Summer by Edith Wharton

Unique Elements:
Historical Context
Detailed 20th Century Historical Outline

A 20th Century Historical Fiction Novel by Edith Wharton, the author of The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth.

“...though she had not had the strength to shake off the spell that bound her to him she had lost all spontaneity of feeling, and seemed to herself to be passively awaiting a fate she could not avert.”

Summer by Edith Wharton, an American author, is a powerful literary classic that was first published in 1917 by Charles Scribner's Sons. When the novel was released, it was quite controversial due to its frank portrayal of an affluent couple's extramarital affairs and their steadfast adherence to the stringent codes of conduct expected by society.

Charity Royall, a young woman from a rural New England town, is adopted by elderly lawyer Mr Royall and moves to the city of North Dorchester. Charity is now in a place where she can see a side of life she had never seen before: a world of wealth and excess. She soon becomes entangled in a passionate love affair with an attractive young law clerk named Lucius Harney, which leads to a moral dilemma that she struggles with throughout the novel.

A celebrated American literary classic exploring themes of social class and the role of women in society and their sexual awakening,

“She had always thought of love as something confused and furtive, and he made it as bright and open as the summer air.”

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Edith Wharton was the first female American author to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. She was born into a wealthy New York City family in 1862 and married Edward Wharton, a Boston banker, in 1885. The couple moved to France in 1907 where Wharton began writing novels set in the American Gilded Age. Her works frequently addressed such issues as social and personal fulfilment, suppressed sexuality, and the customs of old families and new elites.

Edith Wharton’s most famous works include The House of Mirth (1905), Ethan Frome (1911), and The Age of Innocence (1920).
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