Er valt wat te zeggen voor de mooie schrijfstijl van Edith Wharton, en de nuance waarmee ze haar hoofdpersonage schetst: Charity is niet al te sympathiek, en toch leef je als lezer volop met haar mee. Daarnaast moet ik, zelf typischer vrouwelijk zijnde, bekennen dat ik toch enig respect voelde voor de gelatenheid waarmee ze haar lot ondergaat, en inziet dat haar liefde een onmogelijke is, maar er toch voor kiest. Ik zou het niet kunnen.
Maar uiteindelijk wist dit boek me toch niet echt te raken, ik hoop dus dat ander werk van Edith Wharton me meer weet te overtuigen.
Tot slot: voor een boek dat 'erotisch' genoemd wordt, komt er bijzonder weinig (lees: geen) erotiek in voor. Ik had wel verwacht dat, gezien het jaar waarin het geschreven is, het eerder suggestief zou zijn, maar zelfs dat niet. DE TELEURSTELLING.

I read my first Wharton book just a few years ago. (The Age of Innocence) Initially, I admit to thinking I was going to drown in boredom and not be able to finish it, but I did. Not only did I finish it, but I had become positively enamored by Edith Wharton's writing style.
Since I finished that first selection, I have picked up every Wharton book that I've come across in second hand stores. I don't even read the back, you guys, I just pick it up and go. I've never once been disappointed.

Did I think Summer was quite as erotic (even by 1917 standards) as it was played up to be by the Introduction? No, no I did not.
It's possible that I've become so jaded by the current societal standards that I can't even find the most minute amount of sexuality in this (wonderful) novella.

I started out being wildly irritated by Charity, but I did grow a hint of pity for her as the story went on. It was a wildly predictable tale, so even though I realized early on where the plot was taking me, I couldn't help but build some feeling for her.

The real story here is that Wharton knocks it out of the park (for me) every time. I think I enjoyed Summer more than Ethan Frome, for what it's worth.

cue summerboy by lady gaga

This book made me so depressed that I have nothing to say about it.
A very depressing ending :s..

This didn’t go as planned haha but still an enjoyable read, very much ahead of its time and actually, brutally realistic.

"She had always thought of love as something confused and furtive, and he made it as bright and open as the summer air."- Summer, Edith Wharton
-
In Wharton's Summer, Charity Royall has grown up under the guardianship of Mr. Royall, a lawyer in the town of North Dormer. When she was a young child, Mr. Royall brought her down from the mountain, away from a life of poverty and hardship at her father's request. Charity knows little about her background but is not ashamed of where she comes from. She's grown restless with the uneventful sameness of her life until a young man named Lucius Harney shows up in the dusty library she works in but cares little about (I did hold this against her momentarily).

I had a brief flashback to The Age of Innocence as Wharton draws attention to social class and the role of women. I'm strongly considering reading the other novella in my editon, Bunner Sisters.

Like many other books by Wharton, the ending filled me with complete and total rage. Why do I keep doing this to myself?

I love Wharton’s prose but this one, like The House of Mirth, lost me a wee bit here and there. I couldn’t work out why I should care at a couple of points. But man, she knows how to put her characters in a jam.