Everything you need to understand or teach Summer by Edith
Wharton. It is a June afternoon in the early part of the
twentieth century as Summer begins, and nineteen-year-old
Charity Royall stands on the doorstep of her home, about to set
off for her job at the library. As she looks over the small New
England town of North Dormer, she notices a stranger, a young
man clearly from the city. Something about him captures her
imagination, and she feels, not for the first time, that her
small-town life is unsatisfying. She is flustered when he enters
the library to ask for books about the local architecture, and
he appears flustered as well, struck by Charity's beauty. His
questions about the library's holdings remind Charity how little
she knows about books, and she is both disappointed and relieved
when he leaves. To clear her head, Charity heads for a hillside,
where she lies among the wild flowers and observes the... View
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