Summer by Edith Wharton

I recommend this wonderful book be enjoyed when you have a whole Sunday to spend in a sunny backyard. It's not a long book and is best read in one sitting, when you can just let its simple and inevitable flow roll along uninterrupted. Not that the story is boring or predictable, but Wharton lays each critical element out along the plot path, gently bringing her heroine to her love story's logical conclusion. Yes, its a girly novel, and features Charity Royall as the attractive ward of the only educated gentleman in a tiny New England hamlet. Chance would have Charity encounter an exciting stranger visiting from the big city, and this brings her in touch with her own desire for a larger life. At the same time, she becomes compelled to investigate her mysterious origins.

In the introduction of the edition I read, Cynthia Griffin Wolfe puts it well: "[Wharton's] novels record timeless truths; and it is this fact above all that continues to make them meaningful and important." I'd also add that it's not just the author's insight into human character that is remarkable, her descripitions are dem fine too. I got a big kick out of this line at the very beginning: "...the springlike transparent sky shed a rain of silver sunshine on the roofs of the village... "

Also check out Nette's hysterical review of Wharton's Twilight Sleep

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