Set in a small town in Massachusetts, protagonist Charity Royall was “brought down” from the Mountain by Lawyer Royall, a wealthy man, and his wife who has since died. He became her guardian. Rather than growing up in poverty with her disreputable mother, she was reared in a life of privilege. We meet her as an adult young woman working as a librarian. She yearns to escape from her small town. She meets Lucius Harney, an architect from a higher social class. They form a relationship, making sure to conceal it from the town gossipers. It is her first love. This relationship inevitably leads to trouble.

Women were not encouraged to harbor ambitions or venture outside accepted conventions of behavior, and when they did, bad things generally happened. Published in 1917, it was considered shocking at the time, but is quite modest from today’s perspective. It examines the societal restraints placed on women, and their limited options at the time. It is well-written, but I never felt immersed in it. I enjoyed two other of Wharton’s books (Ethan Frome, The Age of Innocence) a bit more than this one.

3.5

me: i'm looking forward to reading an easy summer romance :)
edith wharton: no. misery is all there is

It was well written, and for me, that was the best part.
The story, which was revolutionary at the time [1917], reflects so much naivety and desperation on Charity's part, our young heroine, that I found it painful.
Her name makes for a sad analogy of her fate, tracing her destiny early on. Being from "the mountain", her mother abandoned her as a young child so Charity might have a better life.
A certain Mr. Royall rescued Charity, and taking into account that he is much older and had his eye on her since she was in school, it pertains to a kind of relationship that this most unsavory.
When Charity finds herself down and out, pregnant from her first love (who decided to marry someone else without telling her), Mr. Royall proposes again to marry Charity (her name once again speaks for her fate) she doesn't resist.
Instead, she writes to the man she loves, simply telling him that she is now married to the old man! Nothing else. No explanations or mention of the baby on the way.
This is a shame because Charity, who is a spirited young woman, had made good headways in trying to create a life and an income for herself, working at the local library of her small town.
Again, this was 1917...

Many people who know Edith Wharton know her for and have read her books, Age of Innocence, and House of Mirth, for which she is known for her conservative style and subject matter. But this book, Summer, might surprise those familiar with these other more famous Wharton works. For in Summer, Wharton really airs out the skirts, so to speak, writing freely about pregnancy, birth control, and patriarchy. The narrative arc follows a tempestuous romance between a young deceitful man from "the city" and a young woman from "the mountain" just trying to pass among her neighbors.

I love books from this time period in which the female characters possess real agency. It is true that women of the era in which this story is set did not have much control in their lives; but I appreciate a writer who is creative enough to write women who can act for themselves within whatever systemic pressures they experience. You will see this not only with the MC in Summer, but with other female characters as well.

The language can be challenging in this one (though Wharton strove for simple diction, despite her complicated syntax). Take the pages slow like I did, and you'll enjoy the read.

Stay safe out there, my fellow bookish folks; don't forget your masks and keep your hands in your pockets! <3

This is a short novel, quickly read. I will start by saying that this in not my favorite book by Edith Wharton. I have been trying to figure out why I didn’t like it more than I did. First of all, I didn’t like the ending. Secondly, I had issues with all of the characters, including the young lady at the center of the story. Maybe too, I am just getting too old to fully appreciate a coming of age novel. Yet, it became something of a page turner towards the end, and of course, the prose was wonderful. So I give it 3.5 stars, rounded up to four for charity.

تابستان عنوان یک رمان کلاسیک فوق‌العاده خواندنی است. داستان دختری به نام چریتی که بی‌پروا وارد عشقی ممنوعه شده، در حالی‌که فردی دیگر او را عمیقا دوست دارد. این فرد سرپرستی چریتی را از کودکی نیز به عهده داشته است. تا حدی فضای داستان برای من مشابه فضای داستان مادام بوواری بود. البته با پایانی متفاوت‌تر و اینکه کتاب مادام بوواری شاهکار است هیچ شکی نیست. اگر به رمان کلاسیک و تِم رمانتیک علاقه دارید، این کتاب رو پیشنهاد می‌کنم.
رمانی خوش‌خوان و روان از نویسنده‌ای امریکایی، که در نیویورک به دنیا آمده، دختری بوده مسلط به چند زبان که از کتابخانه‌ی پدرش کتاب‌ها را انتخاب می‌کرده و می‌خوانده در صورتی‌که مادرش تا زمان ازدواج او را از رمان خواندن منع کرده بوده. به خاطر کتاب «عصر بی‌گناهی» جایزه‌ای دریافت کرده که مشتاق شدم اون کتاب رو هم بخونم. ظاهرا شهرتش به خاطر اون کتاب بوده.
#تابستان #ادیت_وارتون

سلام.
این کتاب درسال 1917 توسط "ادیت وارتون" نوشته شد و در شهرهای برک‌شایر، پیتزفیلد، ماساچوست ممنوع شد.
داستان این کتاب درباره ی دختری‌ست به نام چَریتی رویال که توسط وکیلی به نام آقای رویال به فرزند خواندگی گرفته شده (البته توی کتاب ذکر شده که آقای رویال قیم چریتی بوده و به فرزند خواندگی گرفته نشده. حالا.) چریتی توی دهکده ی کوچیکی توی آمریکا زندگی میکنه، آمریکای سال1917 پس درجریان باشید که با یک رمان کلاسیک طرف هستیم. در این دهکده ی کوچیک چریتی رو به عنوان یه فرد خوش‌شانسی می‌شناسند که آقای رویال بهش لطف کرده و اون رو کوه به دهکده آورده و قیمش شده.

من این داستان رو خیلی پسندیم. راوی داستان دانای کل است و داستان شامل توصیفات زیادی‌ست. توصیفات نسبت به گفتگوها بیشتر هستند.
نویسنده ی کتاب تابستان می‌تونست داستان رو مثل کتاب های کلاسیک دیگر بنویسه، ولی ادیت وارتون چریتی رو به صورت یه سوال بزرگ برای خوانندگان طرح کرد، چریتی می‌دونست که با تمامی اهالی دهکده متفاوته، چون اون از اهالی دهکده نبود از اهالی کوه بود و هیچ‌وقت نتونست بفهمه که به کجا تعلق داره. چریتی توی این رمان نمونه ای از یک زن آزاد رو نشون میده، اون از آزادیش استفاده کرد و طعم آزاد بودن رو دوست داشت. انتخاب هایی میکرد بر اساس صلایق خودش بود نه دستورات دیگران. البته درانتهای کتاب هم خودش شاهدبود که بعضی از تصمیماتش از روی عقل گرفته نشده بود، ولی من در لحن کتاب نشانه ای پشیمانی ندیدم و مشخص بود چریتی علاوه بر یک زن آزاد، نشان دهنده ی فردی از خودگذشته هم بود.

پ.ن: دلم میخواست راوی داستان خود چریتی میبود تا بیشتر از احساساتش باخبر میشدم :)

Kaip ir Itanas Fromas, taip ir ši Wharton knyga - plona, trumpa ir koncentruota į aštriausius asmens gyvenimo kampus. Tokia paveiki, tokia klasiška, tokia, jautri, skaudi ir vis dar lyriška, net jei skaitytojas pyksta ant veikėjos gyvenimo aplinkybių.

Čeritės gyvenimą stebėti sunku. Matai jauną, kunkuliuojančią gyvybe, veržlumu, noru patirti ir pabėgti asmenybę, įkalintą ribotumo, kitų nuomonių, neturto ir priklausomybės nuo vyresnio išgelbėtojo. Ji nori daugiau, bet supranta, kad gėdinga praeitis, kuri nuo jos nepriklausė, gėdinga motinos dalia ją vejasi ir šansų mylėti pamiltąjį yra tik tiek, kiek sugeba nuslėpt pašiūrėje, kai niekas nemato.

Liūdna knyga, paveiki istorija. Labai patiko - iki paskutiniųjų tikėjausi Čeritei geriausio. Ar ji tai gavo? Nuspręs kiekvienas asmeniškai, kas perskaitys knygą. Čia yra ta klasikos knyga tiems, kas baidosi klasikos, nes bijosi pretenzingumo ir nesupratimo. Čia viskas taip paprasta ir taip tikra, taip lengvai plaukiantis tekstas ir tokia sudėtinga Čerirtės situacija. Labai rekomenduoju,

I confess this nevelette is the first Edith Wharton work I have read. She’s one of those authors I always intend to get around to. I don’t know how typical it is.

It centers on young Charity Royall, a discontented young woman living in a podunk New England village. She resents the small-town tedium but also resents anything more sophisticated because she dreads feeling inferior. At the same time, she embraces her outsider origin story: born to an unknown poor, unmarried woman on “the Mountain,” a nearby community known only as a cautionary tale to the villagers, she was rescued by Mr. Royall and brought down to the village to be raised by him and his wife as their almost-daughter. They gave her their surname but set her apart from true belonging with that given name, “Charity.”

Now Mrs. Royall has died, and early in the story we are treated to a brief, repellent scene in which Mr. Royall makes a pass at her and she fends him off with just her words and demeanor. Her first of many compromises she makes is continuing to live under his roof, which she justifies by the belief that he won’t do it again. One could argue: What alternative did she have? A young, poorly educated woman with no skills but brought up to idleness. Wharton gives us a few alternative paths—a local girl who got knocked up and now lives apparently as a call girl in a nearby town; that girl’s sister, who scrapes up a living sewing for her neighbors—but Charity lacks the maturity or grit to do more than dream of rescue.

Into the picture struts a young man of greater class and sophistication than the village can offer, and Charity is off and fantasizing. What he sees in her is less apparent, but the two become friends and then more. This sets off a string of rather melodramatic events that lead toward tragedy but end rather more prosaically, if still sadly.

I found nobody really likable or admirable in the story, which is not a happy place for me to be as a reader. Venality seemed to be the order of the day. I admired some of the descriptions and Wharton’s careful choice of words, but the characterizations, especially of Mr. Royall, seemed fairly inconsistent, leading me to feel manipulated. I might enjoy a different book by Wharton but this one mostly left me wanting to take a shower.

edith wharton is becoming my intellectual crush at this rate

This book was recommended to me by several friends. I was very impressed with the writing and I am sure that the story represents (until recently) the choice many young women had to make when they became pregnant and were unmarried in the US. Having said this I found the male characters very shallow and calculating; I really thought both the main male characters were using Charity for their own desires. Sadly I am sure this is a story many women around the world still have to deal with every day.

As much as I am fond of Edith Wharton's work, every time she writes about them poor peoples, I am weary. Her Ethan Frome, describing woes of some peasants, wasn't authentic or credible enough, IMO, and neither is Summer.

The main character in this novella, Charity Royall, was "brought down from the Mountains" in infancy and raised by a big wig lawyer in a tiny town of North Dormer. Charity is smart, albeit not particularly educated, and holds a very peculiar position in town. She is too good for the village lads, but not too polished to refined society. When a young, attractive architect shows up in North Dormer, Charity is taken by him. Even though she knows very well he is out of her league, she nevertheless starts a sexual affair with him.

Summer is often called the most provocative and erotic of Wharton's, and I suppose it is. In a sense, that here you at least know that some sex took place, unlike in Wharton's other novels, where everything is so vague and hush-hush, you have to often play that did they/didn't they game. But, naturally, things never get raunchier than mentioning of a Mexican blanket or descriptions of her lover's "young throat, and the root of the muscles where they joined the chest."

Summer is a decent novella, but not as good as Wharton's stories about repressed and oppressed high society ladies. She should have left farmers and prostitutes to those authors who knew the subject matter better, someone like Guy de Maupassant or W. Somerset Maugham.