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Ethan Frome (Enriched Classics (Pocket))
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Manufacturer: Pocket
Author: Edith Wharton
Publisher: Pocket
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Our Price: $4.95
You Save: $ ( % )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Pocket
Author: Edith Wharton
Publisher: Pocket
Average Customer Rating:
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Ethan Frome (Enriched Classics (Pocket)) Description
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN: 9780743487702
ISBN: 0743487702
Label: Pocket
Manufacturer: Pocket
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 208
Publication Date: 2004-06-29
Publisher: Pocket
Studio: Pocket
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN: 9780743487702
ISBN: 0743487702
Label: Pocket
Manufacturer: Pocket
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 208
Publication Date: 2004-06-29
Publisher: Pocket
Studio: Pocket
Editorial Review of Ethan Frome (Enriched Classics (Pocket))
BY PRACTICAL SCHOLARSHIP
• A concise introduction that gives readers important background information
• A chronology of the author's life and work
• A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context
• An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations
• Detailed explanatory notes
• Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work
• Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction
• A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience
SERIES EDITED BY CYNTHIA BRANTLEY JOHNSON
Customer Reviews of Ethan Frome (Enriched Classics (Pocket))
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Illicit Love Loses to Puritanical Ethics [60]
Review: Aristocratic New York woman residing in Paris writes about impoverished New England man's demise in love - a formula which few would encourage today, and certainly was a misanthropic venture in 1911 when this book was published.
But, Wharton excels in her delivery. The dialogue incorporates much of the Massachusetts' accent. The description of the countryside: magnificent. "On a road I had never traveled, we am to an orchard of starved apple trees writhing over a hillside among outcroppings of slate that nuzzled up through the snow like animals pushing out their noses to breath." And, the story - Bronte meets Sterling. Depressing, grey as the winter weather, and as cold as a Massachusetts' December.
Zeena, originally thought to be named Zenobia, is Ethan Frome's wife from hell. They live in the aptly named town of Starkfield. Zeena, ill and nagging, haunts Ethan as her querulous droning echoes in his psyche, whether he be in the home listening or safely outside working in the farm. Zeena's niece, Mattie or Matt, comes to aid her ailing aunt. And, without any appreciation, she does her chores.
Frome's exclusive enjoyment is seeing Mattie's face each morning - so much does he like this that he commences shaving every morning to look right for her. The amorous affection is not a one-way road. Each becomes increasingly more entranced by the other. And, when Zeena leaves for an overnight stay at a doctor's, opportunity knocks.
But, this is Wharton and written about people in puritanical Massachusetts in the late 19th century - much of the book is reminiscing in 1911 about what transpired 20 years earlier. Illicit love is the forbidden fruit. Contract or arranged marriages delivered sexual pleasure, not love of the heart. Wharton's characters often are prisoners of their societal marriages - Ethan Frome being worse than others as he also lacks any societal privileges or money. True love is doomed too often in Wharton's books: Selden in "House of Mirth", Newland Archer in "Age of Innocence" and Ralph Marvell in "The Custom of the Country" lead similar demises.
The ending is tremendously depressing. I will not detail what transpired, as that would be unfair to readers of this review. But, its twist is what reminds me of Sterling or O'Henry. It was both alarming, and perfect.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: "We shall never be alone again like this..."
Review: Edith Wharton filled her novels with a feeling of ruin, passion and restriction. People can fall in love, but rarely do things turn out well.
But but few of even her books can evoke the feeling of "Ethan Frome," whick packs plenty of emotion, vibrancy and regrets into a short novella. While the claustrophobic feeling doesn't suit her writing well, she still spins a beautiful, horrifying story of a man facing a life without hope or joy.
It begins nearly a quarter of a century after the events of the novel, with an unnamed narrator watching middle-aged, crippled Ethan Frome drag himself to the post-office. He becomes interested in Frome's tragic past, and hears out his story.
Ethan Frome once hoped to live an urban, educated life, but ended up trapped in a bleak New England town with a hypochondriac wife, Zeena, whom he didn't love. But then his wife's cousin Mattie arrives, a bright young girl who understands Ethan far better than his wife ever tried to. Unsurprisingly, he begins to fall in love with her, but still feels an obligation to his wife.
But then Zeena threatens to send Mattie away and hire a new housekeeper, threatening the one bright spot in Ethan's dour life. Now Ethan must either rebel against the morals and strictures of his small village, or live out his life lonely. But when he and Mattie try for a third option, their affair ends in tragedy.
Wharton was always at her best when she wrote about society's strictures, morals, and love that defies that. But rather than the opulent backdrop of wealthy New York, here the setting is a bleak, snowy New England town, appropriately named Starkfield. It's a good reflection of Ethan Frome's life, and a good illustration of how the poor can be trapped.
Even when she describes a "ruin of a man" in a cold, distant town, Wharton spins beautiful prose ("the night was so transparent that the white house-fronts between the elms looked gray against the snow") and eloquent symbolism, like the shattered pickle dish. There's only minimal dialogue -- most of what the characters think and feel is kept inside.
Instead she piles on the atmosphere, and increases the tension between the three main characters, as attraction and responsibility pull Ethan in two directions. It all finally climaxes in the disaster hinted at in the first chapter, which is as beautifully written and wistful as it is tragic.
If the book has a flaw, it's the incredibly small cast -- mainly just the main love triangle. Ethan's not a strong or decisive man, but his desperation and loneliness are absolutely heartbreaking, as well as his final fate. Mattie seems more like a symbol of the life he wants that a full-fledged person, and Zeena is annoying and whiny up until the end, when we see a different side of her personality. Not a stereotypical shrew.
"Ethan Frome" is a true tragedy -- as beautifully written as it is, it's still Wharton's description of how a man merely survives instead of living, hopeless and devastated.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Ethan Frome
Review: I was surprised to receive this very thin, small novel, but within those 175 pages, Edith Wharton has woven a supremely delicate and beautiful tale. If you're looking to be taken away to another place and another time - but only have a few hours - this is the book for you! Anita Shreve's introduction is equally impressive.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Ethan Frome The Man Shackled By Fate
Review: The Romeo and Juliet of its time, Ethan Frome is a suspenseful story about a man shackled by marriage to the lady of his nightmares, and when he finds the love of his dreams he is torn to shreds by what he should do and what he needs to do. An excerpt from the story that best summarizes his predicament is "With the sudden perception of the point to which his madness had carried him, the madness fell and he saw his life before him as it was. He was a poor man, the husband of a sickly woman, whom his desertion would leave alone and destitute; and even if he had the heart to desert her he could have done so only by deceiving two kindly people who had pitied him." As you can see the story has an intricately designed plot that keeps you wondering until the end.
Review Summary: Illicit Love Loses to Puritanical Ethics [60]
Review: Aristocratic New York woman residing in Paris writes about impoverished New England man's demise in love - a formula which few would encourage today, and certainly was a misanthropic venture in 1911 when this book was published.
But, Wharton excels in her delivery. The dialogue incorporates much of the Massachusetts' accent. The description of the countryside: magnificent. "On a road I had never traveled, we am to an orchard of starved apple trees writhing over a hillside among outcroppings of slate that nuzzled up through the snow like animals pushing out their noses to breath." And, the story - Bronte meets Sterling. Depressing, grey as the winter weather, and as cold as a Massachusetts' December.
Zeena, originally thought to be named Zenobia, is Ethan Frome's wife from hell. They live in the aptly named town of Starkfield. Zeena, ill and nagging, haunts Ethan as her querulous droning echoes in his psyche, whether he be in the home listening or safely outside working in the farm. Zeena's niece, Mattie or Matt, comes to aid her ailing aunt. And, without any appreciation, she does her chores.
Frome's exclusive enjoyment is seeing Mattie's face each morning - so much does he like this that he commences shaving every morning to look right for her. The amorous affection is not a one-way road. Each becomes increasingly more entranced by the other. And, when Zeena leaves for an overnight stay at a doctor's, opportunity knocks.
But, this is Wharton and written about people in puritanical Massachusetts in the late 19th century - much of the book is reminiscing in 1911 about what transpired 20 years earlier. Illicit love is the forbidden fruit. Contract or arranged marriages delivered sexual pleasure, not love of the heart. Wharton's characters often are prisoners of their societal marriages - Ethan Frome being worse than others as he also lacks any societal privileges or money. True love is doomed too often in Wharton's books: Selden in "House of Mirth", Newland Archer in "Age of Innocence" and Ralph Marvell in "The Custom of the Country" lead similar demises.
The ending is tremendously depressing. I will not detail what transpired, as that would be unfair to readers of this review. But, its twist is what reminds me of Sterling or O'Henry. It was both alarming, and perfect.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: "We shall never be alone again like this..."
Review: Edith Wharton filled her novels with a feeling of ruin, passion and restriction. People can fall in love, but rarely do things turn out well.
But but few of even her books can evoke the feeling of "Ethan Frome," whick packs plenty of emotion, vibrancy and regrets into a short novella. While the claustrophobic feeling doesn't suit her writing well, she still spins a beautiful, horrifying story of a man facing a life without hope or joy.
It begins nearly a quarter of a century after the events of the novel, with an unnamed narrator watching middle-aged, crippled Ethan Frome drag himself to the post-office. He becomes interested in Frome's tragic past, and hears out his story.
Ethan Frome once hoped to live an urban, educated life, but ended up trapped in a bleak New England town with a hypochondriac wife, Zeena, whom he didn't love. But then his wife's cousin Mattie arrives, a bright young girl who understands Ethan far better than his wife ever tried to. Unsurprisingly, he begins to fall in love with her, but still feels an obligation to his wife.
But then Zeena threatens to send Mattie away and hire a new housekeeper, threatening the one bright spot in Ethan's dour life. Now Ethan must either rebel against the morals and strictures of his small village, or live out his life lonely. But when he and Mattie try for a third option, their affair ends in tragedy.
Wharton was always at her best when she wrote about society's strictures, morals, and love that defies that. But rather than the opulent backdrop of wealthy New York, here the setting is a bleak, snowy New England town, appropriately named Starkfield. It's a good reflection of Ethan Frome's life, and a good illustration of how the poor can be trapped.
Even when she describes a "ruin of a man" in a cold, distant town, Wharton spins beautiful prose ("the night was so transparent that the white house-fronts between the elms looked gray against the snow") and eloquent symbolism, like the shattered pickle dish. There's only minimal dialogue -- most of what the characters think and feel is kept inside.
Instead she piles on the atmosphere, and increases the tension between the three main characters, as attraction and responsibility pull Ethan in two directions. It all finally climaxes in the disaster hinted at in the first chapter, which is as beautifully written and wistful as it is tragic.
If the book has a flaw, it's the incredibly small cast -- mainly just the main love triangle. Ethan's not a strong or decisive man, but his desperation and loneliness are absolutely heartbreaking, as well as his final fate. Mattie seems more like a symbol of the life he wants that a full-fledged person, and Zeena is annoying and whiny up until the end, when we see a different side of her personality. Not a stereotypical shrew.
"Ethan Frome" is a true tragedy -- as beautifully written as it is, it's still Wharton's description of how a man merely survives instead of living, hopeless and devastated.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Ethan Frome
Review: I was surprised to receive this very thin, small novel, but within those 175 pages, Edith Wharton has woven a supremely delicate and beautiful tale. If you're looking to be taken away to another place and another time - but only have a few hours - this is the book for you! Anita Shreve's introduction is equally impressive.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Ethan Frome The Man Shackled By Fate
Review: The Romeo and Juliet of its time, Ethan Frome is a suspenseful story about a man shackled by marriage to the lady of his nightmares, and when he finds the love of his dreams he is torn to shreds by what he should do and what he needs to do. An excerpt from the story that best summarizes his predicament is "With the sudden perception of the point to which his madness had carried him, the madness fell and he saw his life before him as it was. He was a poor man, the husband of a sickly woman, whom his desertion would leave alone and destitute; and even if he had the heart to desert her he could have done so only by deceiving two kindly people who had pitied him." As you can see the story has an intricately designed plot that keeps you wondering until the end.