Ethan Frome (1911)

Ethan Frome lives a life of constant hardship on his unproductive farm with his sickly and bitter wife. This is the story of how they came to such a miserable existence.
I admit that I came to this one dragging my feet. I had previously suffered through The Age of Innocence and didn't like it at all, but Ethan Frome took me completely by a very pleasant surprise. I was engaged in the story from the start and could hardly wait to hear what happened to the characters. It manages to be grim *and* exciting at the same time, and I really enjoyed it. ( )

20. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
published: 1911
format: 89-page Scribner Library paperback from 1970
acquired: This was my high school copy and has my handwriting. It was shipped to me, along with the rest of the books on my childhood bedroom shelves, in 2007.
read: Apr 27 – May 3 time reading: 4:20, 2.9 mpp
rating: 5
genre/style: classic novella theme: Wharton
locations: fictional Starkville, Massachusetts
about the author: about the author: 1862-1937. Born Edith Newbold Jones on West 23rd Street, New York City. Relocated permanently to France after 1911.

My latest Wharton is such a one-off from her earlier works. And it's also perfectly executed. I was assigned this in high school and it left me with a warped view of Wharton. Unwilling or unable to see the masterpiece then, I came away with a sense of droll incomprehensible writing, and a sled. Starkville, MA is far away from Wharton's New York elite. Also it‘s winter and there‘s no money - two things that really define Ethan‘s cold marriage and spoken words. The prose is sparse, and the characters spoken words are far sparser, and none mean what they seem to say. And this drives Ethan's impulsive pursuit of the dancing Mattie Silver.

It has an interesting, carefully worded, but very slow start. Every word is important. But midway through I found myself really into this sparse shadowy cold world, reading inappropriately fast. Really, this is great stuff. It's sad, held by perfectly balanced stresses, with a wonderful sparse winter-isolation atmosphere, a strangely romantic narrative drive and ending in a terrific tragic element. All three main characters are permanently memorable - lanky thin Ethan, lively Mattie and dark brooding unreadable and bitter Zeena. Also I thought I caught a sly authorial smile embedded in there. I'm not sure how to context this with my Wharton reading, because it's so different, but I'm really happy to have read this.

2022
https://www.librarything.com/topic/341027#7832320

Poor Ethan gets a cold lesson on how cruel love can me. ( )

Couldn't get into it

Unfortunately, this bleak book shaped the first half of my life...until recently when I started reading the Power of Now.

Reread the book and realized this was Frome's attempt at describing a place through its people. Not as bleak the second time around, this novel is a brilliant piece about place, not people. Wish I had first read it when I was 30, not 15. ( )