Customer Reviews

Signet Classics Ethan Frome

5 star:		(67)
4 star:		(51)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(27)

 

 

While I could have easily read this in one sitting, I found myself lingering over each sentence, in wonder at the beauty of each sentence, the evocative symbolic descriptions. My senses were so engaged, I could taste the pickles in the red glass bowl, feel the rough cloth of the women's dresses. Zeena was the perfect witchy wife, Ethan the quintessential retched husband, Mattie the consummate shining hope. But these three shared the stage with two other main characters: the harsh and magnificent New England winter, and the uncaring, savage poverty. While dark in theme, the poetry in the writing lit the pages as I read. I will read it again. And again.

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.

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.

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.

That was what my 10th grade class called this novel when we had to wade through it. The plot, like so many of her stories, centers around an impossible love which ends without consummation of any sort. The book drags in a vast white expanse of New England snow and hopelessness. In a time where women are usually the ones "trapped" into marriage, it was interesting to see the tables turned for poor Ethan, but overall the story seemed contrived and predictable with an overly melodramatic end. I feel very lucky that I tried other Edith Wharton novels after reading this one first, as I would have missed out on a fantastic view into the inner workings of high society through the Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth. This is arguably her worst novel and I would advise steering clear. The most interesting aspect any of us in our class could light upon was all the color symbolism. In the white snowy expanse of the environment every color had a meaning even down to the color of Mattie's hair ribbon. Still not enough to justify the time spent unfortunately. Sorry Edith....

While I appreciated the germane theme of "life is short -- so make the most of it," I did not, however, particularly appreciate the utter despondency and insufferable malaise of Wharton's storyline. The morose setting of a fictitious New England town in the cold winter adds to the gloom and dreariness of an already hopeless milieu engendered by the abject despair of title character Ethan and the incorrigible antagonism of his wife, Zeena.

I didn't know whether to pity Ethan - or to laugh at him. His weak lack of resolve against the insufferably truculent and extremely annoying Zeena as well as his glaring inability to make his own decisions both contribute to make this book to be anything but a "page-turner" -- to put it mildly. Ethan is nothing short of pathetic. I empathize with Mattie to a certain degree, yet the ending (with Mattie) of this short novella is so pathetic that I was left shaking my head -- at how stupid they all are.

I gave it a generous 3 stars for its pertinent message of "hey, don't be like us because we're morons." While I highly enjoyed Wharton's The House of Mirth, this book, in essence, is no House of Mirth - in more ways than one.

I believe this is one of if not the worst book ever writen. The stroy goes no where. It is the story of a sad man that does not teach us any thing useful. I believe the only reason someone should read this book is because the have to. If given a choice i would have picke any other book. Unargueably the worst book ever

For a person who desires excitement, this book fails to give any. Set in the remote countryside of western Massachusetts, Ethan Frome explores the effects of isolation from society and social settings in general. Ethan Frome struggles to decide whether to stay with his bland wife or leave with the younger Mattie. In the end, all that Ethan Frome amounts to is a sappy soap opera that ends with a failed suicide attempt. An utterly boring book that I found hard to get through.

This book is the downer of the century. Just when you think something is going to happen BAM!!!! the book is over. I accidently finished the book. Thats pathetic! Most fiction has a rising action that is not present in this book. Its a great book about nothing.

In Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton , the world is simple, yet confusing. Throughout the book Ethan struggles with the forbidden love for Mattie, while also trying to love and support his sick wife, Zeena. Wharton's detailed depitction od a struggling male mind is phneonmenal and unusual. Wharton goes down to the essence of Ethan's feelings.
The book starts out with a hint of sexual tension and gradually escalates to Ethan finally grabbing Mattie in his arms and saying he feels deeply for her. Once Mattie declares her love for Ethan a reader will finally feel serene and content and will predict a typical ending. Wharton however does not right a conventional ending, and I think readers may be disapointed.
I feel that the book is well thought out and, for the period it was written, very sandalous. The book really impressed me except for the ending. I feel it ends abruptly and that I did not have time to fully understand and realize the severity of what had happened. Overall, however, the book was fabulous.