Edith Wharton continued her search for spiritual meaning in the post–World War I years. In previous novels, she wrestled with questions of spiritual meaning and sought alternatives to the Christian mindbody split and prohibitions on the flesh. Old Testament teachings and Calvinist doctrines influence The House of Mirth and Ethan Frome; the wisdom and creativity of the ancient deity Sophia echo in The Reef; and Emerson's and Whitman's transcendentalism provide the inspiration for Summer. In The Age of Innocence, Platonic philosophy offers Wharton another base from which to explore familiar and haunting questions about love, duty, and spiritual values.

Although the heroine of Summer cannot realize the full potential afforded by Emersonian transcendentalism, Wharton herself continued to privilege Emerson's ideals, focusing, in particular, on the Platonic philosophy that informed his and other romantic theories of the nineteenth century.