Book Review: "Summer" by Edith Wharton

I've been on vacation in California for the past few days -- my first non-Disney California vacation in years and years -- and while lounging around the hotel room I started and finished "Summer" by Edith Wharton.

I really liked it.

I've been embarrassed before in recommending books no one else enjoyed, and I must admit that Edith Wharton's most famous novel, "Ethan Frome," is the most depressing book I've ever read, bar none. (It's also one of the most memorable!) So what did I like about "Summer"?

It's the story of a young woman who was saved from a life of squalor on "the mountain" to live with guardians in a small town who raised her completely as their own. After the female guardian's death, the man makes an inappropriate advance on the young woman in his care. She rebukes him, and they continue to live in the same household despite her disgust. Over the summer she becomes the constant companion of a well-to-do young scholar who visits the town to study its architecture. She falls in love with him very gradually...Wharton does a masterful job describing their unfolding relationship and all of its consequences.

"Summer" isn't a long book (just 194 pages), but because of Wharton's rich language and vivid imagery I wouldn't call it a 'quick read.' I never feel compelled to finish reading a book if I lose interest in it, but "Summer" definitely held my interest. (I carried it with me everywhere I went in case I had a minute here or there to read.) As I neared the conclusion, I could foresee three or four possible endings and had to find out which one Wharton would choose. Suffice it to say that the book itself was very controversial in its day (published in 1917).

Here is a sample sentence from p. 61 of the book:
"He had made her feel that the fact of her being a waif from the Mountain was only another reason for holding her close and soothing her with consulatory murmurs; and when the drive was over, and she got out of the buggy, tired, cold, and aching with emotion, she stepped as if the ground were a sunlit wave and she the spray on its crest."

Other books by Edith Wharton I've read (all of which I recommend, even if the first was more than a bit depressing): "Ethan Frome," "The Custom of the Country," and "The Age of Innocence"