Ethan Frome
Edith Wharton (1911)
“A tale of desire buried under ice and duty — written by a woman trapped in her own marriage, about a man who couldn't escape his.”
At a Glance
An unnamed narrator, stranded in the bleak New England town of Starkfield, pieces together the story of Ethan Frome — a farmer trapped in a loveless marriage to hypochondriac Zeena, who falls in love with Zeena's young cousin Mattie Silver. When Zeena sends Mattie away, Ethan and Mattie attempt suicide by sled on a snowy hill. They survive — broken, paralyzed, and condemned to live out their lives together in Zeena's care. The accident ends nothing and changes everything.
Read full summary →Why This Book Matters
Ethan Frome has been continuously in print since 1911 and is one of the most taught American novels at the high school and college level. Initially controversial for its unflinching portrait of marital misery and failed suicide, it is now recognized as one of the defining texts of American literary realism and one of Wharton's finest formal achievements. Its brevity — under 200 pages — made it accessible as a classroom text; its depth rewards advanced study.
Diction Profile
Formal in narration; rural New England vernacular in dialogue — a precise and deliberate gap between observer and observed
Moderate