reviews
Dec 13, 2008
Ann
rated it: 
I'm on an Edith Wharton kick...well, I've always been on an Edith Wharton kick. Anyway, this is a small volume of her short fiction. Ethan Frome, her best known novelette, is the lead story. It is excellent as it evokes winter's isolation and the poverty of the Lenox area, where Edith built her famous house, The Mount.
As an aside, we visited The Mount about seven or eight years ago and toured the exquisite gardens. (Edith was, among so many other things, a professional classic garden More...
As an aside, we visited The Mount about seven or eight years ago and toured the exquisite gardens. (Edith was, among so many other things, a professional classic garden More...
Jun 19, 2009
Jeanette
rated it: 
The bleak New England setting of Ethan Frome helps set the tone for this rather bleak little novel.
Ethan Frome is a poor, down trodden, and in my opinion weak willed farmer. He is married to Zeena, a hypochondriac, uncommunicative, rigid, complaining, manipulative (I could go on...) woman.
When Zeena's destitute cousin Mattie Silver moves in with the Fromes Ethan quickly becomes enamored with the young, happy woman who seems to be the exact opposite of his wife in every way. Ethan fin More...
Ethan Frome is a poor, down trodden, and in my opinion weak willed farmer. He is married to Zeena, a hypochondriac, uncommunicative, rigid, complaining, manipulative (I could go on...) woman.
When Zeena's destitute cousin Mattie Silver moves in with the Fromes Ethan quickly becomes enamored with the young, happy woman who seems to be the exact opposite of his wife in every way. Ethan fin More...
May 14, 2009
Jennifer
rated it:
My appreciation for the writing of Edith Wharton continues to grow. This book displays quite a range. While House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence both portray things from the uppercrust vantage point, she has no problem inhabiting the character of a poor New England farmer. She inhabits both male and female characters. She is the mistress of portraying subtle flashes of a character.
Ethan Frome was heart-rending but still managed to contain a surprise I didn't expect...even if t More...
Ethan Frome was heart-rending but still managed to contain a surprise I didn't expect...even if t More...
May 04, 2011
Amber
rated it: 
Sadness. The ultimate feeling I have upon leaving behind Ethan Frome is one of infinite sadness. Sadness for people stuck - stuck in poverty, stuck in relationships that lack even friendliness, let alone love, stuck in a life they can never leave behind. To watch the transformation of Ethan and Mattie from people filled with such passion to people so broken and alone filled me with such an ache.
That's the kind of story Ethan Frome is - one that leaves me aching. Aching with sadness for More...
That's the kind of story Ethan Frome is - one that leaves me aching. Aching with sadness for More...
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Mar 01, 2010
Jessica
rated it:
Another Edith Wharton novel, another entry in my "This made me want to shoot myself (in a good way)" diary! Honestly, Ethan Frome itself is my least favorite thing I've read by her, but the short stories "The Pretext" and "Xingu" are so fantastic, and in such different ways. I was devastated and heartbroken by "The Pretext"; I giggled all the way through "Xingu", and completely cracked up at one point. I liked the other stories in this edition al
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Jun 24, 2011
Barbara
rated it:
Edith Wharton has a way of describing the bleak, cold landscape of rural New England like no other; she also knows how to get into the head of her characters and illuminate their psychological torment and severe loneliness, matching the inner with the outer landscape seamlessly. Ethan Frome is both a pathetic and sympathetic character, eking out a a dispassionate life, until Mattie shines the only brightness in his miserable existence; but don't hope for a happily-ever-after ending. This is Wha
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Jan 28, 2012
Jacqui
rated it:
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Memorable Quotes
Memorable Quotes
Ethan FromeMore...
"Guess he's been in Starkfield too many winters. Most of the smart one's get away."
"He seemed a part of the mute melancholy landscape, an incarnation of its frozen woe, with all that was warm and sentient in him fast bound below the surface; but there was nothing unfriendly in his silence.“
“...he lived in a depth of moral isolation too remote for casual access...”
“It looks just as if it was p
Dec 06, 2011
FABR Steph
rated it:
Unhappily married herself, Edith Wharton projected her dark views of love onto people far removed from her social class in Ethan Frome. She has a gift for developing characters who are deep, incredibly complex, but still very real.
Ethan Frome is one of my all time favorite classics and is a part of the “1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die” list. I believe that to be one of the best tragic love stories ever written. Ethan Frome is a dark tale about death, tradgedy, dark depressio More...
Ethan Frome is one of my all time favorite classics and is a part of the “1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die” list. I believe that to be one of the best tragic love stories ever written. Ethan Frome is a dark tale about death, tradgedy, dark depressio More...
Oct 02, 2011
I liked this book. I liked it so much better than The Chronicles of a Death Foretold. I could actually get into this book. The whole book I was thinking that Mattie and Ethan should be together instead of Zena and Ethan. However, I was also thinking how if he did marry Mattie it would be just like his marriage with Zena since both of them helped him care for someone in his family and he fell in love with each of them while this was occurring. The parallel between this book and Chronicle is the w
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Aug 22, 2010
Kris
rated it:
Ethan Frome is probably the most depressing of her stories, although that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. Sad but memorable.
The short stories that accompany the Frome novella range from OK to hysterical (Xingu being the best - one of the best things I've ever read of Wharton's).
The short stories that accompany the Frome novella range from OK to hysterical (Xingu being the best - one of the best things I've ever read of Wharton's).
Mar 22, 2011
Sasha
rated it:
The fact that Edith Wharton was unhappily married certainly comes through in this and other stories. Written with subtlety, its bleak imagery painting an outward portrait of the inner suffering of her characters. It's like the New England version of Sartre's "No Exit."
Nov 22, 2008
JustWorkAlready
rated it:
How dare that back-stabbing cheating little punk run off with her little cousin and expect everything to be OK afterwards. i mean he was, what, 30 and she was, what, 19? *mumbles* what an arogant punk...
Mar 23, 2011
Gigi
rated it:
Yes, it was tragic, but interesting and intense. The other short stories were both different and interesting. Xingu was funny in such a witty way. She's quite the writer. I'm glad I got a taste of her style.
Jul 29, 2010
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Dec 03, 2009
Amanda
rated it:
I appreciated the writing, but wow, almost every thing in there was super depressing. (Ethan Frome being the piece that put the most fun in dysfunctional.) I think I need some Wodehouse.
Aug 27, 2011
Bella
rated it:
I'm a huge fan of Edith Wharton, but I always struggle with really grim, depressing stories, so I'm giving it a 4. House of Mirth is my all time EW fav.
Jan 27, 2010
Andrew
rated it:
I had to read this book for my English class, and I was surprised at how interesting and sad it sometimes got. Definitely a good and easy read.
Sep 19, 2011
Zachary
rated it:
Growing up in New England and reading this book as a sophomore in high school only reinforced the hopeless depression I felt each winter.
Jan 14, 2012
Kate
rated it:
I thought the story was heart-wrenching. What a tragic lot in life. I could feel the characters' predicaments through Wharton's choice of words.
Jul 13, 2009
Trisha
rated it: 
My rating only refers to Ethan Frome, I haven't read the other short stories.
Dec 06, 2011
Martin
rated it:
I'm probably being unfair in my rating of this book. Usually, I'm much more modest in devaluating the worth of what has been claimed as a classic. Who am I to swim against the current of expert opinion? But I read it years ago told that it was a modern tragedy. But tragedy, for me, has to prepare a protagonist to face an inevetible downfall. I just didn't believe in the inevetible in this story just like I didn't for the awful "Dead Poets Society" - I'm a poor rich kid who's daddy won'
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Jan 31, 2010
Kristina
rated it:
Ethan Frome is my favorite Wharton novel and it us very different from her New York social life novels like The Age of Innocence. There were three or four additional short stories in the book that were not very strong.
Dec 13, 2010
Emmie
rated it: 
Fifteenth book of the school year. This was quite possibly the most depressing thing I've had to read in a really, really long time. That's about it. I really do wish I had something a bit more cheery to say about it, but one might notice when reading Ethan Frome that...it's not cheery. At all.
Oct 14, 2008
Jen
rated it:
I hated this book in high school when I read it, but rereading as an "adult" really made a huge difference. Maybe it's that I've experienced a few snowy winters now and know how crazy and depressed they can make people. Maybe it's because I know a little more about life and relationships now or because I don't read books to merely entertain me anymore. I don't know, but I have to recommend everyone who hated this in high school try re-reading it. Maybe you'll be surprised!
