Ethan Frome 2014-08-27

Ethan Frome, By Edith Wharton

No copyright



This story takes place against the cold, gray, bleakness of a New England winter. Ethan Frome is an isolated farmer trying to scrape out a meager living while also tending to his frigid, demanding and ungrateful wife Zeena. A ray of hope enters Ethan's life of despair when his wife's cousin Mattie arrives to help. His life is transformed as he falls in love with Mattie but their fate is doomed by the stifling conventions of the time. Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome is a compelling classic of American Literature and a powerful tale with compelling characters trapped in circumstances they seem unable to escape.

Ethan Frome was published in 1911 and set in the fictitious town of Starkfield, Massachusetts; a less than subtle overture to the mood that pervades the book.