Edith Wharton

Summer Edith Wharton

Summer is a 1917 novel by American novelist Edith Wharton. While most of Wharton's novels dealt with New York's upper-class society, this is one of her only novels set in New England, along with the more famous Ethan Frome. Dealing with themes such as social class, the role of women in society, destructive relationships, and the sexual awakening and desire of its protagonist, Charity Royall. When the story begins, eighteen-year-old Charity Royall is bored with her life in the small town of North Dormer. Born to poor parents in the mountains who couldn't keep her, she now works as a librarian and is a ward of the town's most prominent citizen, Lawyer Royall, but she dreams of a more exciting life. That exciting life finds her in the form of a visiting architect named Lucius Harney. She first meets the charming young man when he comes to the library, and soon he finds himself boarding at Mr. Royall's house when his own living arrangements fall through.