| Summer Contributor(s): Wharton, Edith (Author), Ammons, Elizabeth (Introduction by), Ammons, Elizabeth (Notes by) |
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ISBN: 0140186794 ISBN-13: 9780140186796 Publisher: Penguin Group OUR PRICE: $10.80 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: August 1993 Annotation: One of Edith Wharton's personal favorites, Summer "breaks, or stretches, many conventions of romandc love stories and in the process creates a new picture of female sexuality" (Marilyn French, from the Introduction). Like Wharton's more famous novel Ethan Frome, Summer is set in the Berkshires. But the chilly hills that set the background for Ethan's tentative, ill-fated romance have been replaced by a landscape bathed in sun -- and the figure at the center of Summer is a vibrant and passionate young woman, Charity Royall. A New Englander of humble origins, Charity is swept into a torrid love affair with Lucien Harney, an artistically inclined young man from New York City. The conventions that rule society, however, are just as potent in Charity's world as in Ethan Frome's, and her dreams, like his, are inevitably thwarted. In her refreshing Introduction, novelist Marilyn French delves into the themes of female sexuality and feminist sentiment present not only in this novel, but in Wharton's work as a whole. A bold, provocative work, Summer was an immediate sensation when it was first published in 1917, and stands as one of Wharton's greatest achievements. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Classics - Fiction | Literary |
| Dewey: FIC |
| LCCN: 93018329 |
| Series: Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century |
| Physical Information: 0.57" H x 5.15" W x 7.75" (0.40 lbs) 224 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: A tale of forbidden sexual passion and thwarted dreams played out against the lush, summer backdrop of the Massachusetts Berkshires, Edith Wharton called Summer her 'hot Ethan.' In their rural settings and their poor, uneducated protagonists, Summer and Ethan Frome represent a sharp departure from Wharton's familiar depictions of the urban upper class. Charity Royall lives unhappily with her hard-drinking adoptive father in an isolated village, until a visiting architect awakens her sexual passion and the hope for escape. Exploring Charity's relation to her father and her lover, Wharton delves into dark cultural territory: repressed sexuality, small-town prejudice, and, in subtle hints, incest. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. |