent and brave book, sexually unbridled, morally sophisticated, comprehending and empathetic. And can this woman write! I am so glad to have found it through Kindle.