Reading the Classics discussion

Hello classic literature lovers! Here is where we will discuss the book Summer by Edith Wharton. I am creating two threads, one for those who want to discuss the book as we are reading it, and another for those who want to wait until they finish the book. This one is for those who want to discuss as we read.

So I have read the first couple of chapters. Let's open up the discussion by talking about our heroine, Charity. We learn that she was raised in the mountains, and taken in by the lawyer when she was young. We also learn that she doesn't seem to care much for working in the library, though she is doing it to make money to get away. What do you think of her so far?

Just finished chapter 6. The setting seems to be Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and Nettleton based on Pittsfield. I’m quite apprehensive about Charity’s future. Bad things often happen to Wharton’s characters.

Just an FYI. In the library, Charity kept her lace wrapped on the remains of "The Lamplighter", which was a best seller in 1854 written by Maria Cummins. Women wrote a lot of best sellers back then -- some years (1847, 1856, 1863 and 1864), women wrote all of the best sellers (two of them Bronte imports). The Lamplighter remained in print until the 1920s, when the "New Criticism" pushed a lot of books written by women out of favor. One of the other books she mentions,

Opening a Chestnut Burr, by E.P. Roe, was another best seller, from 1874, while Uncle Tom's Cabin was one of the greatest best sellers of the century, and of any century, remaining in print to this day, and so regularly performed on stage that there were troupes that toured for literally three generations performing it.

Not a library for adventurous readers, apparently, although Mr. Harney does seem to find a few volumes worthy of note.

Wonder about the period setting. There are no motor cars but Nettleton is electrified. 1890s perhaps.

Had the same impression, last Decade of 19th Century

I also sense something terrible is going to happen to Charity. Enjoying the book very much
But do we know how Hanley(?) makes a living? He seems to be an architect,but there doesn’t seem to be much mention of his having a job.

I wonder which book it was that Mr Harney found to be “valuable “, and why he seems to have left that first visit without borrowing anything.

And of course I bristled at the notion of the librarian being merely a custodian with no education. Just a personal hot button.

I suspect he was giving himself a cover for revisiting the library.

I wonder why Wharton called our heroine Charity? A young woman raised “on the wrong side of the tracks” which makes her demeanour rough,but so far I see no exhibition of her being overly kind or full of charity. Unless she intended it as she was a charity case-given to the old lawyer because no one else could take care of her on the mountain.

I have a daughter named Charity :)

Perhaps she is named Charity because she was taken in by someone else and thus given charity.

Faith and Hope are still popular names for girls.

Perhaps she is named Charity because she was taken in by someone else and thus given charity.

This was my thought, however it was a reasonably popular name at the time and within the story someone might've named her Charity for the same reason she might've been named Emily; because they liked the name, or because she was named after a friend or family member.

From the author's perspective, however, I assume she got the name as a charity case.

Have many of you read other books by Wharton? I read Ethan Frome many years ago but I hear House of Mirth is exceptional.

I found House of Mirth excellent.

I have no idea how many pages I have left-the joy of reading an ebook,but the plot is definitely going in an unexpected direction.

Bill wrote: "Faith and Hope are still popular names for girls."

I have a Faith, Hope, and Charity -
as well as a Bethany Mary Grace :D

Ethan Frome was my first Wharton. My favourite.

Ethan Frome ist a little bit stronger than Summer, because there is no distraction, the Independance-Day-Chapter is a little too long.