Other editions of book Summer

Written in Paris in 1916, as Edith Wharton contemplated the German army’s approach, Summer is her most erotic and lyrical novel. It is here that she explores her most daring theme—a woman’s awakening to her sexual needs. The book’s heroine is an eighteen-year-old girl named Charity Royall. Living in the small town of North Dormer, she is ignorant of desire until she meets a visiting architect, Lucius Harney. Like the succulent summer in the beautiful Berkshires around them, their romance is lush and picturesque, but its consequences are harsh and real. Praised for its realism and candor by such writers as Joseph Conrad and Henry James and compared to Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Summer was one of Wharton's personal favorites of all her novels and remains as fresh and relevant today as when it was first written.

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

A naive girl from a humble background meets an ambitious city boy, and a torrid romance ensues. Despite her pride, independence, and honesty, Charity Royall feels shadowed by her past--especially in her ardent relationship with the educated and refined Lucius Harney. Can passion overcome the effects of heredity and environment?With its frank treatment of a woman's sexual awakening, Summer created a sensation upon its 1917 publication. Edith Wharton — the author of Ethan Frome and a peerless observer and chronicler of society — completely shattered the standards of conventional love stories with this novel's candor and realism. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author declared Summer a personal favorite among her works, and liked to refer to it as "the Hot Ethan." Over a century later, it remains fresh and relevant.

Edith Wharton (born Edith Newbold Jones, January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer. Her works : The Touchstone, 1900 The Valley of Decision, 1902 Sanctuary, 1903 The House of Mirth, 1905 Madame de Treymes, 1907 The Fruit of the Tree, 1907 Ethan Frome, 1911 The Reef, 1912 The Custom of the Country, 1913 Bunner Sisters, 1916 Summer, 1917 The Marne, 1918 The Age of Innocence, 1920 (Pulitzer Prize winner) The Glimpses of the Moon, 1922 A Son at the Front, 1923 Old New York, 1924 The Mother's Recompense, 1925 Twilight Sleep, 1927 The Children, 1928 Hudson River Bracketed, 1929 The Gods Arrive, 1932 The Buccaneers, 1938 Fast and Loose, 1938 (first novel, written in 1876–1877)

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Summer I A girl came out of lawyer Royall's house, at the end of the one street of North Dormer, and stood on the doorstep. It was the beginning of a June afternoon. The springlike transparent sky shed a rain of silver sunshine on the roofs of the village, and on the pastures and larchwoods surrounding it. A little wind moved among the round white clouds on the shoulders of the hills, driving their shadows across the fields and down the grassy road that takes the name of street when it passes through North Dormer. The place lies high and in the open, and lacks the lavish shade of the more protected New England villages. The clump of weeping-willows about the duck pond, and the Norway spruces in front of the Hatchard gate, cast almost the only roadside shadow between lawyer Royall's house and the point where, at the other end of the village, the road rises above the church and skirts the black hemlock wall enclosing the cemetery. The little June wind, frisking down the street, shook the doleful fringes of the Hatchard spruces, caught the straw hat of a young man just passing under them, and spun it clean across the road into the duck-pond. As he ran to fish it out the girl on lawyer Royall's doorstep noticed that he was a stranger, that he wore city clothes, and that he was laughing with all his teeth, as the young and careless laugh at such mishaps.

Excerpt from Summer: A NovelA Girl came out of Royall's house, at the end of the one street of North Dormer, and stood on the doorstep.It was the beginning of a June afternoon. The springlike transparent sky shed a rain of silver sunshine on the roofs of the village, and on the pastures and larchwoods surrounding it. A little wind moved among the round white clouds on the shoulders of the hills, driving their shadows across the fields and down the grassy road that takes the name of street when it passes through North Dormer. The place lies high and in the open, and lacks the lavish shade of the more protected New England villages.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Eighteen-year-old Charity Royall is bored with life in the small town of North Dormer. She is a librarian and ward of North Dormer’s premier citizen, Lawyer Royall. While working at the library, Charity meets visiting architect Lucius Harney. Mr. Royall, who once tried to force his way into Charity’s bedroom after his wife’s death, and later asked her to marry him, notices their growing closeness. He tries to put a stop to it by telling Harney he can no longer accommodate him in his house. Harney makes it appear as though he has left town, but only moves to a nearby village and continues to communicate with Charity. On a trip to Nettleton, Harney kisses Charity for the first time and buys her a present of a brooch. Afterwards they run into a drunken Mr. Royall, accompanied by prostitutes. Mr. Royall verbally abuses Charity, causing her to become overwhelmed with shame. After the trip, Charity and Harney begin a sexual relationship.