Summer: Amazon.ca: Edith Wharton: Books

Product Description

From Library Journal

Though Summer is not out of print, the September film release of Martin Scorsese's production of Wharton's The Age of Innocence is bound to have caused a renewed interest in all her books. Bantam's edition is the least expensive offering of this title currently on the market.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

From AudioFile

Confronting one's past is a common theme in movies and literature of the 1990's. Writing in 1916, Edith Wharton mixed this theme with summer romance to craft the story of a young couple. The heroine is a small-town librarian, set in the Berkshires. No contemporary librarian would identify with Charity Royal as she disdainfully crochets lace in a disorderly room full of musty books. Reader Grace Conlin distinguishes both men's and women's voices easily, using hushed, intimate tones to convey the sweetness of the romance. Yet an ephemeral quality in her delivery casts a shadow of reality on the story and reminds the listener that seasons change. D.W.K. An AUDIOFILE Earphones Award winner (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

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Customer Reviews

18 Reviews

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
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Average Customer Review

4.6 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars An Affair with Life, Feb 4 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Summer (Mass Market Paperback)

Concise, well-developed, and almost painfully beautifully written, "Summer" chronicles a country girl's affair with a cultured city sophisticate. At first closed off and silently rebellious against her lot, Wharton eloquently follows Charity's emotional, intellectual, and sexual awakening in a time and place when such personal and intimate exploration was unknown.

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4.0 out of 5 stars A butterfly on the wheel, July 5 2002

By	Stephen O. Murray "Stephen O. Murray" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Summer (Mass Market Paperback)

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).

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5.0 out of 5 stars Summer stands alone, Nov 7 2001

By	F. Mercer "bibliophile" (Phoenix, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Summer (Paperback)

Summer and Ethan Frome are often referred to as companion novels. The only thing these two novels have in common is location and doomed romance. While doomed romance seems to be a major theme in much of Wharton's work, this book pushes the envelope by dealing not only with sex (The House of Mirth also implies some sexuality), but also abortion. I found this novel more engaging than Ethan Frome, perhaps because the central character is a young woman, flawed and realistic, who is able to deal with the consequences of her failed romance (however horrid they may be) rather than a brooding man who seems to think if he can't be in the relationship he wants, leaving his shrewish wife for a sweet young woman, he would rather not live. By the end, I was hoping for a happy ending for Charity.

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Most recent customer reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars You need to read between the lines...
This is a great novel for its time (1917). I am sure it caused quite a stir when it was first published. I think it has lost much of its impact over the years. Read more

Published on July 11 2001 by Danielle

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting, beautifully rendered tale of female desire
Leaving behind the world of New York high society that is the subject of many of her greatest novels (The House of Mirth , The Age of Innocence), Edith Wharton focuses her... Read more

Published on July 9 2001 by Kay Gee

5.0 out of 5 stars Realism or Idealism
I cannot deny that the ending of this book gave me quite an unwelcome shock as it suddenly verred away from the popular love story formula. Read more

Published on Aug 26 2000 by LC Bishop