Ethan Frome (Signet Classics) (Paperback)

~ (Author), Anita Shreve (Foreword) "I HAD THE STORY, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story..." (more)
Key Phrases: hired girl, Ethan Frome, Jotham Powell, Denis Eady (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Tragic novel by Edith Wharton, published in 1911. Wharton's original style and her use of hard-edged irony and the flashback technique set Ethan Frome apart from the work of her contemporaries. The main characters are Ethan Frome, his wife Zenobia, called Zeena, and her young cousin Mattie Silver. Frome and Zeena marry after she nurses his mother in her last illness. Although Frome seems ambitious and intelligent, Zeena holds him back. When her young cousin Mattie comes to stay on their New England farm, Frome falls in love with her. But the social conventions of the day doom their love and their hopes. The story forcefully conveys Wharton's abhorrence of society's unbending standards of loyalty. Written while Wharton lived in France but before her divorce (1913), Ethan Frome became one of the best known and most popular of her works. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

Ethan works his unproductive farm, and struggles to maintain an existence with his suspicious and hypochondriac wife, Zeena. But when Zeena's cousin enters their household as a "hired girl", Ethan finds himself obsessed with her and with the possibilities for happiness she comes to represent. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Signet Classics (June 12, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451527666
• ISBN-13: 978-0451527660
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (236 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #290,166 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When the gods want to punish us..., February 5, 2006

By	Adam Dukovich "colts_19" (Roseville, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

53 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's Snowing, It's Snowing!, July 12, 2000

By	Joseph J. Hanssen "Joe" (Upstate New York) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Ethan Frome (Signet Classics) (School & Library Binding)

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!

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A bleak but beautifully written short novel, February 2, 2002

By	Michael J. Mazza (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

"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.