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Ethan Frome (Signet Classics)
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Manufacturer: Signet Classics
Author: Edith Wharton
Publisher: Signet Classics
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Our Price: $4.95
You Save: $ ( % )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
Author: Edith Wharton
Publisher: Signet Classics
Average Customer Rating:
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Ethan Frome (Signet Classics) Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN: 9780451527660
ISBN: 0451527666
Label: Signet Classics
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 176
Publication Date: 2000-06-01
Publisher: Signet Classics
Product Release Date: 2000-06-12
Studio: Signet Classics
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN: 9780451527660
ISBN: 0451527666
Label: Signet Classics
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 176
Publication Date: 2000-06-01
Publisher: Signet Classics
Product Release Date: 2000-06-12
Studio: Signet Classics
Editorial Review of Ethan Frome (Signet Classics)
`I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story.' Who is this strange man Ethan Frome? What is his dreadful secret? . . . Amidst a bleak New England winter landscape, powerful emotions lead to far-reaching consequences, when Ethan Frome struggles to break free from a loveless marriage. . . Cambridge Literature is a series of study texts which presents writing in the English-speaking world from the 16th century up to the present day. The series includes novels, drama, short stories, poetry, essays and other types of non-fiction. Each edition has the complete text with an appropriate glossary. The student will find in each volume a helpful introduction and a full section of resource notes encouraging active and imaginative study methods.
Customer Reviews of Ethan Frome (Signet Classics)
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: one of the bleakest tragedies in American literature
Review: Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome is no doubt one of the bleakest tragedies in classic American literature. Everything from the sparse landscape to the unappealing personal circumstances within this depressing tale hint at a gloomy conclusion. When we first see Ethan Frome, the narrator describes him as a broken man, both physically and psychologically, even from a first glance. As the narrator learns more about Frome from townspeople and eventually Frome himself, this first impression proves to be quite accurate. After the unnamed narrator employs Frome to drive him to work, he slowly learns a few surprising tidbits about the obscure man.
One night, due to extenuating circumstances, Ethan takes the narrator into his home to stay the night. From there, the story switches to an omniscient point of view, detailing how Ethan became his current self. It is an age old tale: Man loves woman, man cannot have woman, Man and his love attempt to be together. Sadly, this love story has a tragic ending for everyone involved.
Despite Wharton's magnificently descriptive writing, the story tends to drag at particular points. The book may have been better suited as a short story as opposed to a novel. Overall, the story itself was thoughtful and well written, just not very captivating at times.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Reading Ethan Frome has all the pleasures of swallowing a porcupine
Review: I hate this book more than any other I've read. Edith Wharton indulges herself in a meticulous catalog of imaginary human misery. It is, in it's way, the spiteful grandmother of all the modern fiction that rejoices in the pathetic dysfunction of annoying nobodies. Read it and you have wasted precious hours of your life that you could have spent seeking real joy.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A Truly Beautiful Book - but have some Prozac on hand...
Review: "Life, is the saddest thing, next to death." Edith Wharton
This brief peek into the lightless lives of Ethan & Zeeny Frome and Mattie Silver left this reader thankful that the novella wasn't very long. After all, how much bleakness can one person take? While I was perusing this one, I kept thinking to myself `what a shame, if only these people could have been born nowadays...' For in the Frome's little world, the early 20th century world of rural New England, divorce was rarely on option. Instead it seemed to be a privilege almost solely reserved for the extremely wealthy and/or celebrities. Also, Ethan's sickly, hypochondriac wife Zeena is obviously suffering from depression, which of course back in those days was about as treatable as all those phantom illnesses Zeena incessantly griped about.
So our ill-fated protagonist with his altruistic, caring nature is trapped. He is trapped because he is poor. He is trapped in a loveless marriage with a gloomy, woeful wife who does nothing all day but whine. He is trapped in a star-crossed love affair, with both participants knowing full well their heading down a one-way sled-ride to perdition. Ergo, I now know why Edith would pen a quote like the one above? All you have to do is read this short, sorrowful story and you will plainly see for yourself.
The million dollar question obviously is this: Why on Earth would anyone want to read such a melancholy tale about three people doomed to such an unfavorable fate? I am being 100% honest when I tell you folks that I did not think I was going to care for this one at all. I didn't think I was going to care for it after the first two chapters either. However, I couldn't stop reading it... I tried to stop, but I couldn't. The prose, as depressing as it is, is still loaded with charm and at the end of the day there's just no denying that Wharton is one hell of a great writer!
This is NOT a novelette that should be required reading for high-school or even college students. Most of their budding brains have not had enough experiences in life to appreciate and fully comprehend this one. This is a very adult yarn, as are most of Wharton's works, loaded with symbolism, while possessing her favorite theme of illicit love. And of all her heartsick idealists, Ethan Frome is without a doubt her most tragic character. In fact, move over Jude Frawley, Tom Joad, Clyde Griffiths, et al... cause Ethan Frome is arguably the most doomed of you all!
Again, my interest never waned while reading this one. It was very beautifully written and extremely thought provoking. What more can one ask for in a book? To say I was pleasantly surprised would be like saying Pablo Picasso was a pretty good painter. 5 Stars despite myself!
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Pretty good story hurt by terrible climax
Review: Edith Wharton made a bad marriage, and that informs ETHAN FROME even more than THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (which I love).
Ethan is a man who married -- more or less out of obligation -- the woman who cared for his dying parent. His wife becomes an invalid, consuming much of his energy and much of their money. Help comes in the form of a relative of Mrs. Frome's, a girl with a sunny disposition with whom Ethan falls in love.
I won't go into spoilers here -- though the introduction basically tells the reader how the book ends, and an early chapter very heavy-handedly foreshadows it -- but I will register my chief complaint: the climax wholly lacks credibility. I understand that it is based on an event which actually occurred, and I can sort of imagine a situation in which it would occur, but Wharton has written a story in which the incident would not have happened. It is an incident which is false to the characters she has pretty vividly created, so it felt very, very forced and I really broke with the novel when I read it.
The book, otherwise, is well written and pretty observant -- and a very quick read -- but I can't recommend it wholeheartedly.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A heartfelt creation of Edith Wharton's talent
Review: Adequately written and captivating throughout, Ethan Frome is a nice, short, and interesting read. Illustrating the turbulence of an unattainable love, this story is about the tragic life of Ethan Frome, a man torn between his duty and his desire. Mirrored after the tragedy in her own personal life with ex-husband Edward Wharton and secret lover Morton Fullerton, Edith Wharton successfully paints the misery of her protagonist and his star-crossed lover Mattie Silver in this perfect "snuggle by the fire" read.
I found the beginning of the book to be an interesting lead in, an unknown narrator visiting a cold and wintry Starkfield, Massachusetts where he meets Frome and two peculiar old women that are living with him. The drab setting that Edith Wharton cascades the small town with sets the gloomy atmosphere that pervades its characters and community throughout the story. Wharton utilizes the presence of this harsh winter weather as a symbol of the characters' battle with interior and exterior forces; they have to physically battle the icy, heavy snow while psychologically fighting the lust of human nature.
Vividly captured are the emotional pain and sufferings each character in the story goes through, from Ethan's insatiable hunger for Mattie to a poor town simpleton's piteous gaze upon the troubles dealt to the Fromes. Wharton is able to fully connect with her audience as her empathetic emotions bring vehemence and truth to every word. She explores the candid thoughts of her characters, engrossing the reader with an up close and personal look into the tormented mind of Ethan Frome that consequently creats a fascinating masterpiece of romantic catastrophe. Though the story's ending did not turn out how I would have liked it to, it greatly underlines the messages that Wharton tries to convey to her audience. The theme of not being able to escape the past, the bitter results of duty vs. lust, and the everlasting marks a person carries after relationships encompass themselves within this novel and all come together at the end.
This short yet satisfying read is a book fit to read by the fire on a cold wintry day, its harrowing tale of a secret lust and the human being's innermost desires are revealed and brought to life by this heartfelt creation of Edith Wharton's talent.
Review Summary: one of the bleakest tragedies in American literature
Review: Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome is no doubt one of the bleakest tragedies in classic American literature. Everything from the sparse landscape to the unappealing personal circumstances within this depressing tale hint at a gloomy conclusion. When we first see Ethan Frome, the narrator describes him as a broken man, both physically and psychologically, even from a first glance. As the narrator learns more about Frome from townspeople and eventually Frome himself, this first impression proves to be quite accurate. After the unnamed narrator employs Frome to drive him to work, he slowly learns a few surprising tidbits about the obscure man.
One night, due to extenuating circumstances, Ethan takes the narrator into his home to stay the night. From there, the story switches to an omniscient point of view, detailing how Ethan became his current self. It is an age old tale: Man loves woman, man cannot have woman, Man and his love attempt to be together. Sadly, this love story has a tragic ending for everyone involved.
Despite Wharton's magnificently descriptive writing, the story tends to drag at particular points. The book may have been better suited as a short story as opposed to a novel. Overall, the story itself was thoughtful and well written, just not very captivating at times.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Reading Ethan Frome has all the pleasures of swallowing a porcupine
Review: I hate this book more than any other I've read. Edith Wharton indulges herself in a meticulous catalog of imaginary human misery. It is, in it's way, the spiteful grandmother of all the modern fiction that rejoices in the pathetic dysfunction of annoying nobodies. Read it and you have wasted precious hours of your life that you could have spent seeking real joy.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A Truly Beautiful Book - but have some Prozac on hand...
Review: "Life, is the saddest thing, next to death." Edith Wharton
This brief peek into the lightless lives of Ethan & Zeeny Frome and Mattie Silver left this reader thankful that the novella wasn't very long. After all, how much bleakness can one person take? While I was perusing this one, I kept thinking to myself `what a shame, if only these people could have been born nowadays...' For in the Frome's little world, the early 20th century world of rural New England, divorce was rarely on option. Instead it seemed to be a privilege almost solely reserved for the extremely wealthy and/or celebrities. Also, Ethan's sickly, hypochondriac wife Zeena is obviously suffering from depression, which of course back in those days was about as treatable as all those phantom illnesses Zeena incessantly griped about.
So our ill-fated protagonist with his altruistic, caring nature is trapped. He is trapped because he is poor. He is trapped in a loveless marriage with a gloomy, woeful wife who does nothing all day but whine. He is trapped in a star-crossed love affair, with both participants knowing full well their heading down a one-way sled-ride to perdition. Ergo, I now know why Edith would pen a quote like the one above? All you have to do is read this short, sorrowful story and you will plainly see for yourself.
The million dollar question obviously is this: Why on Earth would anyone want to read such a melancholy tale about three people doomed to such an unfavorable fate? I am being 100% honest when I tell you folks that I did not think I was going to care for this one at all. I didn't think I was going to care for it after the first two chapters either. However, I couldn't stop reading it... I tried to stop, but I couldn't. The prose, as depressing as it is, is still loaded with charm and at the end of the day there's just no denying that Wharton is one hell of a great writer!
This is NOT a novelette that should be required reading for high-school or even college students. Most of their budding brains have not had enough experiences in life to appreciate and fully comprehend this one. This is a very adult yarn, as are most of Wharton's works, loaded with symbolism, while possessing her favorite theme of illicit love. And of all her heartsick idealists, Ethan Frome is without a doubt her most tragic character. In fact, move over Jude Frawley, Tom Joad, Clyde Griffiths, et al... cause Ethan Frome is arguably the most doomed of you all!
Again, my interest never waned while reading this one. It was very beautifully written and extremely thought provoking. What more can one ask for in a book? To say I was pleasantly surprised would be like saying Pablo Picasso was a pretty good painter. 5 Stars despite myself!
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Pretty good story hurt by terrible climax
Review: Edith Wharton made a bad marriage, and that informs ETHAN FROME even more than THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (which I love).
Ethan is a man who married -- more or less out of obligation -- the woman who cared for his dying parent. His wife becomes an invalid, consuming much of his energy and much of their money. Help comes in the form of a relative of Mrs. Frome's, a girl with a sunny disposition with whom Ethan falls in love.
I won't go into spoilers here -- though the introduction basically tells the reader how the book ends, and an early chapter very heavy-handedly foreshadows it -- but I will register my chief complaint: the climax wholly lacks credibility. I understand that it is based on an event which actually occurred, and I can sort of imagine a situation in which it would occur, but Wharton has written a story in which the incident would not have happened. It is an incident which is false to the characters she has pretty vividly created, so it felt very, very forced and I really broke with the novel when I read it.
The book, otherwise, is well written and pretty observant -- and a very quick read -- but I can't recommend it wholeheartedly.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A heartfelt creation of Edith Wharton's talent
Review: Adequately written and captivating throughout, Ethan Frome is a nice, short, and interesting read. Illustrating the turbulence of an unattainable love, this story is about the tragic life of Ethan Frome, a man torn between his duty and his desire. Mirrored after the tragedy in her own personal life with ex-husband Edward Wharton and secret lover Morton Fullerton, Edith Wharton successfully paints the misery of her protagonist and his star-crossed lover Mattie Silver in this perfect "snuggle by the fire" read.
I found the beginning of the book to be an interesting lead in, an unknown narrator visiting a cold and wintry Starkfield, Massachusetts where he meets Frome and two peculiar old women that are living with him. The drab setting that Edith Wharton cascades the small town with sets the gloomy atmosphere that pervades its characters and community throughout the story. Wharton utilizes the presence of this harsh winter weather as a symbol of the characters' battle with interior and exterior forces; they have to physically battle the icy, heavy snow while psychologically fighting the lust of human nature.
Vividly captured are the emotional pain and sufferings each character in the story goes through, from Ethan's insatiable hunger for Mattie to a poor town simpleton's piteous gaze upon the troubles dealt to the Fromes. Wharton is able to fully connect with her audience as her empathetic emotions bring vehemence and truth to every word. She explores the candid thoughts of her characters, engrossing the reader with an up close and personal look into the tormented mind of Ethan Frome that consequently creats a fascinating masterpiece of romantic catastrophe. Though the story's ending did not turn out how I would have liked it to, it greatly underlines the messages that Wharton tries to convey to her audience. The theme of not being able to escape the past, the bitter results of duty vs. lust, and the everlasting marks a person carries after relationships encompass themselves within this novel and all come together at the end.
This short yet satisfying read is a book fit to read by the fire on a cold wintry day, its harrowing tale of a secret lust and the human being's innermost desires are revealed and brought to life by this heartfelt creation of Edith Wharton's talent.