Staff Pick
Wharton's moody story contains an accident in the winter snow, a bitter wife, a young houseguest, and a startling love triangle which shouts out loud: "Be careful what you wish for." These things add up to a perfect slice of irony, and one of my very favorite classics. Fabulous! Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
I HAD the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story. If you know Starkfield, Massachusetts, you know the post-office. If you know the post-office you must have seen Ethan Frome drive up to it, drop the reins on his hollow-backed bay and drag himself across the brick pavement to the white colonnade and you must have asked who he was. It was there that, several years ago, I saw him for the first time and the sight pulled me up sharp. Even then he was the most striking figure in Starkfield, though he was but the ruin of a man. It was not so much his great height that marked him, for the natives were easily singled out by their lank longitude from the stockier foreign breed it was the careless powerful look he had, in spite of a hind the grating. I noticed that, though he came so punctually, he seldom received anything but a copy of the Bettsb, ridge Eagle, which he put without a glance into his sagging pocket. At intervals, however, the post-master would hand him an enveIope addressed to Mrs. Zenobia--or Mrs. Zeena-Frome, and usually bearing conspicuously in the upper left-hand corner the address of some manufacturer of patent medicine and the name of his specific. These documents my neighbour would also pocket without a glance, as if too much used to them to wonder at their number and variety, and would then turn away with a silent nod to the postmaster. Every one in Starkfield knew him and gave him a greeting tempered to his own grave mien but his taciturnity was respected and it was only on rare occasions that one of the older men of the place detained him for a word. When this happened he would listen quietly, his blue eyes on the speakers face, and answer in so low a tone that his words never reached me then he would climb stiffly into Why didnt he Somebody had to stay and care for the folks. There warnt ever anybody but Ethan. Fust his father-then his mother-then his wife. And then the smash-up Harmon chuckled sardonically. Thats so. He had to stay then. I see. And since then theyve had to care for him Harmon thoughtfully passed his tobacco to the other cheek. Oh, as to that I guess its always Ethan done the caring. Though Harmon Gow developed the tale as far as his mental and moral reach permitted there were perceptible gaps between his facts, and I had the sense that the deeper meaning of the story was in the gaps. But one phrase stuck in my memory and served as the nucleus about which I grouped my subsequent inferences Guess hes been in Starkfield too many winters. Before my own time there was up I had learned to know what that meant. Yet I had come in the obstacles have hindered the flight of a man like Ethan Frome During my stay at Starkfield I lodged with a middle-aged widow colloquially known as Mrs. Ned Hale. Mrs. Hales father had been the village lawyer of the previous generation, and lawyer Varnums house, where my landlady still lived with her mother, was the most considerable mansion in the village. It stood at one end of the main street, its classic portico and small-paned windows looking down a flagged path between Norway spruces to the slim white steeple of the Congregational church. It was clear that the Varnum fortunes were at the ebb, but the two women did what they could to preserve a decent dignity and Mrs. Hale, in particular, had a certain wan refinement not out ofkeeping with her pale old-fashioned house...
Synopsis
A masterwork of American literature from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Age of Innocence. A marked departure from Edith Wharton's usual ironic contemplation of the fashionable New York society to which she belonged, Ethan Frome is a sharply etched portrait of the simple inhabitants of a nineteenth-century New England village. The protagonist, Ethan Frome, is a man tormented by a passionate love for his ailing wife's young cousin. Trapped by the bonds of marriage and the fear of public condemnation, he is ultimately destroyed by that which offers him the greatest chance at happiness.
Like The House of Mirth and many of Edith Wharton's other novels, Ethan Frome centers on the power of local convention to smother the growth of the individual. Written with stark simplicity, this powerful and tragic novel has long been considered one of Wharton's greatest works.
Synopsis
A masterwork From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Nineteenth-century New England villager Ethan Frome is tormented by his love for his ailing wife's cousin. Trapped, he may ultimately be destroyed by that which offers his greatest chance at happiness...
Synopsis
A masterwork From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author
Nineteenth-century New England villager Ethan Frome is tormented by his love for his ailing wife's cousin. Trapped, he may ultimately be destroyed by that which offers his greatest chance at happiness...
Synopsis
A marked departure from Edith Wharton's usual ironic contemplation of fashionable New York society, Ethan Frome centers on the power of local convention to smother the growth of the individual. This powerful and tragic novel has long been considered one of Wharton's greatest works.