Ethan Frome
by Edith Wharton, Elizabeth Ammons (foreword)
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Read in April, 2007
Although it is a tragedy like "Tess of the d'Urbervilles", it's not the same slow, exquisite train wreck that Tess was.
Wharton's classic is more sparse, less ornate, and captures the New England stark winter desolation that mirrors Ethan Frome's internal world.
"Tess" is wonderful, but you know it's going to end badly for her, but the story takes it's time getting to that part. Indeed, this enhances the pain and poignancy of her tragic end. But a few times I found mys...more
Wharton's classic is more sparse, less ornate, and captures the New England stark winter desolation that mirrors Ethan Frome's internal world.
"Tess" is wonderful, but you know it's going to end badly for her, but the story takes it's time getting to that part. Indeed, this enhances the pain and poignancy of her tragic end. But a few times I found mys...more
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I read this book during the second winter I spent living in a suburb of Worcester, Massachusetts.
The move from Texas to Massachusetts was so hard for me anyway. It was just such severe culture shock in every single way. Austin was so new, bright, sunny and friendly. Our local grocery store had a different local band play live to serenade you as you shopped. If you saw the same stockboy twice, he was your friend. And, the cashiers would chat to you about the graphics on your checks (Y'...more
The move from Texas to Massachusetts was so hard for me anyway. It was just such severe culture shock in every single way. Austin was so new, bright, sunny and friendly. Our local grocery store had a different local band play live to serenade you as you shopped. If you saw the same stockboy twice, he was your friend. And, the cashiers would chat to you about the graphics on your checks (Y'...more
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Read in February, 2008
Somehow I missed this in 9th grade English, and after reading this brief, moving novella, I can well understand its ranking as a classic.
In one sense, it works as a story for junior highs; it's a deeply melodramatic romantic story. But in a broader sense, its subtleties and the tightly woven tragedy of its outcome are better suited to older readers.
No spoiler alert needed; I'm not giving away the ending. When we first meet him, Ethan Frome, the title character, is a hard-bitten New Engla...more
In one sense, it works as a story for junior highs; it's a deeply melodramatic romantic story. But in a broader sense, its subtleties and the tightly woven tragedy of its outcome are better suited to older readers.
No spoiler alert needed; I'm not giving away the ending. When we first meet him, Ethan Frome, the title character, is a hard-bitten New Engla...more
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Read in October, 2007
I watched a movie adaptation of Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome a few years ago that I found thoroughly depressing. As such, I had no desire to ever actually read the book. However, I just found a Dover edition at my apartment and discovered the text is less than 80 pages. I figured I could cope with depressing for that long.
Maybe it’s because I knew the basic plot, because I was prepared to be overwhelmingly depressed, that I actually enjoyed the story.
The reader knows from the outset t...more
Maybe it’s because I knew the basic plot, because I was prepared to be overwhelmingly depressed, that I actually enjoyed the story.
The reader knows from the outset t...more
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Read in July, 2008
I liked the writing in this book. I liked the story-line of this book. I liked the idea of the author writing it because she was experiencing something similar (bad marriage, finding love elsewhere). I pretty much liked it up until the end. The whole book you are looking at Ethan Frome as something more than what he seems, so much more it is worth it for the narrator to investigate to find more information about him; and then at the end of the book you find he is basically a coward. He is d...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
Lonely married men; old women who enjoy beating down their husbands; idealistic young women
This novella/short story reads a lot like a study in foreshadowing and imagery, and not necessarily a story for the sake of telling the story. Don't get me wrong, there are some great flourishes of exquisite prose, but in such a stark environment, Wharton heaps meaning after meaning upon the few available images. And the foreshadowing was laid on a bit thick — how many times did a character comment on the tree that ought to be cut down before someone crashes into it and gets hurt?
But W...more
But W...more
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Read in April, 2008
Ethan Frome is a young man married to an insufferable woman named Zeena who thinks that she is an invalid. To help her out around the house, Ethan takes in her orphaned cousin, a young woman named Mattie. Ethan has lived a dark, lonely life, quitting school to take care of his parents and then marrying Zeena and taking care of her. Mattie finally brings some light into his life. This is their story.
I pretty much hated this. The whole thing was dark and depressing. I felt terrible for E...more
I pretty much hated this. The whole thing was dark and depressing. I felt terrible for E...more
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Read in January, 2000
recommended to Justin by:
satan. a 17th century puritan. my momrecommends it for: no one
I have to admit, there's something artificial about rooting through memory for a really bad book to give a low rating. On the one hand, I don't want all my books read to have 4 or 5 stars, that demeans the 4 star books, which in my opinion were all really good reads. Need some balance, right? On the other, it seems pretty arbitrary to start picking on a handful just to balance the books (hah). So I knew for my first 1 star rating, my choice would have to be a simple execrable book, a shit-eat...more
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It was mandatory reading for junior English; a class in which I exerted the minimal amount of effort to maintain an average grade. Through ones high school career it is routine to distribute monstrous amounts of paper crammed with a grotesque amount of words to filter through. It is so easy to become numbed by this whole experience and begin to only pick up such significant words as due dates and definitions, paying little attention to things that will not influence your course grade. When han...more
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Haaaaaate. Though I will say this for Edith, it's not entirely her fault. A lovely**** woman named Carol A. Powers holds much of the responsibility for my grudge against this book. Not all, but a good amount. The book does suck on its own merits.
Let me tell you something. While I have no professional training in education, I can say this with absolute certainty: the way to teach teenagers literature is not - I repeat, NOT - to force them to memorize it.
This book does have a small place i...more
Let me tell you something. While I have no professional training in education, I can say this with absolute certainty: the way to teach teenagers literature is not - I repeat, NOT - to force them to memorize it.
This book does have a small place i...more
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Read in February, 2008
Edith Wharton was obviously interested in the collision of the free spirit and the restraints of conventional society--although she offers no solutions for her characters and does not condone the breakdown of the societies she writes about. Ethan Frome is no exception. But instead of writing about the powerful forces of high society, Wharton writes about the forces of the harsh New England winter and the lonely farm life that bear down on Ethan Frome's spirit. I would recommend reading this book...more
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Read in July, 2007
I think is the simplest, most straightforward book I have read recently, which I really appreciate; I find that contemporary literature often is so complex just for its own sake that we forget how powerful simplicity can be. The emotion of all of Wharton's characters is completely unfiltered by sweetened prose. That said, Ethan Frome is victim to the same critique as the simplest of modern art: my dog could have written this if he tried hard (but he didn't, I realize - I also don't have a dog). ...more
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The image of two lovers driving a car into a tree so they can commit dual suicide, but who in fact only end up severely crippling themselves, has not left me since I first read this book. I wouldn't recommend letting anyone under the age of 15 read this book purely for that reason (I mean, what kind of image is that to have floating around your head?). This novel is very claustrophobic and tragic. It was also the subject of my first-ever real, full-blown research paper, so it's intimately con...more
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Read in October, 2006
recommends it for:
those who enjoy tragic love stories and plot twists
While, in one way, this book is a departure from Wharton's usual New York society novels, it still centers on the theme of unhappy marriage. What I love about the book is Wharton's rich setting descriptions (rural New England village in the early 1900s in winter), which intertwines with the characters' traits, books' themes, and ultimately determines the plot; and Wharton's unexpected plot twists (which I promise not to divulge here). This is a quick read, not only because it is a short novel ...more
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Read in January, 1988
recommends it for:
drivers who don't use turn signals, people who talk out loud in a movie theater during the film
"Hey Mrs. Kinetta, are you still inflicting all that horrible Ethan Frome damage on your students?" - John Cusack, Grosse Pointe Blank
If you're looking for a book with an ever-increasing level of misery, this one is hard to beat. Try this test the next time you're with a group of your friends: just mention "Ethan Frome" out loud, and see how many of them groan audibly.
If you're looking for a book with an ever-increasing level of misery, this one is hard to beat. Try this test the next time you're with a group of your friends: just mention "Ethan Frome" out loud, and see how many of them groan audibly.
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Read in August, 1995
recommended to Jamie by:
AP Englishrecommends it for: everyone
So many people dislike this book! I had to read it the summer before my senior AP english class and I even loved it then! So, that was nearly 12 or so years ago and I had forgotten what it was called, I could only remember the character Mattie and the horrible accident. I went years trying to make my brain remember - then, amazingly enough, I was doing the never ending book quize and there it was! As soon as I laid eyes on the title I knew that was it!
People, it stayed with me that whole tim...more
People, it stayed with me that whole tim...more
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Read in January, 1997
I believe this was summer reading. I'm not sure. I do know that it was for my American literature class in high school, so it was either just before or during my sophomore year. I remember liking the love story and I watched the Liam Neissen movie shortly after reading it one afternoon at Jenn Mabius's house.
Last year I did an awesome project with this book. I had the students read this book and several other stories and poems about winter. Then I had them take pictures of their Maine...more
Last year I did an awesome project with this book. I had the students read this book and several other stories and poems about winter. Then I had them take pictures of their Maine...more
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Read in February, 2008
Ethan Frome marries Zeena, a bitter woman; and later falls in love with her young cousin, Mattie Silver. Mattie is there to care for hydrochondriac Zeena. Zeena kicks Mattie out and Ethan Frome struggles with the conflict of it all. Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Self - it's all there.
It was a dark and depressing book. Wharton does a remarkable job with mood, setting & voice. I liked the language, too.
You can't help feeling empathy for Ethan. There's lots of foreshadowing,...more
It was a dark and depressing book. Wharton does a remarkable job with mood, setting & voice. I liked the language, too.
You can't help feeling empathy for Ethan. There's lots of foreshadowing,...more
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Read in May, 2007
I ended up avoiding this short novel for a long time; others had expressed their displeasure in it, and I took their word for my own. I was very surprised and impressed with Ethan Frome when I finally got into its pages. The book is most unlike Wharton's other long fiction--she presents a very Gothic tale of love, loss, and domestic secrets, all set in a lonely and cold farmhouse. The ending is quite shocking, and I can see how it would upset or disappoint some readers, but it works very ...more
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Read in March, 2007
I just read this book for the first time because it seemed like the kind of thing that one should have read prior to becoming an English teacher. First of all, Edith Wharton was born in New York, lived in Paris, was nee Jones, as in the family from which the expression "keeping up with the Joneses" was derived -- why the f#ck is she writing about blizzard-stricken Western Mass.? And second of all, this entire book reminded me of the Annie Hall shtick about the horrible and the misera...more
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