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= Summer (Novel) =

Edith Wharton is the author of the Summer novel which was published in 1917 by Charles Scribner's Sons  While most novels by Edith Wharton dealt with New York`s upper-class society, this novel forms part of the only novels of Edith Wharton that were set in New England. Basically, dealing with themes such as social class, the role of women in the society, destructive relationships, sexual awakening and the desire of its protagonist, named charity Royal. The book, summer novel was rather controversial for its time and similarly, not very famous among her Novels because of its subject matter.

Plot summary
At the start of the novel, young charity Royal looks really bored with her life in the small town of North Dormer. Charity Royall is born to poor parents in the mountains who could not keep her. For time being, she works in a library and is a picture of the town`s learned person, Lawyer Royall, but she still dreams of even a better and more exciting life. Later in life, that exciting life finds her in the form of a visiting architect named Lucius Harney. Her first encounter with the charming young man is at the library. Soon, he finds himself boarding at Mr. Royall`s house when his own living arrangements fall through.

Charity Royall immediately finds herself attracted to Lucius and decides to become Lucius` companion as he explores the town. Mr. Lucius is putting together a book on colonial houses and is using the town`s building in order to do research for the book. Mr. Royall happened to lose his wife some years ago and therefore has designs on Charity for himself and therefore notices two of them growing close and goes with speed to evict Lucius from his house. Through this, he eliminates what he sees as competition. Lucius leaves town and relocates to a nearby village.

Later on, the two visit a town, where they kiss for the first time and Lucius ends up gifting Charity with Brooch present. Before they are finished with their outing, they run into Mr. Royal, who seems really drunk. Mr. Royal verbally attacks charity, which causes her to feel intense shame and hence falls into Lucius` arms. After the day`s events, charity and Lucius grow even closer and have sex for the first time.

After this, Charity develops fear when she sees Lucius with Annabel Balch a local society girl at a social event. Lucius promises to meet charity at their usual place but when she goes there, she meets Mr. Royall instead who confronts her. Lucius promised on the other hand to marry Charity but he excuses himself to move out of town for a while. Later, a person comes to tell Charity that, Lucius went out of town with Annabel Balch, a local society girl. Charity writes a letter to Lucius in bitterness telling him to marry Annabel.

Immediately after these events, Charity begins feeling sick. Doctor confirms that, she is pregnant. Charity does not have any money to pay for the check up and therefore, she pays doctor with the brooch Lucius gave her. Upon reaching home, she receives a letter from Annabel that confirms that she is going to marry Annabel. This frustrates her until she decides to pack and go look for her long lost mother in the mountains. However, it turns out to be so late because charity`s mother passes away before she could see her.

However, while still staying at the mountains, Charity observes the poverty that has stricken people living around the mountains. From the experience she has in the mountain, she vows she will do everything best to ensure that, her child does not grow in poverty. She therefore returns home, intending to become a prostitute to support her child. However, along the way, she meets again with Mr. Royal. Mr. Royal offers her a ride and decides to marry her. In the end, she writes a letter to Lucius telling her about her marriage and finally returns home to stay with her husband in North Dormer.

Edith Wharton is a three-time Nobel Prize nominee for literature and therefore has been considered as one of the most successful and accomplished novelist in America during her era. This is an era where female novelists were still rare to find. However, despite being a female novelist, her novels achieved global success and are even considered by many American classics today. She was deemed to have been a very prolific writer despite having not published her first novel until she was 40 years of age. In her lifetime, she wrote twenty three novels, which includes the age of innocence among many others. Her writings included three collections of poetry, sixteen short story collections and nine volumes of non-fiction, which majority were based around interior design and architecture.

Major characters

 * Charity Royall: She is the major character in the story. A stranger seduces, impregnates and abandons her. in other terms, according to this scenario, dependence can mean security and she therefore ends up marrying for her former guardian.
 * Lawyer Royall: The lawyer`s feelings towards charity have been paternal all along until the death of Lawyer Royall`s wife.  After the death of her wife, his heavy drinking helps to tear down the wall securing his growing lust and desire for sexual satisfaction. He keeps his distance away from charity, hires workers to be in the house and assists her to achieve her desire for independence; however, he is very much pained by these experiences. Charity lover abandons her while she is pregnant and in this instance, it is her guardian who comes in to rescue the situation by acting as her security and marrying her while pregnant.
 * Lucius Harney: Lucius is a young New York architect who enters the life of Charity and entices with the promise of been everything to her life. On the other hand, Charity strongly feels attracted to Lucius and envious of him too. Lucius is hence just more than her summer lover. He is also the symbol of everything that Charity ever imagines of for herself.
 * Anabel Balch: Annabel on the other hand is not a symbol of everything that Charity Royall does not have; she is the literal reverse of it. Annabel has been described as a blonde lady, blue-eyed, fashionable, educated wealthy and eventually makes to be Mr. Lucius Harney`s wife.
 * Julia Hawes: The character Julia is described as the oldest sister of Charity`s best friend Ally. Julia also happened to have been a victim of a love affair, that later left her pregnant and abandoned. However, Julia`s case is slightly different since after aborting, she gets into prostitution and has ever since become the persona in the small town. Julia is the cautionary tale which later interferes with Charity`s decision making.

Summer Glossary
This forms a list of terms that are related to the subject matter in the novel, The Summer novel by Edith Wharton.

1.      Doleful- quite unhappy and miserable

2.      Swarthy- requires hard work to achieve and basically results through genetics or hard toil beneath the sun.

3.      Languid- sluggish and listless in physical movement as well as emotional response.

4.      Drudgery- this is a kind of hard, tedious labor that when mostly done outdoors could very well result in swarthy complexion.

5.      Moldered- Rotting or something that is decaying from carelessness.

6.      Sullen- Morose and Brooding with an underlying tension of hostility.

7.      Mollify- this has been used to mean acting as a peace maker in an attempt to soothe a person or between opposing parties.

List of Major Themes
Social class The theme of social class is very evident in the novel. For instance, the characters in the Wharton`s story are judged by considering their past background like Charity Royall and also considering their current status like the wealthy Mr. Royall. Similarly, Charity has been brought down from the mountain so that she can have a better life from the gang of outlaws. She is protected by her guardian Mr. Royall.

Theme of movement

The first incident of movement is seeing when Charity is brought to stay with the Royall’s at the age of five. However, Charity further wonders what people are like and still believes that, she belongs to the people on the mountain. The second path of movement is the north Dormer which Charity is brought to in order to have a better chance in life.

Incest

The theme of incest comes out clearly in this excerpt of summer novel. Mr. Royall never actually adopts Charity. Instead of been her legal guardian, he starts to admire her. This can be termed as incest since Royall is the only father figure that Charity ever knows about.

Reception
Once described as the last option, Edith Wharton and her fiction was first crowned the lady of New York`s social life elites. Edith has had a number of critics who constantly comment on her work. At times though, Edith Wharton often wrote letters to confront her critics. Of late, she has been crowned the modernist and an example to all ladies in the city of New York and the entire America at large. This has been mostly based on the critics’ loyalties to the various theories from different people and also the political objectives of different people. This allows Edith Wharton herself to respond to the various concepts through the author`s deductions and the extensions from Wharton`s own words.