Phew. I was exhausted after reading this novella, which is the same length as Ethan Frome and just as brutal.

Staff at Wharton's home, The Mount, have referred to Summer as a "hot Ethan Frome." I thought they were talking about a sexy Ethan Frome. Nope. Ethan Frome is set in the winter and Summer in the summer. Both are stories about a character who has few options in life and none of them are all that great. On top of that, they make poor decisions.

Summer is every bit as good as Ethan Frome, but there are themes of incest/rape, prostitution, and abortion. These are a few topics that a loud minority of Americans have never been able to face, which might be why this work is less well-known.