Edith Wharton's Summer will be discussed by the Fairfield Public Library’s “A Book and A Sandwich” reading group on Wednesday, April 14, 2008 in the Main Library’s Rotary Room from 11:30 A.M. to 1 P.M.

Edith Wharton's Summer (1916) takes place in an isolated sleepy village named North Dormer (pun intended) with a 17-year-old girl, Charity Royall, living with her adoptive father, Lawyer Royall, a dispirited and alcoholic lawyer. She works in the town library, which has few books and fewer clients. Charity is independent-minded and longs for freedom and adventure, when Lucius Harney enters her library and her life.

Harney is an architect who summers in North Dormer and spends his time there making sketches of old houses that he thinks should be preserved. Wharton as the narrator makes it clear that she too opposes the unwillingness of villages in the US to appreciate and preserve historical homes and works of art. Charity, along with Wharton disdains the close-mindedness of the village's inhabitants, especially their limiting sense of morality that assumes that all sex acts are evil. Hence the volatile reaction of the town against Charity and her passionate and loving sexual relations with Harney.

Since Charity is a modern woman in a reactionary environment, she feels no guilt about her relationship with Lucius and tries to ignore the gossip. In the end, however, she is forced to give in to the pressures that keep her from realizing herself.

Copies of the books for the discussions are available at the Main Library. Those who wish are invited to bring a sandwich and make it lunch as well as discussion. ‘A Book and a Sandwich ’ meets the second Wednesday of each month, except August. The discussion leader is Eileen R. Haas. For further information call the Library at 256-3160 .

Return  to Book and Sandwich Discussion Group.