Summer by E. Wharton: the young girl and the savages

In the “I read classics” series, a series I casually follow, I wanted to talk this week about “Summer,” my great discovery during my vacation. I was getting ready to talk to you about it, as it came out of nowhere if not for my adoration for the book, when yesterday, while going through my many letters accumulated during said vacation, there it was, “Summer” by Edith Wharton, in a new translation by Julie Wolkenstein for Editions POL, set to be released in a few days. A marvel of cultural news, now aligning with my tastes rather than the other way around – may it continue. More seriously, the novel not only pleased me greatly but also brought to mind another theme of my season – “Wuthering Heights,” with all these intertwining storylines, it’s almost unbelievable.

The great American writer Edith Wharton released “Summer” in 1917, causing quite a scandal, being compared to “Madame Bovary,” released with great fanfare some fifty years before. It’s the story of a young girl, Charity, nineteen years old, who drags her boredom through the small village of North Dormer, in New England, a remote town where life seems stuck in the past, refusing to move forward into the new 20th century. Charity, despite living among the village’s elite as the ward of an old lawyer, Mr. Royall, who stands out as a notable figure despite his well-known alcoholism. Charity remains ignorant about her origins and the reasons why Mr. Royall adopted her as a child. All she knows is that she was born in a mysterious and dark place called the Mountain, where a group of criminals and small woodworkers live as bohemians or savages, compared to the puritanical society above. Recently, Charity has taken charge of the library in North Dormer, which doesn’t see many visitors until one fine August day, a well-dressed stranger, Lucius Harney, a supposed architect and a distant relative of a benefactor in the area, walks in. Charity quickly volunteers to accompany him despite her guardian’s jealous reluctance and the rumors starting to swirl in the village.

Therefore, it’s a novel of romantic scandal, one might even say sexual scandal. This story of a stifled young girl, full of anger and desire, who embraces her attraction to a man, a man who represents both a social horizon outside the narrow rules of her village and simply a man to satisfy her young body that the long summer walks no longer tire. I was immediately captivated by the fervor of the character of Charity in this very short book – she’s not particularly likable, she flies off the handle and makes wrong choices, impressionable and cynical at times, yet extremely lively, struggling with a force that remains striking even today.

This strength, I didn’t expect from Edith Wharton, who, I admit, was somewhat of an English writer version for me – I always thought I understood the text, only to realize I had four meanings. I think my fondness for this book, in particular, lies in its rural, archaic setting, with Gothic elements – the notorious Mountain unfolding like hell beneath the feet of the village’s wayward girls. And you see why I thought of “Wuthering Heights”: violent and robust, Charity reminded me of Catherine Earnshaw, the wild one from the moors, all claws out against those trying to capture or confine her. In my lineage of great rebellions, the heroine in “Summer” now holds a prominent place.