Wharton called Summer her “hot Ethan” probably as much for its setting—summertime in a small New England town near Ethan Frome’s fictional Starkfield—as its content—a young, reluctant librarian named Charity Royall becomes involved with a rich, young architect visiting from Boston.
Like many of Wharton’s works, Summer addresses issues such as premarital sex and abortion that remain contentious. Local newspapers initially reported that the Lenox Library refused to purchase it for being “a little tart in some of its picturings.” However, a correction soon followed. “Edith Wharton’s new book, ‘Summer,’ has not been excluded from the Lenox Library, simply, placed in a special department where it is not available to children.”
Published in July 1917