Ethan Frome Wharton, Edith

I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story. (from the first line)

Ethan Frome, a novel by Edith Wahrton, is told by an unnamed narrator who recounts an encounter with Ethan Frome in a wintry town of Starkfield, Massachusetts. The story delves into Ethan Frome's attempt of escaping his small town upbringing and pursuing his dream career in science, until his parents illness' force him to return. Ethan meets a love interest, Zeena, in his time back home and also deals with his illnesses related to hypochondria.

Annotation:
This tragic short novel tells the tale of Ethan Frome, who lives an isolated life in cold New England. When his mother dies, he marries his cousin Zeena for companionship, rather than for love. When they hire Mattie Silver as a live-in household helper, Ethan and the young Mattie fall desperately in love. Inevitably, Zeena discovers the affair.

Author Bio

Edith Wharton

Born to a wealthy New York family, Edith Wharton, who eventually wrote over 50 works, spent much of her childhood in Europe developing an appreciation for the arts. In 1885 she married a wealthy banker, Edward Robbins Wharton, and turned to writing--books on decorating, then novels. In 1906, Wharton moved to Paris where she was engaged in a passionate affair with Morton Fullerton. In 1913 she divorced her husband. By this time, Wharton had achieved fame and began spending time among a society of writers and intellectuals that included Henry James. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, just one of her many classic works, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1920. In addition to her novels, Wharton produced poetry, travel books, and literary criticism.

Praise

Introduction
"The book to the making of which I brought the greatest joy, and the fullest ease, was 'Ethan Frome'. For years I had wanted to draw life as it really was in the derelict mountain village of New England, a life... utterly unlike that seen through the rose-colored spectacles of my predecessors, Mary Wilkins and Sarah Orne Jewett... 'Ethan Frome' was written after I had spent ten years in the hill-region where the scene is laid, during which years I had come to know well the aspect, dialect, and mental and moral attitudes of the hill-people." - Edith Wharton

Spectator
"The utter pessimisn of 'Ethan Frome'... is too bad to be true; it is Hardyesque self-indulgence..." - Anthony Burgess 12/03/1965

(unknown)
"The wonder is that the spectacle of so much pain can be made to yield so much beauty." 10/26/1911

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Ethan Frome (Hardcover)

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