While this is of course classic American literature I think I might of been too young when I first read it--it was just too bleak for me. With all of the books on my to-read list I am waffling about going back to re-read these as somehow I feel compelled to like them. I love the story of my purchase though--we stayed in Stockbridge Mass on a trip out to Boston one summer and we stumbled upon a great little bookshop.

I liked these stories but at first I thought that they weren't satisfying because they didn't have happy endings. But now I've decided that it is just that the books end in a wierd place and you don't really know what happens to the people. Good though.

Ethan and Charity, Edith Wharton’s two main characters in these two novellas, have brief windows of happiness. Both come in the form of love and both relationships evaporate quickly with social restraints. Edith Wharton herself, was forced in to a marriage at the age of 23 because, in the eyes of her family and society,to do anything else would have made her an old maid. In these two novellas, Ethan Frome and Summer, she turns her eyes to the Berkshires, to people stuck in a working class, New England towns, where there was little chance for escape or education to feed the imagination. What Edith Wharton had, which her characters in these two stories lacked was the means and talent to escape. Although she never married the man of her dreams, she had an affair that sustained her, although he was less than a virtuous man. She also befriended the love of her life, her soulmate, and remained so for the rest of their lives. He helped and edited her writing and Henry James was also a traveling companion and mentor. She gave much of herself to helping England during World War l and continued writing her sharp, witty accounts of greed, social class, and the plight of women. These two novellas are wonderful as well as heartbreaking. But always spot on!

I would imagine that when these stories were first published, Edith Wharton probably received a few unfavorable comments due to the sexual content. No, she didn't get descriptive, so if you have never read these stories and you're looking for some good word porn, this is not it. I'm confident that in 1917, it may have been considered as such though. One of the footnotes in the book refers to a comment made my Nathaniel Hawthorne after the publishing of "The Lamplighter" by Susan Maria Cummins, "America is now wholly given over to a damned mob of scribbling women". Mr. Hawthorne is now permanently on my "shit list".

Both stories are sad. For some reason, I tend to like sad stories. Maybe they make for good reading material, maybe I am just a sad sack at heart, though I think of myself as a very positive person. Maybe I tend to relate, having lived a "sad" marriage for many years. All I know is that at the end of each story, I was screaming "you could have made a different choice, dammit". Why do we commit ourselves to situations we should run screaming from? I should take a couple psyche classes to explore this question perhaps, lol.

THIS is literature! Please tell me if you know of other books that are in captivating and interesting as Edith Wharton's. I highly recommend this for the person that has given up on fiction.

Somewhat predictable, but tragic nonetheless. Not very long.

A silent brutality. Every blaze of glory that Edith Wharton conjures is choked by life, by circumstance, by accident, into such a dull ember that it not only chills the passions but barely keeps the heart warm.

I really love Edith Wharton.

5 stars for Ethan Frome, 4 for Summer.