Esther
2025년 6월 25일
We're reading Edith Wharton's <Summer> in the month of August.
I still remember, back in my grad school years, reading Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence in my small, barely affordable room - and letting my imagination run wild about what Old New York must have been like. It felt strange to be nostalgic for an older version of a city I had never even visited, but the feeling was real. After that, I went on to read The House of Mirth, The Custom of the Country, and Ethan Frome, and proudly declared myself a fan of her work. (I also happen to remember that Jonathan Franzen, whose The Corrections I was enjoying around that time, shared my admiration for Wharton, which felt like a small but satisfying validation.)
One reason I’m more than willing to return to her work is that Wharton is almost always spot-on in portraying the emotional realities of characters who are constrained by their social worlds. Only much later did I come to appreciate more about her life: her privileged background, her scandalous divorce, her World War I activism, and the fact that she was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize.
Recently, I stumbled upon one of her lesser-known, slim novels, Summer. I know almost nothing about the plot except that it explores the theme of "desire" — a topic I’m very interested in discussing. Summer also sounds seasonally appropriate for July, doesn’t it? So here’s my pitch for our next reading. Happy reading, and see you in August!
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세종에 거주하고 있는 외국인을 포함해 교사, 강사, 회사원, 공무원 및 가사일을 하시는 분들에게도 원서독서를 장려하고 자유롭게 토론할 수 있는 문학적/문화적 소통과 교류의 공간이 되고자 합니다. 해당 책을 읽고, 영어로 소통이 가능한 대학생 이상의 성인에 한해 누구나 무료로 참석할 수 있습니다. 2025년 8월 모임의 책으로는 Edith Wharton의 <Summer>를 읽습니다.
Summer is a novel by Edith Wharton, which was published in 1917 by Charles Scribner's Sons. While most novels by Edith Wharton dealt with New York's upper-class society, this is one of two novels by Wharton with rural settings. Its themes include social class, the role of women in society, destructive relationships, and the desire of its protagonist, named Charity Royall. The novel was rather controversial for its time and is one of the less famous among her novels because of its subject matter.
여성 최초의 퓰리처상 수상 작가 이디스 워튼의 『여름』. 1차 세계 대전이 막바지에 이르렀을 무렵, 피난민을 돌보며 전쟁의 상처를 수습하던 작가가 단 몇 주 동안의 휴식기에 써 내려간 이 작품은 비극적인 전쟁의 한가운데에서도 “창작의 희열이 정점에 이르러” 집필했다고 알려져 있다. 이 소설은 미국 문단에서 젊은 여성의 성장을 다룬 최초의 본격 문학으로, 주인공인 ‘채리티’가 연인과의 사랑을 통해 자신의 과거를 대면하고 미래를 향해 나아가는 과정을 그렸다. 성장의 요소로서 특히 여성의 열정을 전면에 내세운 이 소설은 인습과 전통에 맞서 자신의 욕망을 직면하는 여성을 묘사해 미국 문단에 커다란 충격을 안겼다. 감각적인 문장 속에 대자연의 성장과 여주인공의 정신적 성숙을 교차시킨 『여름』은 작가 워튼이 생전 가장 애착을 가졌던 작품이기도 하다.
Date: Aug. 31, 2025
Time: 5pm
Venue: Esther’s
Join us for an evening of camaraderie and intellectual stimulation. Admission is free, but attendance is restricted to individuals of college age and above. You can sign up for the meeting via Karrot (당근 모임) or secure your spot through Kakao (에스더어학원).