The Living Ain’t Easy

Media: Audio
Reader:Grace Conklin
Length: `6 hours

The most positive thing I can say about this short novel is that it’s well-crafted. Other than that, it’s Wharton at her melodramatic best.

The story has been described as an American Madame Bovary . I can understand why. However I’d throw in a dash of Lolita with a sprinkling of Mansfield Park and a Mandelay zest to give the full offering.

A young child Chastity is moved from a nasty impoverished area to small town by the local orator Mr Royall, who falls in love with her when she reaches adolescence. Chastity meanwhile meets a beguiling young architect Lucas Harney who she falls for after a brief meeting on a dusty road. Harney is infatuated by her beauty but sees her as a sex object and beds her as they used to say back in the day.

They get around in a horse-drawn carriage but unlike Emma Bovary Chastity is true to her name and makes Harney wait until he’s set up a spot in the woods where they can indulge in stillness and privacy.

The older, much older Mr Royall tries to warn Chastity, but he’s done his dash with the young woman by coming onto her once, making a sexual advance when she was younger. She has this act and his subsequent well-deserved shame as an unmentioned bargaining point and she has the power over the man who regrets forever his stupid testosterone-filled move three years before.

True to Royalll’s word, young Harney abandons ship, leaving Chastity to her memories of his love-lust, and the glimpse he gave her of the higher things in life. Architecture and grammar and such.

What to do? He’s gone, she’s preggers and Royall has a few more attempts at winning her - well not back - she despises him - “her hand”.

Meanwhile her mother who is said to be a slut is dying in the hills. Anything more would spoil the tale so I’ll leave the plot there. There are some nice scenes of the wilderness around the small town, and of the wheat fields where Chastity throws herself down in despair over her love.

The characters are a bit of a mishmash but maybe I was getting confused between Royall and Hubert and Lord Mansfield and Maxime. Harney is an easier take. He’s Léon the law clerk from Lyons. And Chastity? More Emma or Fanny Price than Hardy’s Tess or Rebecca. I was having trouble with Chastity’s mood-swings but perhaps it was just her name that was throwing me off.

I gave Summer a 3 for its wordcraft and the bush scenes and the way the story magically picks up pace toward the end. Will Mr Royall prove to be the successful older suitor? You will need to read the book, a must for young unwary female lovers, and for lovers of Wharton. ( )

Published in 1917, "Summer" is the story of a naive 18 year old girl named Charity. She is living with her foster father in a small isolated village with nowhere to go, and nothing to do. That is, not until an aristocratic charming young man comes to the area to visit relatives and Charity suddenly finds adventure and hope for the future. Unfortunately, the plot is predictable so the reader realizes there is nothing for Charity to be excited about.

This novel was bleak and in spite of the limited possibilities for a girl like Charity in that era, I couldn’t help feeling that she was partially held back by her own lack of curiosity and vision.
I failed to understand why Charity would insist on taking a job and then be so disinterested and careless in trying to fulfill the duties involved. She seemed like a spoiled, unappreciative person - boring and unimaginative. What made it even more depressing is the lack of empathy I had for any of the characters.

I have the highest regard for Edith Wharton’s writing skills and loved House of Mirth and Age of Innocence. However both of those were about elite society women, and it is easier to criticize characters behavior and show a lack of empathy when you know the characters have many options available in their lives. And yet, Wharton had no sympathy for poor Charity. And neither did I.

However, I don’t give bad reviews based on my like or dislike for the characters. Sometimes novels with the worst characters are some of the best stories. So that is not the reason for my low rating. I did not like Edith Wharton’s condensed descriptions, the hasty development of the plot, and the final outcome. As one other reviewer stated, “By the end of the novel Charity does not seem to have grown much beyond who she was in the beginning, despite the changes in her life.” The story is nothing more than a weak character study.

And above all, I didn’t like Edith Wharton’s condescending attitude of lower class people (that seeped through on every page). She seems to imply that elevation to a higher social standing is not possible - and not advisable. I guess that was an easy philosophy for her to espouse since she was born into the New York elite aristocracy.

Edith Wharton won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1921 for her novel "Age of Innocence", but this book - not so good.

Rated 2.5 Stars June 2022 ( )

Charity Royall is an unusual character. She's happy just being friends with this hot young guy that strolls into town, even though she seems totally into him. Then she doesn't particularly want to marry said hot young guy once they fall in love. She isn't jealous of her lover's fiancee. She isn't worried about her reputation. She's so sure of the power she has over the men in her life. When she gets pregnant, she decides not to ensnare her lover in marriage. Instead, she's going to go off on her own and raise her baby in this non-judgmental mountain community.

So, for the period, she seems unexpectedly independent and unorthodox and strong. But in the end she's totally weak. She allows her guardian (an old man whose previous advances grossed her out) whisk her away and marry her because she's in some kind of confused daze, like she doesn't really realize what's happening as she's standing in front of the minister saying "I do." That was kind of a disappointment, but what can you expect from Edith Wharton? She never lets her characters get what they want. Right from the beginning, I imagined Charity, Harney and Mr. Royall would end living together in misery a la Ethan Frome.

Aside from the fact that the rural mountain community wasn't an Eden full of noble savages, but a miserable shanty town full of petty, dirty semi-humans (what a hoot!), this still struck me as story full of modern values. Go have your passionate affair with the hot young guy from a different social class, girl! It will be awesome. But know that there are consequences. You may never fit in his world, and you might end up married to a dirty but well-meaning old man who will take care of you and your love child. You'll never be really happy, but, hey, you'll always have your memories. ( )

This book is often compared to its more famous cousin, Ethan Frome because of the recurring themes of isolation, rural villages, loss of individuality, and unfulfilled romance. Even though I tried to consider this book on its own merits, I couldn't help but also compare it to Ethan Frome, and I have to say, I think I know why the latter is more famous.

Both stories have stayed with me after I finished reading them, but EF was so much more haunting and tragic. Summer was an emotional roller coaster, and I'm not sure how I'm supposed to feel at its conclusion. The ending is both sweet and defeatist, and I think that's the point. The message of the story is put very succinctly by Charity's guardian Mr. Royall in that life only defeats you if you let it. So, while this book didn't end on a bang, it makes me think, and that's why I like it.

If you want an unconventional romance and great growth in characters, and you don't mind thinking, I highly recommend this read! ( )

This is perhaps my favorite Edith Wharton but it had been some time since I read it and I forgot how startingly modern it is. Charity Royall is like many a Wharton heroine; difficult and willful but with that streak of self-awareness and wanting something more than life seems to dish out at her. I think she captures the absolutely foolhardy nature of a first great passion and it's demise brilliantly.