Ethan Frome is the classic novel by Edith Wharton, author of The House of Mirth. Wanting to draw life as it really was, she set this tragic story in a world that reminded her of Wuthering Heights, with sparce characters separated from the everyday world in a lonely, secluded setting.
Ethan Frome is an unproductive farmer struggling to maintain a bearable existence with his difficult, hypochondriac wife Zeena. Her preoccupation with herself, and unattachment to daily chores makes a 'hired girl' necessary, and her destitute cousin Mattie moves in. Vivacious and pretty, she catches the eye of many men at local dances, but it is Ethan to whom she responds. This is 1911, so a passionate night of romance consists of sitting by the fire separately knitting and reading, but together, when Zeena is out of town overnight. When their love is exposed, Ethan must decide if he can live without Mattie in his life, and the possibilities for happiness she represents, followed by disastrous and tragic consequences.
This is a short and intense story of ill-fated love, told from the view of an outsider who meets Ethan many years later, a sad and broken man. I found it unusual in that there is no physical contact, save the touch of the tips of their fingers, their hearts desire for happiness boundless. Like Wharton's The House of Mirth, rather than giving them an easy death, she makes them continue in crippled and misshapen misery. Tragedy seems the fashion of the day.
A well written classic that endures.
This has been filmed many times for TV and movies.
1911 / Tradeback / 114 pages
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