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Narrator
Grace Conlin
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Length
5 hours 33 minutes
Language
English
Wharton's most erotic and lyrical novel, Summer explores a daring theme for 1917: a woman's awakening to her sexuality.
Eighteen-year-old Charity Royall lives in the small town of North Dormer, ignorant of desire until the arrival of architect Lucius Harney. Independent yet kept from love until now by society's expectations, Charity finds herself wrapped up in a love affair with Harney.
Like the succulent summer landscape in the Berkshires around them, Charity’s romance is lush and picturesque, but its consequences are harsh and real.
Praised for its realism and candor by such writers as Joseph Conrad and Henry James and compared to Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Summer was one of Wharton's personal favorites of all her novels and remains as fresh and relevant today as when it was first written.
Edith Wharton (1862–1937) is the author the novels The Age of Innocence and Old New York , both of which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. She was the first woman to receive that honor. In 1929 she was awarded the American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Fiction. She was born in New York and is best known for her stories of life among the upper-class society into which she was born. She was educated privately at home and in Europe. In 1894 she began writing fiction, and her novel The House of Mirth established her as a leading writer.
Grace Conlin (1962–1997) was the recording name of Grainne Cassidy, an award-winning actress and acclaimed narrator. She was a member of the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC, and won a Helen Hayes Award in 1988 for her role in Woolly Mammoth’s production of Savage in Limbo.
Reviews
“Reader Grace Conlin distinguishes both men’s and women’s voices easily, using hushed, intimate tones to convey the sweetness of the romance. Yet an ephemeral quality in her delivery casts a shadow of reality on the story and reminds the listener that seasons change. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
“A clamorous and ecstatic affirmation of the joy of sexual love no matter what it costs.”
“Breaks, or stretches, many conventions of women’s romantic love stories and in the process creates a new picture of female sexuality…A clamorous and ecstatic affirmation of the joy of sexual love no matter what it costs.”
“Wharton’s descriptive powers are superb, and Grace Conlin’s narration is exquisite. Highly recommended.”
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