Customer Reviews

Ethan Frome

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3 star:		(33)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(36)

 

 

Ethan Frome is the sad story of a hopeless marriage worsened by the blossoming of star-crossed love. Ethan and his invalid wife Zeena resent their loveless marriage and life together. When Zeena's sickness requires additional attention, Zeena's cousin Mattie is invited to Starkfield. Mattie's lovely and warm personality contrasts Zeena's cold character, revealing to Ethan how much is missing from his life. He and Mattie immediately fall in love, but with Zeena's constant presence their love is doomed from the start. All of the characters are well-defined, especially Ethan. Although her writing style is hardly complex, Wharton, a woman, demonstrates an amazing skill in creating a believable sensitive and stern main character. Her vivid descriptions of nature throughout the book create an environment that is chillingly beautiful and captivate the reader. Wharton creates a sense of isolation and regret, often countered content and happiness. Ethan Frome is a classic. Wharton writes a novel that is both easy to follow and sophisticated. The ending is extremely suspenseful with a surprising result. This novel is recommended for anyone who wants to read a short, simple love story.

Once in a while you have to put down those current novels, and read some classic literature. And Edith Wharton is one of the best.

This story takes place in the cold, bleak winter farmlands of Massachusetts. Ethan Frome, a poor farmer, has a hard life tending to his land, trying to make a meager living, and also taking care of his ungrateful, demanding, sickly wife, Zeena. When her cousin, Mattie, comes to help her, Ethan's life changes completely. He falls deeply in love with Mattie. This being the 1800's, he must endure the stifling conventions of that era's society also. There love for each other proves to be a fascinating story.

I loved this book. This is a story that will definitely take you away. You'll actually feel you are there. Edith's detail description of the scenery and landscape of that time are truly vivid. I found myself pausing from my reading to look outside to see if it was actually snowing. I highly suggest you find time to read "Edith Wharton's books, you'll be grateful. I certainly was!

"Ethan Frome," by Edith Wharton, is a fine example of Wharton's skill and power as a writer of fiction. But beyond that, this is a really depressing read. The story is basically a domestic tragedy set in the cold, grim town of Starkfield, Massachusetts. The title character is a poor farmer whose wife, Zeena, seems to be a hypochondriac. Their life together is complicated by Ethan's problematic attachment to Zeena's cousin, Mattie, who has come to live with them.

Wharton's prose is impressive on many levels. She really brings the reader into Ethan's tormented mind, and the effect is heartbreaking. Her representation of American vernacular speech is intriguing, as is her use of foreshadowing. Ethan--"the most striking figure in Starkfield, though he was but the ruin of a man"--is a memorable creation.

Ultimately, "Ethan" is a horrific vision of human coldness, cruelty, bitterness, hopeless, and longing. Despite Wharton's abundant talent, the book is a hard pill to swallow.

I'm not sure why folks read Amazon reviews with regard to the classics, so I will try to be relevant with this one.

1. I started an aggressive reading program seven (7) years ago at the age of 51. I delayed getting to Edith Wharton because I was intimidated by her. I thought she was unapproachable and uninteresting. Big mistake. Her autobiography, "A Backward Glance" is a hoot. But for a first Edith Wharton story, read "Ethan Frome."

2. "Ethan Frome" is all of 70 pages long; it can be read in one sitting.

3. Edith Wharton was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature.

4. Get the Wordsworth edition; it has a wonderful introduction/critical review of "Ethan Frome" as well as Edith's own introduction. But don't read the Wordsworth introduction until AFTER you've read the story. (You should read Edith's introduction, however.)

Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton, is a twisted love story that takes place in a New England country town in the middle of one of its infamous winters. Ethan and his sick wife Zeena live on an unmanageable farm where they live their life in poverty. When Mattie Silver comes to take care of Zeena, she brightens up Ethan's life and he falls deeply in love with her. He could never live without her... Wharton uses exlicit techniques so the reader can see and feel the story unfolded before them. In my opinion, Ethan Frome was enjoyable to read. The characters were more then they seemed on their surfaces. This made them dynamic and mysterious enough to keep me engaged and thinking even after I was done with the novel. The short length of the book gave the reader the chance to read slowly and carefully to catch the many hidden symbols.

Edith Wharton was sort of an American Jane Austen, in that she wrote almost exclusively about the society of her time. However, I have found Wharton to be better than Austen, if for no other reason than Wharton's characters have more depth--Wharton's characters are immediately recognizable as people. Ethan Frome was one of her most famous novels, and it is actually a departure for her, since it occurs in a rural Massachussetts town rather than turn of the century New York, but the stifling society presence is still here, and the story is very much a tragedy, just like her other works. However, I found this book to be even more devastating than The House of Mirth.

The book is about the titular character, a man who lives with his cold, unlovable wife and his young and lovely cousin. Clearly he is stuck, and much of the book revolves around his attempts to sort out his feelings and deciding what to do. It's not an exceptionally complex story, but it is a powerful one, with an ending which I found extraordinarily sad. In a way, Ethan gets what he wants, but it can only bring him endless sorrow. I don't want to give it away if you haven't read it, but it is quite well-done.

This book, if it isn't already, should be considered the very definition of American tragedy. The beautifully-drawn imagery and setting, the sublimated love and hate, the inevitable course and its tragic conclusion make this one of the finest novels I have ever read, and, I hope, one of the finest you will have ever read, too.

This book is just as good the second time around. Wharton has an amazing sense of place and character. Her real genius is in her subtlety. A heartbreaking, truly tragic masterpiece that can easily be read in one sitting.

Before getting to the first page of reviews, I anticipated reading responses from two camps: high school English teachers who adore Ethan Frome, and high school students who wish it were never written. I was amazed to see a range of responses. Some people have written that the novel changed their lives. Some have commented that it's actually a decent read. Others question its emphasis in high school English classes. And some people just plain hate the book.

Though I learned to respect the novel, I can understand why others haven't, particularly younger readers. The book is so vastly removed from the lives of most teens that it usually takes a really dynamic instructor to make reading it a successful classroom experience.

From the outset, it seems like such a tempting choice to teach. Here we have a classic case of a short literary work that has all the goods: effective imagery, a classic plot line akin to Romeo and Juliet, vibrant symbolism featuring a pickle dish that sits on a high shelf, and above all, the overwhelming sense of tragedy that is so often a popular item in works chosen for high school English classes. And yet, for all its literary panache, thousands of high school students year after year are left puzzled by Ethan Frome, asking: so what?

I think one answer to this question is clear. The novel is an effective means of exploring literary devices. It doesn't have any objectionable material, and because it is so short, it is safe and easy to teach. Whether this answer helps to form new generations of avid readers remains a key issue.

This story portrays the life of an unfortunate man whose unhappiness, depression and weakness causes him to become a helpless prisoner and a lost soul that will continue living in the lonely village of Starkfield, Massachusetts forever.
Edith Wharton's, Ethan Frome begins by introducing the narrator as a character. The story then proceeds to go back in time, which takes over the bulk of the book. She also includes, within her story traces of foreshadowing and irony, which keeps the reader focused and interested. Wharton distinctly describes the environment with imagery and diction in order to sufficiently create the mood and tone of the story for the reader. Wharton's writing style attracts the reader and successfully develops an unexpected ironic twist, which makes this story one of a kind.
The tragic story of Ethan Frome takes place in the dull and isolated village of Starkfield, Massachusetts. Ethan From, the central character in the story, and his unhealthy wife, Zeena, live in quiet and sorrow, which puts an end to their marriage. Due to Zeena's illness, her cousin Mattie Silver is called to take over the responsibilities of the house. Mattie's bright and happy presence attracts Ethan immensely, causing a spark to ignite in his nonexistent life. Mattie's youthful appearance and her energetic personality contrasts with the dark and wicked characteristics of the evil sister, Zeena. Mattie and Ethan's unspoken love creates the foundation of Zeena's jealousy and rage. Her need for attention and sympathy allows her to dominate and control the lives of Mattie and Ethan. The combination of fate and Zeena's imposing power contributes to Ethan and Mattie's forbidden and unperceivable love. Ethan's constant pursuit of happiness and attempt to escape from Zeena's restraints and the confinements of the village inevitably cause unwanted results.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel. It is one of the few that I have read more than once. It is a short novel, but it is 81 pages of dynamic work. The story moves along quickly at a great pace so a reader can read it in an afternoon.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in reading about a forbidden love between two individuals that would do anything they could in the world to be together. It is a tragic love story, but so is life in its most unusual way. Wharton's best work in this story is definitely the catastrophic twist she gives it at the end. The outcome is overwhelming and tear-jerking. Edith Wharton's description of these pressures and the longing love Ethan has for Mattie makes this a story that immediately holds the attention of the reader. It pulls the reader into an invigorating tale of the one true love finally found that is at the same time torturously, maddeningly beyond all hope of attainment.

Despite what you might read above, Ethan Frome is a masterpiece of the naturalistic form. As you must know through study, determinism is the doctrine that man's actions and mental activities are governed by causes outside his own will. In this case, because Edith Wharton was a naturalistic writer, Ethan Frome's whole life was controlled by his heredity and his environment. This interpretive fiction is also a great example of the omniesent point of view. The author chose all of the images superbly while writing this piece.
The setting is winter because nothing is alive in winter and because it is so bleak and impassable. The protagonist (Ethan) is a ruin of a man. Wharton portrays him perfectedly through her writing. He is emasculatory. He has no children nor does he frolic at any time with children or possess any fartherly or masculine traits other than hard work. The antagonist (Zeena) is sickly, bloodless, and flat chested. She is hardly the picture of a woman, nor is she the picture of life. Mattie (the bone of contention) is the picture of life, she is the picture of hope; However, hope in a frozen hell is hardly hope at all.
This book has so much to offer to the observant reader it hardly seems necessary to give away the ending or the plot. The point is, this story is about man's inability to overcome heredity and his environment. And Ms. Wharton does this masterfully.