Monday, July 3, 2017

Reading Through the Classics: Summer

TITLE: Summer
AUTHOR: Edith Wharton
PUBLISHED: 1917
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Romance (sort of...), Drama
PREMISE: A young woman has an affair in her small town...
MY THOUGHTS: So, this is my first Edith Wharton. I actually wasn't planning on reading this, but library. picked up on a whim, you know the drill. Plus, I'm just trying to get stuff off the TBR list. Have I mentioned it's huge?
Anyways, Wharton...very interesting. I kind of think of this as the anti-romance novel. Like, you know how romances in general tend to mostly be escapist fiction with happily ever after guaranteed? Yeah, Wharton basically took that idea and tossed it out of the window. She made everything in this realistic, including (spoiler alert) not having the affair end in happily ever after. Like Madam Bovary, this is one of those books that during its time was seen as sensual. Like Madam Bovary it...really isn't. But it was interesting seeing a book from this time period actually have its main female character be interested in sex and not slut shame her for it (like Madam Bovary did).
This was an interesting reading experience, to be honest. I'll definitely be picking up more Edith Wharton in the future.
WHO SHOULD READ: The Awakening fans, classic book fans, Edith Wharton fans

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