Ethan Frome and Summer

This edition presents Wharton's two most controversial stories, which she considered inseperable, in one volume for the first time. Set in frigid New England, both deal with sexual awakening and appetite and their devastating consequences. This text includes newly commissioned notes.

Edith Wharton herself drew many connections between her two novellas—Ethan Frome and Summer—which address the consequences of forbidden sexual passion and the tragedy of thwarted dreams. While Wharton continues to be one of the most frequently taught American writers, this New Riverside Edition volume is the first to pair these texts along with supporting critical and contextual materials. Supplementary materials include related writing about the Berkshires, essays about cultural norms in New England, and critical essays.

One of America's most important novelists, Edith Wharton was a refined, relentless chronicler of the Gilded Age and its social mores. Along with close friend Henry James, she helped define literature at the turn of the 20th century, even as she wrote classic nonfiction on travel, decorating and her own life.