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‘A sheet of snow perpetually renewed from … pale skies’ … the Massachusetts winter.

Festive re-reads: Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Our series continues as Rosalind Jana suggests this ‘Wuthering Heights in miniature’ as a perfect seasonal read

Ethan Frome is not your typical festive book. There are no fabulous parties or thawed hearts, no warming morals about the power of togetherness realised with a fireplace crackling somewhere in the background. In fact, Edith Wharton’s 1911 novella is a melancholy, mean little story, as chilly in tone as the lonely Massachusetts landscape with its “sheet of snow perpetually renewed from … pale skies”. And yet, there’s something in it that makes it a perfect read for those slushy days between Christmas and new year. Perhaps it’s the length: short enough to be consumed in one or two sittings, gulped down like ice water. Perhaps it’s the growing sense of foreboding, ideal for those who prefer their December reading to be of the truly bleak midwinter variety (or anyone in need of a palate cleanser after all that yuletide indulgence).

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Mostly, though, it’s because of the seasonal setting. In the remote New England village of Starkfield, winter’s beautiful torpor rules everything. It shapes moods, hastens life-altering decisions, and provides the perfect stage for a tragedy that couldn’t happen at any other time of the year. Its “torrents of light and air” by day and “silver-edged darkness” by night cast a penetrating spotlight over the area, rendering the actions of its inhabitants as crystalline as the flakes that continually coat the ground.

The story is told like Wuthering Heights in miniature, minus its ghosts and children. A stranger comes to town, working on a job connected to a nearby powerhouse that generates electricity. He is immediately intrigued by Ethan Frome: a taciturn “ruin of a man” with lopsided shoulders and a scarred gash on his forehead who was involved in some sort of “smash-up” two decades previously. He seeks the story of Frome’s sorry circumstances in fragments from others but doesn’t get the full explanation until he enlists Frome’s services in driving him to and from the train station. One day, when the snow is heaped in white waves, a storm prevents this unnamed narrator from getting home. Instead, he must bed down for the night at Frome’s house and encounter its unhappy history up close.

At its heart, Ethan Frome is a story about being trapped by circumstance. As such stories so often are, it is therefore largely about yearning for what you cannot have. Bookended by the present, the bulk of the narrative relays Frome’s early life, which has been progressively whittled down and gated in. As a young man, Frome’s educational aspirations are curtailed first by an injured father and then a sick mother. He marries his cousin Zeena out of a sense of duty after she comes to care for the latter and eventually falls sick herself. They in turn enlist the help of Zeena’s cousin Mattie Silver who has no parents, no money, and nowhere else to go. Worn down by Zeena’s bitterness and hypochondria, Frome falls in love with the beautiful, sprightly Mattie – her own sentiments equally unspoken and equally reciprocated. The fact that this cannot end well is clear long before the overly portentous breaking of a red glass pickle dish at dinner.

If all of this sounds a little heavy-going, it is saved by the lightness and acuity of Wharton’s writing. In fact, there is a glorious melancholy to its scant 100 or so pages. It has everything in there: thwarted ambition, terrible longing, actions that can’t be undone, the kind of claustrophobia that can be exerted by a single person or held in an entire community. Above all, it captures the atmospheric intensity held in this land of ice where everything crunches and glitters and hurts, the cold muffling footsteps and feelings. It is a snow globe of a story, its characters held in stasis until someone new comes along to shake it up, setting the past swirling again.

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (Penguin Books Ltd, £6.99). To support The Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com . Delivery charges may apply.

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Review: Ethan Frome – Edith Wharton

I first came across Edith Wharton at university; indeed reading and studying The Age of Innocence immediately cemented it as one of my favourite books. And while usually when I find an author I like, I read as many of their books as I can get my hands on in as short a time as possible, I find myself five years later only just getting around to a second of her books. More often than not, I remember where I buy books from, or when and from whom I receive them. While I don’t remember how I acquired Ethan From, I distinctly remember where I was when I read it, on the last day of my Australian holiday at Watson’s Bay, one of my favourite spots in Sydney. It was a bittersweet day for me, and one that was to later bring around a life-changing decision to move down under, to begin a new life in Sydney.

Wharton’s fourth novel, Ethan Frome was published in 1911, and despite being described by American literary critic Lionel Trilling as a book lacking in moral or ethical significance, it remains one of Wharton’s most popular.

Set against a hugely atmospheric winter backdrop, the novel tells the tale of failing farmer Ethan Frome and the love triangle in which he finds himself when his wife’s cousin Mattie comes to stay at their farm. Stuck in a loveless marriage with Zeena, it’s unsurprising when Ethan and Mattie’s feelings for each other develop and brings about a moral dilemma for the novel’s protagonist.

Full of regret and a profound sadness, Ethan Frome is a tragic novel about love, loyalty and betrayal whose ironic ending offers the perfect climax to this woeful tale.

Buy Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton on from Waterstones .

About Ethan Frome

Set against the frozen waste of a harsh New England winter, Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome is a tale of despair, forbidden emotions, and sexual tensions, published with an introduction and notes by Elizabeth Ammons in Penguin Classics.

Ethan Frome works his unproductive farm and struggles to maintain a bearable existence with his difficult, suspicious, and hypochondriac wife, Zeenie. But when Zeenie’s vivacious cousin enters their household as a ‘hired girl’, Ethan finds himself obsessed with her and with the possibilities for happiness she comes to represent. In one of American fiction’s finest and most intense narratives, Edith Wharton moves this ill-starred trio toward their tragic destinies. Different in both tone and theme from Wharton’s other works, Ethan Frome has become perhaps her most enduring and most widely read novel.

About Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton, born Edith Newbold Jones, was a member of a distinguished New York family said to be the basis for the idiom ‘keeping up with the Joneses’. During her life she published more than forty volumes, including novels, stories, verse, essays, travel books and memoirs; for years she published poetry and short stories in magazines, but the book that made Wharton famous was The House of Mirth (1905), which established her both as a writer of distinction and popular appeal. In 1920, Wharton became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for literature with her novel The Age of Innocence .

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Wednesday, Feb 22 2012 • 11 a.m. (ET)

Readers’ Review: “Ethan Frome” by Edith Wharton

Program Highlights

When Edith Wharton’s novel “Ethan Frome” was first published in 1911, reviews were largely negative. Critics called the story cruel and violent and sales of the novel were dismal. Today, Edith Wharton’s haunting tale of forbidden romance in a rural New England town is her most widely-read novel.

An Unusual Novel For Wharton

This was an unusual novel for Wharton. Her first novels, like “The House Of Mirth,” are novels of “manners” and New York high society, said Goldsmith. But while living in New England, Wharton observed a lot of poverty. When living in Lenox, she found this story. She heard a story of a sledding accident in which one woman was killed and two others were severely injured, and she decided to use it as a germ for this novel, Goldsmith said. Wharton wanted to reverse the stereotypes of New Englanders that other writers had been perpetuating, which were a creation of a kinder, gentler, sanitized New England.

Wharton’s Wealth

Wharton was very wealthy – one of the wealthiest women in New York in the mid-19th century. Her family came from the family from whom the term “keeping up with the Joneses” was coined, Goldsmith said. “Money is involved in this novel all the time,” Pfordrescher said.

Relationships In The Book

Though Ethan’s wife, Zeena, is essentially the villan of the story, she is also a little sympathetic, Page said. She sees the affection and love that is blossoming between Ethan and Mattie, a young girl who is sent to live with them who has nowhere else to go. “There’s a struggle for dominance in this claustrophobic impoverished New England farmhouse where the two women and man sit all day, struggling against each other,” Prordrescher said.

Wharton’s Own Struggles

Wharton felt trapped in her marriage, Goldsmith said. She had suffered a breakdown, as had her husband, Teddy. The anonymous narrator of the novel is presumably male, Pfordrescher said, and seems to see the story from a very male perspective. “It would seem to me that there’s a bit of Edith Wharton in all of her major characters, that I can see her in some ways as like Zeena because she had an unfaithful husband. I can see her as perhaps yearning to be the Mattie who would be sort of adored,” Pfordrescher said.

You can read the full transcript here .

MS. DIANE REHM Thanks for joining us, I'm Diane Rehm. When Edith Wharton's novel "Ethan Frome" was first published in 1911, reviews were largely negative. Critics called the story cruel and violent and sales of the novel were dismal. Today, Edith Wharton's haunting tale of forbidden romance in a rural New England town is her most widely read novel.

MS. DIANE REHM Joining me for this month's readers' review of "Ethan Frome," Lisa Page of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, John Pfordrescher of Georgetown University and Meredith Goldsmith of Ursinus College. I hope you'll join us, 800-433-8850. Send us your email to [email protected]. Feel free to join us on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning to all of you.

MS. MEREDITH GOLDSMITH Good morning.

MR. JOHN PFORDRESCHER Good morning.

MS. LISA PAGE Good morning.

REHM Good to have you here. And, Meredith Goldsmith, I neglected to say, you are Vice President of the Edith Wharton Society. This is quite a novel. John Pfordrescher, tell us who Ethan Frome is. What do we learn about him during this tragic story?

PFORDRESCHER It's a story told in two time frames. Begins in what might be thought of as the present, around 1911. And the narrator tells us that he's the most striking figure in this small town, in Massachusetts, even though he's a ruin of a man. So the novel is, in a sense, an exploration of how he reached this ruinous state and the -- his physical size and his inner strength, which the narrator recognizes right away, makes for a compelling kind of puzzle. What has happened to this fellow? And that's what the novel then unfolds.

REHM Lisa Page, why does the novelist use an anonymous narrator for this book?

PAGE I think that position as outsider coming into this terribly bleak place sets things up so that as an outsider, he can present the characters and introduce them in an intimate way. As he gets to know them, the reader gets to know them.

REHM So he brings us into the life of Ethan Frome, rather -- is that, you know, a literary trick?

PAGE Well, I think so. I mean, clearly, it's in first person. It's opening up with this personal rendition of events as opposed to "Once Upon a Time, Ethan Frome lived in the wintry..."

REHM Yeah, yeah.

PAGE It's much more personal.

REHM Interesting. And, Meredith Goldsmith, how unusual a novel was this for Edith Wharton?

GOLDSMITH It is pretty unusual. Wharton's first few novels like "The House of Mirth," that people might be familiar with, are sort of novels of manners, novels of sort of high New York society. And then, while living in New England, she was observing a lot of New England rural poverty, essentially. And that lead to the novel "The Fruit of the Tree" in 1908, which is about the situation in the mills in rural New England. And then, while living in Lenox, she found this story. And so this is one of three works about New England...

REHM What do you mean she...

GOLDSMITH ...that she published.

REHM ...found this story?

GOLDSMITH Well, she heard a story of this sledding accident in which, I believe, one woman was killed and two others severely injured. And so she decided to use it as she often found germs of her stories.

REHM I can remember, years and years ago, seeing this film with Sterling Hayden. I shall never forget it as long as I live because you jumped ahead to the sledding accident which is the culmination of this story. But did she see, as she was living in Massachusetts, people like Ethan Frome?

GOLDSMITH Absolutely. One of the things that Wharton said about her New England writing is that she wanted to sort of reverse the stereotypes that other New England local color writers were creating of a, sort of, a kind of kinder, gentler sanitized New England, essentially.

REHM What was going on in her own life at the time?

GOLDSMITH Well, I think part of what's going on in "Ethan Frome" that's related to her own life is that she was in a very unhappy marriage and had been estranged from her husband for years who'd also been mentally ill. She was essentially supporting him. So she was very much locked in a caretaker role. And had also had an affair which was really the first time she'd had a happy relationship, apparently. But that didn't seem to have a future either.

REHM Did she marry into a wealthy family or did she have her own wealth to begin with?

GOLDSMITH She had very much her own wealth. She was one of the wealthiest women in New York in the mid 19th century. And her family came from the family from whom the term keeping up with the Jones' was apparently coined.

PAGE Oh, I love that.

GOLDSMITH Yeah.

REHM And the man she married, what was he like?

GOLDSMITH Apparently, you know, a sort of a gentleman, but then a sort of dissolute aristocrat who apparently drank, may have been fooling around with other women and just ultimately had a lot of problems.

REHM Okay. And this brings us to Mattie, John Pfordrescher...

PFORDRESCHER Yes.

REHM ...how does she come to work for the Frome's?

PFORDRESCHER Well, money is involved in this novel all the time. Mattie's father has suffered severe economic reverses and then both her father and her mother die. Isn't that right? And she's sort of thrown onto her cousins as an unwanted dependent. And they send her off to Ethan and his wife, Zeena.

REHM Nobody wants her.

PFORDRESCHER Nobody wants her, no. And she seems to be sweet, tender and affectionate, but not very affective at Zeena, Ethan's wife, is always faulting her because, from Zeena's point of view, she's not a good caregiver or housekeeper.

REHM Zeena strikes me as the perfect example of a hypochondriac, Lisa.

PAGE I think that's dead on. I think she is a hypochondriac. But I will say, even as she's really the villain in a lot of ways in this story, I found her sympathetic as well.

REHM How so?

PAGE Well, because I think she sees what's happening between Mattie and Ethan. I think they're both clearly quite taken with each other. Mattie Silver is not paying attention to Zeena who needs all this care. And she breaks her best china. You know, they're having a great time while she's upstairs in bed. And I think that that's enough.

REHM Honestly, I think that's overstating it when you say, they're having a great time. I think this is a novel of repression, repression in almost a violent state. I mean, I can feel Ethan Frome breathing. He's so muscularly constrained because he's loyal to his wife and yet he loves this young woman, John.

PFORDRESCHER And I think there's a crucial word in the middle of the story which is mastery. At the end of one of the chapters, Ethan has been speaking very firmly to Mattie. And he suddenly feels, this is what you're talking about Diane, he suddenly feels a kind of wonderful inner glow because he's mastered Mattie. And then of course, in the very next chapter, the revenge of Zeena is to master him and he realizes that she's mastered him. So there's an endlessly -- there's a struggle, maybe not endless. There's a struggle for dominance in this claustrophobic impoverished New England farmhouse where the two women and man, sit all day, struggling against each other.

REHM Meredith.

GOLDSMITH I want to sort of go back to the question of the narrator here. You know, I think it's important that we're only hearing this through the narrator's perspective of Ethan's story, which is essentially to kind of villainize Zeena...

GOLDSMITH ...heroize Ethan and I don't know, turn Mattie into this sort of charming little creature. And I think because of that narrative perspective, it's hard for us to see that there may be more going on there. And I think that that does have to do with what Zeena's seeing and observing of the marriage that she went into with a different set of aspirations that's no longer there.

REHM Shouldn't we back up even further to the fact that initially Zeena cared for Ethan's mother who was sickly at the beginning...

GOLDSMITH That's right.

REHM ...of the novel?

GOLDSMITH Absolutely. I mean, I think Zeena came into this situation as the caretaker and what we see when she was taking care of Ethan's mother is in a way, she set Ethan free. You know, there's a line where Wharton says, you know, Ethan hadn't known what it was like to sort of go out with the guys. You know, until Zeena came into the household. And then he married her and Zeena was someone who wanted to get out, you know. She had a desire for a different kind of life and then she settles into this sort of bleak situation where she's now Ethan's helpmeet, essentially.

REHM Why does Zeena decide to marry Ethan?

GOLDSMITH Well, I mean, again she's taking care of the mother...

REHM Right.

GOLDSMITH ...initially and Ethan admires her facility...

GOLDSMITH ...when taking care of the mother...

GOLDSMITH ...only to learn later that she's so good at it because she's studied her own illnesses. But initially, it just seems like a natural, just one thing leads to another.

PAGE She's also seven years older then Ethan.

PAGE So her marital...

REHM It's a good point.

PAGE ...chances are weaning.

PFORDRESCHER Yeah.

REHM So how does -- I mean, does Ethan -- as soon as he lays eyes on Mattie, does he fall in love, John?

PFORDRESCHER I think so. He gets her at the train, picks her up, right? And even bringing her back, that begins. I find it interesting how the novel figures her. We are drawn -- our attention is drawn to certain aspects of her, her hair, her mouth. And then other aspects, we don't get.

REHM Short break, right back.

REHM 800-433-8850. That's the number to call if you'd like to join us as we talk about Edith Wharton's long lasting novel "Ethan Frome" which has been made into two Hollywood productions. The first I saw with Sterling Hayden. I have no idea who played the female leads. And then there was a second more recent film. Who was that starring, Meredith?

GOLDSMITH Liam Neeson.

REHM Ah, Liam Neeson, absolutely. Here is a posting on Facebook from Laura. She's says, "I'm a long time listener now living in the Middle East. I have two questions. Number one, what is the significance of Edith Wharton's choice to not disclose the gender of the narrator in the book? And number two, Mattie said she liked Ethan because he was nice to her. But Dennis, the young man who's courting Mattie, was also nice to her. Why did she choose Ethan instead of Dennis when Dennis had a better future?" Lisa.

PAGE Okay. First question, I think that the gender is revealed because the narrator has come to work on the power company. And in those days, women didn't do that...

PAGE ...number one. Number two, in terms of -- the second question, could you repeat that one more time?

REHM Mattie said she liked Ethan because he was nice to her. But Dennis was also nice to her. So why did she choose Ethan over Dennis?

PAGE Well, Ethan is so plugged into Mattie. It's just from that minute he sees her. She's the light where there was always darkness. She's the warmth where it was always cold. Any woman's going to respond to that.

PFORDRESCHER It's an interesting question though because there is obviously that alternative that she turns away from because Dennis would've been a good provider. The Irish who are running this shop down in town make good money and become more and more prosperous as time passes. Had she married him she would've had a nice meal ticket.

REHM But was he less attentive, less absorbed in her?

GOLDSMITH I think Dennis just sees her as a kind of another charming girl.

REHM Exactly.

GOLDSMITH But I do have some more thoughts on this though. If we see that -- think that there's some tension between Mattie and Zeena, which I think there is -- you know, Mattie's been brought there as the poor relation essentially. Zeena has what Mattie doesn't. She has this man, you know. And so I think that there's some competition and rivalry there.

REHM Here's another comment on Facebook from John who says, "I read the book for a high school English class. Apart from hating any book set in New England, I found no sympathy whatsoever for the characters in the book and found the whole---" I'm not going to even read this until we get a little later into the book. I want to ask you, Lisa, about the New Yorker piece by Jonathan Franzen about Edith Wharton.

PAGE Yes, in last week's New Yorker, Jonathan Franzen has done an essay celebrating the 150th anniversary of Edith Wharton. And he talks about sympathy as this Facebook thing just said. But he talks about sympathy around Edith Wharton herself, that she couldn't have sympathy because she was such a wealthy woman, because she wasn't an attractive woman. And he also talks about the sympathy generated around her characters and whether she indeed had sympathy for her own characters, particularly when they were pretty women.

PAGE He kinda jumps around quite a bit and there is -- it's received quite a bit of attention now. There's an organization in New York called Word of Mouth that is actively pushing to send letters to the editor at The New Yorker around this (unintelligible) .

REHM Were you offended by it?

PAGE I found his depiction of Edith Wharton simplistic and rather one dimensional frankly, the wealthy woman who's leaving her pages of manuscript for the maid to pick up while she lies in bed writing. You know, there have been an awful lot of male writers who have had money and had wives to pick up their pages. And I just found that -- and I'm a friend of -- a fan of Franzen's, but I found that outrageous.

GOLDSMITH You know, I have to agree. And first of all I have to say, Edith Wharton was a pretty attractive woman, to address the question of -- about Wharton's not being pretty. You should see. I mean, Wharton was a debutante.

GOLDSMITH So I think that that argument is not only problematic in a number of ways but also pretty selective. And then I think we have to distinguish between who Wharton was as a person, whom she socialized with, the kind of family she came from and so on and her imagination. Because the sheer fact that she creates this book and tries to enter into the lives of these characters who are very, very different from her, I think suggests an ability to empathize.

REHM But at the same time, how much of this novel do you see as perhaps autobiographical?

GOLDSMITH Definitely some. We've talked about that a little bit already the fact that Wharton was trapped in this marriage. There's also, you know, something that has to do with the fact that both, you know, Wharton had suffered a breakdown. Teddy had suffered a breakdown.

REHM Her husband.

GOLDSMITH Her husband. Fullerton was ailing so this issue of, you know, illness, mental illness, the attention that sick people receive and that they have to be given, I think that was something that was very much on her mind.

REHM John Pfordrescher, do you think that men reading this novel perceive it somewhat differently?

PFORDRESCHER Well, I think it's a very curious question. We've talked about this a bit already. The male -- presumably male narrator looking at this story of tragic suffering, I think, sees it from a very male perspective. And you talked earlier about Ethan being trapped inside of this passionate life that he lives. And I think men read that and think they understand it.

PFORDRESCHER But it would seem to me that there's a bit of Edith Wharton in all of her major characters, that I can see her in some ways as like Zeena because she had an unfaithful husband. I can see her as perhaps yearning to be the Mattie who would be sort of addressed...

REHM ...adored.

PFORDRESCHER ...adored, that's the word. Thank you. And it's quite common I think for really powerful writers to see bits and pieces of their inner life in many of the characters they create.

GOLDSMITH I think that that also takes us to the role of Mrs. Hale you know, who's observed what's going on...

REHM Tell us who Mrs. Hale is.

GOLDSMITH Mrs. Hale is this sort of older woman that the narrator meets when he comes to the town and she's his landlady while he's staying here to do this project. And he learns that she's the one who's in fact found Mattie and Ethan after the accident and she's taking care of them. And in the prologue and epilogue of the story he's sort of trying to press her to find out what actually happened. And she reveals at the end some of the things that she's observed, which were essentially too painful to talk about in the entire narrative that's preceded it.

PAGE But also Mrs. Hale, who was a young woman the same age as Mattie Silver, has had love that -- where she married the person she was in love with. She hasn't had to struggle in secret the way that Mattie has and she hasn't had her own life end in tragedy. So they sort of play off of each other.

PFORDRESCHER She's the foil.

PFORDRESCHER She's the healthy one. I think the name is a pun, Hale and Hardy.

REHM Interesting.

GOLDSMITH But she's the foil, but she also -- I mean, she's observed something really profound, you know, because she's the one who said after they found Mattie's body, you know, I say it's a pity that she lived. You know, which is I think a very shocking revelation.

REHM Okay. All right, we're there. Let's talk about this sleigh ride. There is a huge elm tree at the bottom of the hill. It's described earlier in the book and Ethan Frome says, there could be accidents there. And what happens?

PFORDRESCHER Well, it's the day that Mattie's being driven out and Ethan's taking her to the train.

REHM Zeena has said, I don't want anything to do with her anymore.

PFORDRESCHER She has mastered them both and they feel absolutely trapped. He's taking her to the train. They've talked several times about having a ride down -- a sled I think we call in the Midwest. And this becomes for them the last thing they can do together. They take one ride down the hill. They come up and then the question is raised, shall we do it a second time. And Mattie says, I want to die. Effectively she says, I want you to run the sleigh into the tree and then we'll be together forever.

PFORDRESCHER And Ethan says, okay. I want you to sit behind me and I'll be on the front of this -- and I think he wants to hit the tree first.

PFORDRESCHER He starts going down the hill and this is what we get. They're going faster and faster approaching the elm and the narrator says, suddenly his wife's face with twisted monstrous liniments thrust itself between him and his goal and he made an instinctive movement to brush it aside. And instead of having a head-on collision I assume they hit to one side. And they are both crippled in one way or another for the rest of their lives but they live.

REHM But Mattie takes the brunt of it.

PFORDRESCHER Yeah, she's -- it's worse for her.

PAGE It's way worse for her. There's a horrible description about he thinks he hears a mouse cheeping under the snow and then he realizes that it's her. And that her -- the noises are being made from her suffering.

PFORDRESCHER There's interesting moments when Zeena is a lot like a witch. She's interested in these medicines which are like potions. She has instinctive understandings of other people. And I take it that the fact that her face comes to him just at the moment when there might have been this suicide slash liberation and causes him to flinch is like a kind of hex. I think it fits with the New England setting where witchcraft, witchery is very much a part of the cultural tradition.

REHM But, you know, the landscape is certainly part of the novel. That pickle dish. Let's talk about the pickle dish, Meredith.

GOLDSMITH Well, one of the things I asked my students when I was teaching this text recently is, is a pickle dish ever just a pickle dish? And their response was no. But so the reason this comes up is that when Zeena's out of town getting a medical treatment...

REHM And she goes out of town deliberately...

GOLDSMITH Absolutely

REHM ...to taunt him.

GOLDSMITH Absolutely, yeah. And Mattie sets up this little dinner, which sort of seems like a little presage of what would be to come if Mattie and Ethan were to have a life together. And she's taken Zeena's pickle dish to arrange the table.

REHM She wants it to look pretty.

GOLDSMITH Absolutely, absolutely. And the cat jumps up and smashes it. And so what happens is that Ethan takes the pieces, arranges them as if it were whole and puts it back up on the high shelf where Zeena put it. So on the one hand this seems like a kind of avoidant, you know, behavior on Ethan's part.

REHM Wish he had had Superglue or something.

PFORDRESCHER He goes down to town.

GOLDSMITH There's no glue.

REHM There is no glue, yeah.

GOLDSMITH But it's also worth thinking about again why Mattie takes it. Mattie, again, who seems like a slip of a girl, it's hard to think she would imagine to get this. But she is usurping some of Zeena's property there. And part of why Zeena's so upset, it was a symbol of her marriage to Ethan at a time when she was happy.

PAGE And a pretty thing, whereas they have so little. They have so little.

PFORDRESCHER Absolutely. Her line is, I tried to keep my things where you couldn't get at them. She says this at the moment when she's accusing Mattie of taking her thing. I think this thing-ness is important to the novel too. It's related to the whole question of money and how little money any of them have. And so things become very important for Zeena and obviously I think for Ethan and for Mattie they're not.

REHM John Pfordrescher. He's professor of English at Georgetown University. And you're listening to "The Diane Rehm Show." Going to open the phones, 800-433-8850. To Shade, Ohio. Good morning, Stephanie.

STEPHANIE Good morning, Diane. It's so nice to be on your show. I was so happy when you came to Athens, Ohio a few years ago.

REHM Thank you.

STEPHANIE Anyway, I have used this book when I've taught an American dialects class and I do a segment on literary dialect. And the thing that I find so fascinating -- 'cause what I do is I look at all the dialogue spoken by the characters and I analyze it. And Edith Wharton basically has Mattie and Ethan speaking pretty much standard English. But then she reverts to more of a New England dialect when she has Zeena speak. So Zeena instead of saying have, she goes a, you know, shoulda done that, instead of should have done that.

STEPHANIE And she doesn't -- and then she employs something called I dialect where she'll spell a word like catch, instead of c-a-t-h-e (sic) she spells it k-e-t-c-h, which is -- there's nothing phonologically different between k-e and c-a that it makes her appear ignorant. That's a literary device.

GOLDSMITH Yeah, I can definitely see her doing that. I think Wharton was an excellent listener. And when she was traveling around New England that's one of the things she was doing. She was observing and listening. And I think it makes perfect sense that she would be not only picking up on the nuances of different people's speech, but also using them to reflect certain things about the characters. And in this case it sounds like Ethan and Mattie might seem a little more, I don't know, civilized, you know.

PFORDRESCHER More universal, more accessible to the reader.

REHM I think we should point out that there are moments in this novel when Ethan really believes he can run away with Mattie. And then he begins to consider not only the practicality of that life but also how would Zeena be taken care of?

PAGE And who would take care of Zeena? I mean, there isn't anyone else besides him to do that. And that's what's so stark. And, by the way, you also brought up setting here, Diane.

PAGE And that is this stark, cold, wintery, barren.

PAGE It constantly -- it's relentless deprivation.

REHM And deprivation somehow, especially because he goes to a neighbor and asks for money, asks for a loan upfront on the basis of work that's yet to be done. He is refused. He then thinks, I'll go back again. I'll ask him in a different way and this time it'll work. And then, with Mattie, on the spur of the moment, they decide to commit suicide. What a story. All right. We're going to take a short break here. We've got lots of callers waiting. We'll come back to them after a short break.

REHM And we were talking during the break about that film. And as I recall it was not a film made in Hollywood, rather it was made for CBS Television as part of its Playhouse 90 series. Julie Harris played Mattie Silver alongside Sterling Hayden. And Clarice Blackburn played Zeena Frome. I can still see it. All right. Let's go back to the phones to Bobbie in Alexandria, Va. Good morning.

BOBBIE Hi. How are you?

REHM I'm good, thanks. Go right ahead.

BOBBIE Well, I was just commenting on how I had to read "Ethan Frome" amongst the other grades (unintelligible) English Lit. class, junior year in high school. And he was one of the few PhD teachers for the whole school so he was very -- he was going to make sure that we knew that. And instead of really discussing like normal English classes as part of a daily curriculum, we got ready for the AP exam during the day and we were expected to read the book on our own. And at the end of each month we got, like, these grueling tests with details about each month's book.

BOBBIE And I remember the exam for "Ethan Frome" and how just littered with these itty bitty details, but I will never forget. And I always associate with it since then these highlights of color that he specifically drew questions to that were both against the bleak physical environment and the bleak emotional environment, both. For instance, the red scarf, that's very much drawn attention to in the language of the book when, I think, they're about to slide down the hill for the very last time.

REHM Quite right. Red scarf, red ribbon.

GOLDSMITH Red ribbon. And I think it's the first evening when Ethan's taking Mattie home from the dance, he fantasizes about rubbing the scarf against his cheek.

GOLDSMITH And I think that's another wonderful moment of that sort of struggle for communication that you're talking about, that this is the only connection he can imagine himself feeling.

PFORDRESCHER And the pickle dish is red.

PAGE And red is the color of life amongst all this stark...

REHM Of course.

PAGE ...cold white gray.

GOLDSMITH Mm-hmm.

REHM John, have you taught this book?

PFORDRESCHER No, I haven't. Unh-unh.

REHM You've never taught it.

PFORDRESCHER No. Unh-unh.

REHM And the reason I ask both because of what Bobbie said and now an email from Virginia in Michigan. She says, "My high school age granddaughter, who's a veracious reader who loves almost everything she reads, hated 'Ethan Frome.' Should this book be on high school reading lists?" What do you think, John?

PFORDRESCHER I wanna answer that by raising kind of a parallel question. I think that Edith Wharton wanted to write a tragedy. She refers to Ethan Frome on the first pages as tragic. And the question that forms in my mind, and it may be the reason why the early reviewers that you mentioned at the beginning of the show, Diane, didn't like it a whole lot, usually tragedies end in some kind of recognition that a terrible mistake has been made on the part of the tragic hero.

PFORDRESCHER And then there is for the audience or the reader some kind of purgation, some kind of relief by, as Aristotle tells us, fear and pity that causes the tensions of the peace to go away from us, to drain out. But Wharton's novel doesn't give us that kind of an escape I don't think. And the last scene, which I think we're gonna talk about a bit more, in fact intensifies our sense of their sort of endless suffering in a kind of prison.

REHM Endless tragedy.

PFORDRESCHER So it's got the elements of a tragedy, but it doesn't have the release that we often have at the ends of tragedy. And I think that must bother some kids and adults too.

REHM Especially young people who are looking forward to life, who see life as unending good things happening. Meredith.

GOLDSMITH I think part of this goes back to Wharton's status as a realist, that she's not someone who's going to give the reader the satisfaction of a romantic suicide essentially. And I think a botched suicide pact is evidence of that. People have to live with the consequences of what they've done.

PAGE You talked a lot about repression too, Diane, and restriction is sort of the theme. And they just get more and more restricted by the end. And that's very hard. It's very hard for the reader.

REHM And of course I think we should talk about how all of this ends after the attempted suicide which, you know, for their sake you almost hope is the end.

PAGE Right.

REHM It's worse.

PFORDRESCHER It's worse.

GOLDSMITH Absolutely.

PFORDRESCHER It's worse. Mattie undergoes some kind of a horrific transformation so that when we see her at the end of the novel and the conclusion, we see her bloodless and shriveled. Her dark eyes had the bright witch like stare that disease of the spine sometimes gives. And this business of blood, we've talked about red being associated with Mattie. Earlier when the two are so desperately in love, Ethan feels that her blood is in his veins. And now at the end she is bloodless and shriveled.

PFORDRESCHER He drags his semi crippled right side, his leg and his arm, around trying to make enough money just to support the family. And then Zeena, as we said, is the caregiver, but reluctant, resentful caregiver. And the three of them are locked in this farmhouse kitchen all winter long. And we've talked about the importance of the weather symbolically. The two lovers had this one moment in a summertime when they sat by a pond and Ethan found Mattie's locket. But for the rest, it's almost always in a cold, frozen moment.

PFORDRESCHER And let me just add, the afternoon of the sledding, it's starting to thaw. And they go down and then of course there's the collision and the lifelong crippling.

REHM Let's go to Little Rock, Ark. Good morning, Paul.

PAUL Good morning. How are you?

REHM Fine, thanks.

PAUL I'm calling to agree with the point about teenagers not reading this kind of literature. Yeah, I don't think Dickens, I don't think most of the great literature should be read because it is too depressing. I'm a writer, but I'm not gonna let any of it be published until I'm dead because it would depress my children. They would think I'm suicidal. But I think writers just take great pleasure in writing about tragedy. They relish it. They derive energy from it. But to the young reader, it's very upsetting. I think one has to be 40 or 50 to grasp the depth of some of these emotions that women like her were able to capture.

REHM You know, the same has been said about Shakespeare, that people shouldn't read it until they're 40 or so, they don't have the wherewithal understand it. Yet we see all kinds of mayhem in Shakespeare that is certainly taught junior high, high school, college. I mean...

PAGE Not to mention all the tragedy that's on television.

REHM Well, precisely. Thank you very much, Lisa. Okay. Let's go to Long Island, N.Y. Good morning, Vincent.

VINCENT Good morning, Diane.

VINCENT I had a chance to read this book, like a few other callers had mentioned, when I was in high school. And I hated it because it was depressing and I couldn't relate to it. You know, a 15-year-old kid, you have no idea. But when I was an adult and you have a few experiences with relationships and they go south, you get a better appreciation for the book. And I never really liked how it ended, so I even went so far as to rewrite the ending to make it a little happier. And it...

REHM Tell me how it turned out in your version.

VINCENT In my version, the only solution I could think of that the two of them could be together is if Zeena unfortunately passed away and the two of them, they sold the farm. And Ethan had mentioned awhile back he'd gotten a job as an engineer in Florida. I finished where they sold everything. They moved there. But before they left, Ethan saw the cat in the window. He turned to it and said to himself, never again, and they left happy.

REHM Wow. That's really quite something. I love it. Meredith.

GOLDSMITH I love it, too.

GOLDSMITH But I think part of the issue is this takes Ethan being a different kind of person...

GOLDSMITH ...than we've seen Ethan to be. I mean, when he fantasizes running away, and we even see an example of a man who did run away with the woman he loved and they have a beautiful child, he just says, well, I can't put Zeena in that position. Realistically, men left their wives. He could put Zeena in that position. So to one extent, he's honorable, but to one extent, he's I think resistant to change. I mean, this is Starkfield. People are locked in a certain way of living.

REHM He's resistant to change, but he doesn't have a dime to his name.

REHM And that's the other part. I mean, how's he gonna do this? How's he even going to find train fare? He didn't even have train fare for Mattie.

PFORDRESCHER Yeah, yeah.

REHM So it's tough. Vincent, you're very creative. I love it. Let's take a call from Kathy here in Washington, D.C. Good morning, you're on the air.

KATHY Good morning, Diane. I could call this show nine times out of ten on any (unintelligible)

REHM I'm so glad. Thank you.

KATHY Just in reference to these recent callers, and I'm a parent of two middle school aged daughters who are good students, I agree that things get read too early and I think that's a shame. But I don't think it's because it's too depressing. It's because you do need life experience to have encountered some of these issues. And unlike Shakespeare where you can read it on different levels, it's very hard to do that with things like "The Scarlet Letter" and "Ethan Frome" and some of the really great works of American and English language literature.

KATHY And I'm just wondering, does the panel have any suggestions as to how to keep these things alive without voicing them at adolescence to really get turned off by them? I also think, well, the world's not going to heck in a hand basket across the board educationally, a lot of literature today is sort of a (unintelligible) phenomenon and kids really aren't able to deal with themes like being trapped, like being trapped in your own values, being trapped by the interaction between society and your own values and all of these things that really are the nuts and bolts of adult life.

PAGE Yeah, I'm sorry, I have to disagree with the caller. I think that exposure to literature beginning at a very early age, even difficult literature, sets up a life where you understand it and you seek it out. Whereas if you don't get exposed to literature at an early age, difficult literature, literature that isn't all happy endings, you have no foundation.

REHM Kathy mentioned "The Scarlet Letter." There is so much learning in the "Scarlet Letter." John Pfordrescher.

PFORDRESCHER And obviously people who construct curricula see that for many of the students that they work with, this is their last chance to get these books into the hands of young people. And so there's this sense that we've got to somehow give them a bit and notice the sense of I give.

REHM John Pfordrescher of Georgetown University. And you're listening to "The Diane Rehm Show." We do seem to have reached a point in teaching where we're sanitizing so much and trying to make the world into a place that it isn't.

GOLDSMITH And I think the thing is, "Ethan Frome" may seem like it's distant because it's a different historical moment, it's older people, but I think the feeling of entrapment is something that, you know, lots of young people can relate to. And, I mean, you could ask the students, can you imagine what it's like to be closeted? You know, can you imagine what it's like to not be able to communicate something that's extremely important to you?

REHM And can you imagine being trapped in life where you have no options?

GOLDSMITH Right.

REHM That seems to me something that could easily be understood. Let's go to Knoxville, Tenn. Good morning, Betsy.

BETSY Good morning. I was glad the conversation took this turn, because as a parent, I would really hate my children's teachers to take the curriculum to not reading challenging literature and to not imagine that they won't reread some of these challenging works as lifelong learners. But my children have been watching Shakespeare since they were four. They've appeared in Shakespeare productions. And they get this challenging literature. They love Charles Dickens. It would be so sad if we eliminated the challenging, difficult and sad stories of "Oedipus" or "Macbeth" or any of these other things out of their curriculum.

REHM How about "Ulysses"? Not easy stuff. Here's a wonderful email from Lise in Texas. She says, "My sophomore high school English teacher not only had us read "Ethan Frome," but read every word aloud. It was one of the best literary experiences I've ever had. I adore the book. I believe plenty of young people are mature enough to grasp the subject matter and the literary genius of the language. I should mention that our teacher dealt with the issue of the tragic ending by assigning us to write our own alternative endings."

REHM Isn't that marvelous...

PAGE That is.

REHM ...and a great way to teach.

PFORDRESCHER You know, when you hear the experience of these callers, the one woman who was just given drills in details that are for tests, and then this most recent account, and in a sense here's one answer to the question we're talking about. Excellent teaching can take difficult texts and make them come alive for students and, as you're saying, Lisa, help people to grow through the text.

REHM Of course. John Pfordrescher, professor of English at Georgetown University, Lisa Page who's president of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, Meredith Goldsmith, she's professor of English at Ursinus College, vice president of The Edith Wharton Society. Thank you all so much. I love this discussion.

PFORDRESCHER Thank you.

GOLDSMITH Thank you.

PAGE Thank you.

PFORDRESCHER Thank you. We did, too.

REHM And thanks for listening all. I'm Diane Rehm.

The Edith Wharton Society
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Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence is one of the best books I’ve ever read. Since I read it, I’m sorry to say but helpless to change, it has become one of those books I use when unintentionally guaging how well I’ll get along with someone: “Did you like The Age of Innocence ?” If the answer is “no” or, worse, “eh, it was okay,” I cease to foresee any future literary discussions between me and that person. In fact, our relations may end right there. I’m the same way with The Great Gatsby . And look out those of you who hate Henry James: I’m becoming just as unattractively judgemental against those who dislike the Master too. (Don’t worry you haters of Moby-Dick ; some books we can disagree on, yet I completely understand where you’re coming from). The hard truth for me, though, is that as much as I loved The Age of Innocence and presumptuously use it as a foundation to my literary pride, I still fail to live up to my passion. I’ve neglected my relationship with Wharton. It took a slim novel, Ethan Frome , to remind me of the treasure that Wharton’s work is.

If it is possible, I might have loved Ethan Frome even more than The Age of Innocence . Thankfully there is no need to make any definitive decision of that kind. They are quite different and can be loved equally if basing that love on Wharton’s top-quality prose and perfect observations.

Ethan Frome begins with a framing device. The narrator has recently moved to Starkfield, Massachusetts, and has noticed a broken figure of a man sometimes going about his business in the streets. This man is Ethan Frome, fifty-two years old. Bit by bit the narrator learns Ethan’s history — some disfiguring event happened to Ethan one February twenty-four years earlier. How much credence to give the bits of knowledge surrounding this event is anyone’s guess:

I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story.

One of my favorite bits of knowledge comes from Harmon Gow. Wharton makes it clear very early that, yes, this is a human drama, but the setting — this poor village in Massachusetts that suffers brutal winters — is very important to her text.

Though Harmon Gow developed the tale as far as his mental and moral reach permitted there were perceptible gaps between his facts, and I had the sense that the deeper meaning of the story was in the gaps. But one phrase stuck in my memory and served as the nucleus about which I grouped my subsequent inferences: “Guess he’s been in Starkfield too many winters.”

Winter plays a sinister role in this novel, but the underlying theme is that Starkfield itself is the center of this frozen world where men and women get stuck in life, stumbling into relationships for warmth, failing to ever realize spring.

After the brief framing introduction, the narrative slips back those twenty-four years to a time when Ethan Frome was desperately in love with the young Mattie. He doesn’t know how she feels about him.

Watching Mattie whirl down the floor from hand to hand he wondered how he could ever have thought that his dull talk interested her. To him, who was never gay but in her presence, her gaiety seemed plain proof of indifference. The face she lifted to her dancers was the same which, when she saw him, always looked like a window that has caught the sunset.

The central problem is that Ethan has already wed Zeena, and Mattie is Zeena’s cousin, come to stay with them to assist Zeena in the housework. So we witness as Ethan suffers silently, unable to embrace his passion but also unwilling to cut it off. He is truly conflicted, and his internal struggle affects his observations of everything. Here is a paragraph where Ethan attempts to discern whether Mattie has any esteem for him:

These alterations of mood were the despair and joy of Ethan Frome. The motions of her mind were as incalculable as the flit of a bird in the branches. The fact that he had no right to show his feelings, and thus provoke the expression of hers, made him attach a fantastic importance to every change in her look and tone. Now he thought she understood him, and feared; now he was sure she did not, and despaired.

Zeena, for her part, is always sickly — at least, that is her claim. More likely she is a depressed hypochondriac, seeking any way to gain her husband’s attentions, which he no longer wishes to give.

Then she too fell silent. Perhaps it was the inevitable effect of life on the farm, or perhaps, as she sometimes said, it was because Ethan “never listened.” The charge was not wholly unfounded. When she spoke it was only to complain, and to complain of things not in his power to remedy; and to check a tendency to impatient retort he had first formed the habit of not answering her, and finally of thinking of other things while she talked. Of late, however, since he had had reasons of observing her more closely, her silence had begun to trouble him.

We can relate Harmon Gow’s comment — “Guess he’s been in Starkfield too many winters” — to Ethan and Zeena’s marriage. Ethan first met Zeena because she came to assist him in caring for his dying mother. His mother ended up dying in winter, and Ethan simply couldn’t stand the thought of being alone. He admits that had his mother died in the spring, he would not have wed Zeena. But that wedding is now a curse, keeping him from the young Mattie. Now Ethan is forced to enjoy Mattie’s company only on the sly. Toward the middle of the book, the prospect arises that he might have an entire evening alone with Mattie; Zeena has told him that she must travel to visit a doctor:

She continued to gaze at him through the twilight with a mien of wan authority, as of one consciously singled out for a great fate. “I’ve got complications,” she said. Ethan knew the word for one of exceptional import. Almost everybody in the neighborhood had “troubles,” frankly localized and specified; but only the chosen had “complications.” To have them was in itself a distinction, though it was also, in most cases, a death-warrant. People struggled for years with “troubles,” but they almost always succumbed to “complications.” Ethan’s heart was jerking to and fro between two extremities of feeling, but for the moment compassion prevailed. His wife looked so hard and lonely, sitting there in the darkness with such thoughts.

I see I’m drifting into plot summary. Wharton’s plotting is fascinating, though, and the story advances quickly. The reader is almost helpless to fight against it, drifting along on the wonderful prose as it takes us into the complicated consciences of the characters. Incidentally, there is more joy in any one of Wharton’s sentences than in most books in their entirety.

I would like to point out again, though, that despite the human drama that pushes the plot forward, this story is not simply about these poor people. This is Wharton’s edict on these small New England villages. Just as Ethan is locked in his marriage, he cannot escape this region, he cannot become something different somewhere else. It is almost impossible to realize his dreams.

Which brings me to my final point. Ethan Frome skirts a Romantic ending and punches the reader in the gut. In her introduction to the Penguin Classics edition, Elizabeth Ammons talks about the book’s initial critical reception and quotes some of the critics. The New York Times wrote, “Mrs. Wharton has, in fact, chosen to build of small, crude things and a rude and violent event a structure whose purpose is the infinite refinement of torture. All that is human and pitiful and tender in the tale — and there is much — is designed and contrived to sharpen the keen edge of that torture.” I thought I could see the ending clearly. I thought the clues throughout the book were leading me to that Romantic ending suitable of a poet. I was wrong and so much more disturbed by the perfect ending than any Romantic ending could have offered. There’s a cynicism that reveals an ugly undercurrent and that brings on an eternal winter.

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20 comments.

Well, Trevor, I’m certainly with you on The Age Of Innocence. It has a habit of getting into my top ten whenever such conversations arise. It’s a masterpiece. And like you, other than the almost as good House Of Mirth, I simply haven’t ventured further with this great writer. I like to imagine it’s because I’m leaving the rest of her oeuvre for a ‘rainy day’ or whatever. In truth I’m doubtful anyone can keep that level up over more than two or three books and I’ve lazily attested to such conjecture by not picking anything else up! I will read this, at some point; I’ve got a copy of the NYRB New York stories in the pile as well.

Well Trevor…….I have never read any Wharton …but now you have revealed your great opinion of her I might try her…..

This is one of Edith Wharton’s books that I read with great regularity Trevor and the punch in the gut happens every single time…

I’ve read a fair bit of Wharton (including those New York stories Lee mentions, which I love) but Ethan Frome is one that I am saving for one of those “rainy” days when I know I need a great book. This taste tends to confirm that I can count on it to deliver when I do read it.

I’d add The Custom of the Country as another example of why Wharton is a great author.

Fortunately my opinion of Edith Wharton is similar to yours, so I guess I pass that litmus test. I’m trying to define my own list of litmus test authors. It would include Patrick White and Dawn Powell for sure, maybe Michel Tournier, etc.

Hi everyone. How exciting to see such a positive respone to Edith Wharton. And that so far no one has to get blocked from commenting. Just kidding about all that, of course. I welcome all opinions here — just don’t expect me to countenance them all :).

Lee — I have the same problem you do. When I read a brilliant book I sometimes hesitate before reading more by that author for fear it will disappoint. I’m very pleased that didn’t happen here, and I have reason to suspect it won’t happen with The House of Mirth and The Custom of the Country (thanks to Kevin).

Rhys — Let’s get rid of this conditional “might.” It will be a treat, I promise ;)

DGR — I can imagine it actually gets worse each time because the ending would loom.

KFC — I’m anxious to read more Wharton and for you to read Ethan Frome . It will certainly get you out of any reading rut. I’ve got several books that I’m saving for such ruts, but I’m happy to say that I’m currently enjoying everything I’m reading immensely.

Tony S. — I still haven’t read Patrick White or Dawn Powell. I picked up The Vivisector a while ago (haven’t quite had the courage to open it) and was actually just yesterday perusing Dawn Powell’s collections in the Library of America. I don’t know her at all, but that she is one of your litmus authors makes me much more anxious.

I remember discovering Wharton and feeling shocked that I’d never read her before. Then I read as much as I could through the course of one summer. The Custom of the Country is my all-time favourite of those read. She’s a superb writer.

Phew, I thought Age of Innocence was a wonderful book too so our friendship doesn’t need to be tested LOL. On the strength of knowing that you reviewed it kindly, have just downloaded it to my Kindle for the princely sum of $2.99. It comes with some other short stories too!

Ethan Frome is one of my absolute favorite novellas ever. Apparently, my reticence about picking up another Wharton is a common theme. My excuse is that this one was perfect in about 100 pages and The Age of Innocence is considerably longer. Maybe I only liked her short stuff. Bad reasoning, but it has become clear from this and other reviews that I must pick up The Age of Innocence soon.

Thank for the great review. It brings back delightful literary memories. I am fired up for Wharton’s other work and I may have to re-read Ethan Frome too.

I’m still fired up about Wharton’s books, though it has now been over a month since I readthis one. My wife and I bought The House of Mirth last year when visiting Edith Wharton’s lovely home in the Berkshires. Shall pull it out soon!

Ethan Frome is one of those books I recommend to everyone, from low- to high-brow readers. Your post has gotten me excited to read The Age of Innocence, which is standing upright on a shelf, looking at me right now. What else of Wharton’s should be read?

Dare I say it? Lily Bart is my favourite literary heroine and I prefer The House of Mirth to The Age of Innocence. I really need to read Ethan Frome, though, great review.

A disturbing opening Trevor. Who would have thought that there could be people who have read Age of Innocence but don’t think it’s brilliant? I find the very idea shocking. If someone did say that I could only surmise they read it in a poor translation rather than the original.

Oddly, I’m like you in that I’ve failed to live up to the passion Innocence inspired in me. I’ve not read on, which is peculiar. I think perhaps I was afraid other titles by her wouldn’t measure up. It’s reassuring to hear that this one does.

Nicola, I’m happy to announce that I started The House of Mirth this morning. I usually like to spread out my readings of a single author, but since I feel I’ve already neglected Wharton enough, that wasn’t the best plan here.

Max and Kevin from California, it sounds like, from the comments above, that when deciding what is the best of Edith Wharton (i.e. what must be read) there are four contenders: The Age of Innocence , Ethan Frome , The House of Mirth , and The Custom of the Country . Does anyone consider another of Wharton’s books to be in that list?

And The House Of Mirth has THE BEST opening, possibly, of any novel I’ve read. It’s heart-stoppingly brilliant.

I haven’t read any beyond TAOI and THOM but I certainly will at some point.

That’s the four I hear of in that category Trevor, I’m aware of other titles but they don’t generally get put in quite the same light.

There is a Pushkin Press edition of one of the less well known Wharton’s though that I’ll be trying at some point. My impression is that it’s one of her more minor works though.

I’ll be a little bit contrarian and suggest that you should adjust Wharton reading to your mood, much as you should with James. There is no single best, it depends on how you are feeling at the time. I agree with the four volumes cited ( and think that House of Mirth tends to get the short shrift) but would certainly add the NYRB collection of her New York short stories to the list of essentials. It is particularly useful for “train” reading when you want to both start and finish on the journey.

I have the Pushkin book Max mentions ( Glimpses of the Moon ) and am saving it for my next Wharton moment. I’d also recommend the Hesperus version of The Touchstone which is a wonderful, very dark novella that has her at her introspective best.

Thanks Kevin. I must say, I’m in the mood for Wharton now and finding The House of Mirth excellent. Her writing, regardless of the subject, is so captivating and revealing.

As much as I love her New York novels, though, I find them quite different from Ethan Frome and the New England described there. And certainly which one I want to read at a moment would depend on my mood (though I have a suspicion that starting a Wharton book one will, if not in the mood, find the mood soon).

[…] Gripes recently, you should swing by soon. He has a post (May 7th) on one of my favorite novellas, Ethan Frome, an insightful and engaging post (May 17th) on Henry James’s excellent Daisy Miller, and the […]

[…] that it made his “10 Best” for 2010. In May, The Mookse and the Gripes reviewed Wharton’s Ethan Frome which turned out to be one of his Ten Twelve Best. A Rat in the Book Pile also read Ethan Frome and […]

Book Review: Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

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Despite having finished Ethan Frome a good fortnight or so ago now, Im still haunted by this book, and suspect that I will be for a long time to come. If youre after a read thats relentlessly desultory but that is, despite its inherent emo-ness, worthy of your emotional investment, then pick up a copy of this book, and read it straight through. I would, however, suggest supplementing your literary journey with a hot chocolate or something similarly comforting.

Ethan Frome is a challengingly bleak novel that slowly, quietly forces itself upon the unsuspecting readers psyche. Its less a recount of something that has happened than one of what might or could neverhave happened. Wharton takes a circular approach to her narrative, using the flashback framing device popular when the book was written to explicitly contrast the then and the now. The book opens with an unnamed narrator hiring a crippled husk of a manEthan Fromeas his driver during his stay in town. Inclement weather forces them to return to Fromes home, where the stranger speculates on Fromes downfall, after which point the novel takes us back to the events that culminate in Fromes disfigurementa disfigurement that certainly seems to be a sort of moral or karmic retribution.

Some twenty years ago Frome was a strong, able-bodied man, although emotionally he has never been in especially good shape. Fromes life has been one of expectation and obligation, and he has spent the better part of his youth caring first for his mother, and subsequently for his wife Zeena, whom he takes in out of a sense of duty. The dynamic between Frome and Zeena is a chilling one, and its one that no doubt deserves some dissection by someone whos more pyschoanalytically inclined than I am. Zeena is the type who is perpetually indisposed, something she puts down to her past efforts to care for Fromes mother, and their entire marriage revolves around this fact. Zeena plays the consumptive card to keep Frome close, while Fromes sense of residual guilt over both his late mothers and over his wifes health sees him take her incessant barbs without comment.

The puritanical context in which Frome and Zeena live, as well as Fromes wont towards self-flagellation, essentially create a scenario that is all about stagnation, repression, and resentmentso what better way to throw a spanner in the works than a love affair? And this Wharton does in style by introducing Mattie, a live-in, unattached housemaid who happens also to be Zeenas cousin. What follows is an abject depiction of a love that is notionally requited, but that is acted upon in only the most roundabout way. This affair, after all, is representative of Fromes freedomsomething which his moral concerns disallow him from chasing after. Every wayward thought or action, therefore, becomes something that cripples Frome with its weight, and Frome and Mattie find themselves in a spiral of increasing lust (if one could call it that) and thus increasing self-loathing.

Zeena, of course, is aware of the tension between the two, and thus of Fromes desire to reclaim his freedom and youth, and she seeks solace in her illness by claiming ever worsening symptoms. In what is a stroke of manipulative genius she heads off to a nearby town in search of a diagnosis solemn enough that it might force Frome to remain by her side. Frome and Mattie are left alone during this time, but their sense of duty and moral uprighteousness, which are underscored by the moralistic challenge inherent in Zeenas actions, precludes them from doing anything wayward. But its not their adulterous actions that pose the problem hereits the fact that that desire exists despite not being acted upon. And given thatFromes relationship with Zeena is necessarily emotional rather than physical, the psychological nature of his adulterous inclinations is all the more sordid.

Did I mention that Frome is the self-flagellating type? Well, things become even more desperately bleak upon Zeenas return, when Zeena circuitously condemns the affair by noting that she has hired a new girl to replace Mattie. Given that Zeena has essentially okayed casting out her own kin, Frome feels vindicated in doing the same, and decides that hell leave his wife at last. But upon making this decision, he realises that he cannot do so without taking advantage of those who have historically been kind to him. Mattie gets in on the act at this point, suggesting a suicide act by sled (possibly one of the more novel approaches to suicide Ive heard), but Fromes guilt is such that he derails the sled at the lost moment, meaning that the two end up seriously injured rather than dead. This, perhaps is the most challenging aspect of the novel, and I could go back and forth for hours attempting to tease out the motivations here. Mattie, now an invalid, is cared for by Zeena and Frome (or at least by Frome when he is well enough to do so, having been nursed back to health by Zeena), adding a whole new dimension to the dynamics here. Is this Fromes way of seeking retribution? His way of ensuring that he can spend the rest of his days by Matties side? His way of punishing both himself and Mattie for their unbidden love? And what of Zeenas response to this? Where her husbands infidelity was ostensibly once the stuff of her paranoia, she now has proof of its existence, but is forced to live with the knowledge of his quiet desperation for the rest of her days.

Ethan Frome is proof that sometimes the greatest horrors are those that arent made explicit. It deliberately forces the reader to imagine the twenty years of convalescence and obligation that occur between the first and final chapters, and to endure the emotional challenges no doubt involved in this time. And if youre not thoroughly disturbed by the thought of this, then youre made of sterner stuff than I am.

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Ethan Frome

Edith wharton, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Ethan Frome: Introduction

Ethan frome: plot summary, ethan frome: detailed summary & analysis, ethan frome: themes, ethan frome: quotes, ethan frome: characters, ethan frome: symbols, ethan frome: literary devices, ethan frome: theme wheel, brief biography of edith wharton.

Historical Context of Ethan Frome

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Full Title: Ethan Frome
When Written: 1910-11; French exercise begun in 1907
Where Written: Rue de Varenne, Paris, France
When Published: September 1911
Literary Period: Edwardian Period
Genre: Novel
Setting: The fictitious town of Starkfield, Massachusetts
Climax: The sledding accident
Antagonist: Zenobia (Zeena) Frome
Point of View: First-person observer (frame story); third-person omniscient (main narrative)

Extra Credit for Ethan Frome

Views on Marriage: Wharton frequently wrote about unhappy marriages, and herself divorced a mentally-ill husband at a time when divorce was a hot topic (divorce figures doubled between 1880 and 1900, and doubled again by 1920, owing to new laws and changing social mores). Wharton was particularly critical of American marriages in which the husband looked down on the wife because she took no interest in his business affairs, and the wife retaliated by spending enormous amounts of money. Although Ethan Frome is sometimes seen as anomalous among Wharton's novels because it is not about upper-class New York society, it is typical in its concern with how traditional institutions and values perpetuate an imbalance of power between men and women that often destroys their relationships with one another.

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Ethan Frome (Wharton)

Ethan Frome Edith Wharton, 1911 100-125 pp. (varies by publisher) Summary Ethan Frome, a poor, downtrodden New England farmer is trapped in a loveless marriage to his invalid wife, Zeena. His ambition and intelligence are oppressed by Zeena's cold, conniving character. When Zeena's young cousin Mattie arrives to help care for her, Ethan is immediately taken by Mattie's warm, vivacious personality. They fall desperately in love as he realizes how much is missing from his life and marriage.

Tragically, their love is doomed by Zeena's ever-lurking presence and by the social conventions of the day. Ethan remains torn between his sense of obligation and his urge to satisfy his heart's desire up to the suspenseful and unanticipated conclusion. ( Penguin Group edition .)

More One of Edith Wharton’s few works of fiction that takes place outside of an urban, upper-class setting, Ethan Frome draws upon the bleak, barren landscape of rural New England. A poor farmer, Ethan finds himself stuck in a miserable marriage to Zeena, a sickly, tyrannical woman, until he falls in love with her visiting cousin, the vivacious Mattie Silver. As Mattie is forced to leave his household, Frome steals one last afternoon with her—one that culminates in a ruinous sled ride with unspeakably tragic results.

Unhappily married herself, Edith Wharton projected her dark views of love onto people far removed from her social class in Ethan Frome. Her sensitivity to natural beauty and human psychology, however, make this slim novel a convincing and compelling portrait of rural life. A powerful tale of passion and loss—and the wretched consequences thereof— Ethan Frome is one of American literatures great tragic love stories. ( From Barnes & Noble edition .)

Author Bio • Birth—January 24, 1862 • Where—New York, NY • Death—August 11, 1937 • Where—Paris, France • Education: Educated privately in New York and Europe • Awards—Pulitzer Prize for The Age of Innocence, 1921, French Legion of Honor, 1916

One of America's most important novelists, Edith Wharton was a refined, relentless chronicler of the Gilded Age and its social mores. Along with close friend Henry James, she helped define literature at the turn of the 20th century, even as she wrote classic nonfiction on travel, decorating and her own life. More Edith Newbold Jones was born January 24, 1862, into such wealth and privilege that her family inspired the phrase "keeping up with the Joneses." The youngest of three children, Edith spent her early years touring Europe with her parents and, upon the family's return to the United States, enjoyed a privileged childhood in New York and Newport, Rhode Island. Edith's creativity and talent soon became obvious: By the age of eighteen she had written a novella, and (as well as witty reviews of it) and published poetry in the Atlantic Monthly . After a failed engagement, Edith married a wealthy sportsman, Edward Wharton. Despite similar backgrounds and a shared taste for travel, the marriage was not a success. Many of Wharton's novels chronicle unhappy marriages, in which the demands of love and vocation often conflict with the expectations of society. Wharton's first major novel, The House of Mirth, published in 1905, enjoyed considerable Literary Success. Ethan Frome appeared six years later, solidifying Wharton's reputation as an important novelist. Often in the company of her close friend, Henry James, Wharton mingled with some of the most famous writers and artists of the day, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, André Gide, Sinclair Lewis, Jean Cocteau, and Jack London. In 1913 Edith divorced Edward. She lived mostly in France for the remainder of her life. When World War I broke out, she organized hostels for refugees, worked as a fund-raiser, and wrote for American publications from battlefield frontlines. She was awarded the French Legion of Honor for her courage and distinguished work. The Age of Innocence , a novel about New York in the 1870s, earned Wharton the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1921 — the first time the award had been bestowed upon a woman. Wharton traveled throughout Europe to encourage young authors. She also continued to write, lying in her bed every morning, as she had always done, dropping each newly penned page on the floor to be collected and arranged when she was finished. Wharton suffered a stroke and died on August 11, 1937. She is buried in the American Cemetery in Versailles, France. Extras • Surprisingly, in addition to her career as a fiction writer, Wharton was also a well-known interior designer. Her book, The Decoration of Houses was widely read and is today considered the first modern manual of interior design.

• Upon the publication of The House of Mirth in 1905, Wharton became an instant celebrity, and the the book was an instant bestseller, with 80,000 copies ordered from Scribner's six weeks after its release.

• Wharton had a great fondness for dogs, and owned several throughout her life. ( From Barnes and Noble.)

Book Reviews Wharton's use of an observer eases the reader's entry into Ethan's story. In the opening of the novel the narrator recaptures his first arresting glimpse of Wharton's central character, when he had been struck by Frome's physiognomy and bearing. Harmon Gow, who had driven the stage between Starkfield and other towns in the region's pre-trolley days, provides further background on Frome.

From Gow the narrator learns of Ethan's age and of his reluctance to escape Starkfield because of obligations to care for his failing parents. The narrator also hears not only Gow's chilling comment on Ethan's endurance—"Ethan'll likely touch a hundred"—but also his opinion that Ethan's stay in Starkfield constituted a kind of imprisonment: "Guess he's been in Starkfield too many winters. Most of the smart ones get away".

The narrator's interview of Gow develops the tale only "as far as his [Gow's] mental and moral reach permitted", and he hopes that the more educated, sophisticated Mrs. Ned Hale, with whom he is staying, will provide greater insight. He cannot cut through her reserve and reticence, however, even though she has more firsthand knowledge of the aftermath of the accident that scarred Frome's forehead. Implying a suffering too great for words, her only comment is: "It was awful".

The narrator infers that he must piece together Ethan's story from different sources, and that consequently each retelling will be a little bit different. The meaning of the story, he infers, will be found even in gaps or silences after he has accumulated a succession of hints, suggestions, and clues that surround Frome. For all the narrator's curiosity about the Frome household, this technique gives his telling an elliptical effect, a sense that much has been left unsaid or not fully articulated.

When the winter snows prevent the narrator's return to Starkfield after Frome volunteers to drive him to his business appointment, he is granted a night's shelter at the farm. Enveloped by the severe storm, the narrator experiences a "soft universal diffusion more confusing than the gusts and eddies of the morning." In the "formless night" his disorientation temporarily intensifies, and "even [Ethan's] sense of direction, and the bay's homing instinct, finally ceased to serve". The narrator's perplexity and bewilderment imply a need to reorient himself, to jolt himself, so to speak, into a perspective that demands clearer sight and more acute insight.

It is at this point that Wharton effects the transition back to the period of Ethan's youth. Although some critics have quarreled with the subjective nature of her narrator's perceptions, there seems little doubt that Wharton intended his narrative to be more than one version of events among others. Accordingly, it is a "vision"; in her 1922 introduction she noted: "Only the narrator has scope to see it all, to resolve it back into simplicity, and to put it in its rightful place among his larger categories. Kent P. Jungquist (Introdution, Barnes & Noble Edition)

Discussion Questions Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips) • Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction • Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)

Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Ethan Frome :

1. Discuss the three characters. Do you find Zeena's shrewishness believable? Does Ethan control his life, or do life's events control him? Is Mattie a sympathetic character or not?

2. Mattie wears red when we readers first see/meet her. What does the red signifiy?

3. Discuss Mattie's and Ethan's decision in the sleigh—an act of desperation, clearly. Is it justified, immoral, unethical, irresponsible? Or the only honorable way out of an untenable situation?

4. Discuss the ending—in what way is it ironic? How do you feel about Ethan's final situation? (See LitCourse 8 on Irony and read Wharton's "Roman Fever"—a short story that packs an ironic wallop at the end.)

( Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks .) top of page (summary)

Book Review: Ethan Frome

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton is a tragic love story between a poor miller with an ailing wife and his wife's cousin. Ethan Frome was a poor sawmill owner who got the mill from his father after he and his mother died. While his parents were on their death bed a girl named Zeena came to help take care of them while Ethan ran the mill. Zeena caught his parents sickness and also fell ill. Ethan did not abandon her, instead, he married her. Not long after their marriage Mattie, Zeena's cousin, came to stay with them after her father death. Mattie and Ethan fell in love though they could not be together because of Zeena. Will Ethan and Mattie ever be together?

I would rate this book a 4 out of 5 because it is a extremely well written classic, though it is kind of slow and very depressing. I would recommend this book to people who like classic romance novels. Grade: 8

Books | The Book Club: “Ethan Frome,” “A Chateau Under…

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Books | broncos unveil new uniforms in first major refresh since 1997, things to do, books | the book club: “ethan frome,” “a chateau under siege” and more reviews from readers, find out which of our reads earned 4 out of 4 stars.

Editor’s note: The opinions of the smart, well-read women in my Denver book club mean a lot, and often determine what the rest of us choose to pile onto our bedside tables. Sure, you could read advertising blurbs on Amazon, but wouldn’t you be more likely to believe a neighbor with no skin in the game over a corporation being fed words by publishers? So in this new series, we are sharing these mini-reviews with you. Have any to offer? Email [email protected].

“Ethan Frome,” by Edith Wharton (1911)

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (Wordsworth Classics, 2005 reprint of 1911 novel)

It’s not often I have such a love-hate relationship with a book as I do with “Ethan Frome.” Love: Wharton packs so much into this novella. Using an anonymous narrator, the structure of the story keeps me wondering. We know the outcome from the beginning, but it’s not until the very end that we know how Ethan became this disabled, broken man. Wharton describes both the natural world and people with finesse, and her writing is stellar: “When I had been there a little longer, and had seen this phase of crystal clearness followed by long stretches of sunless cold; when the storms of February had pitched their white tents about the devoted village and the wild cavalry of March winds had charged down to their support; I began to understand why Starkfield emerged from its six months’ siege like a starved garrison capitulating without quarter.”

Hate: The characters, especially Ethan and Zeena, are not at all likeable. My initial pity (not a particularly endearing emotion) for Ethan gradually turned to contempt. Even sweet Mattie Silver is dim and ineffectual. Yet there are many great characters in literature I can’t say I like, and I don’t read just to find fictitious characters I’d like to befriend. Wharton’s “American tragedy” is just as thought-provoking as Greek tragedy, and I am enriched by the reading. — 3 stars (out of 4); Neva Gronert, Parker

“Long Gone, Come Home,” by Monica Chenault Kilgore (Graydon House)

Set in small-town Kentucky and the big city of Cincinnati and spanning the decades between the Jazz Age and the civil rights movement, this novel focuses on one woman’s search for a better life and her brushes with the underworld along the way. But it is also the story of generations of African American women forced into single motherhood as their partners go missing for longer or shorter spells or even forever, while the women, not knowing the fate of their partners, cycle through anguish, anger, hope and potential forgiveness. Our heroine perseveres, and in the process finds the true meaning of family and home. — 3 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver

“A Chateau Under Siege,” by Martin Walker (Alfred A. Knopf, 2023)

Whenever I want to imagine that I am in France, I reach for one of Martin Walker’s atmospheric chief of police mysteries. Bruno is somewhat of a Renaissance man who lives in the Perigord region of France in the Dordogne Valley. Living on a small farm with his horse Hector and dog Balzac, Bruno is a fabulous cook who always uses fresh ingredients, is a wine expert and is the chief of police of the Vezere Valley in the Perigord region. “A Chateau Under Siege,” Walker’s 16th in the series, does not disappoint. Bruno is drawn into an international scheme when French authorities charge him with

guarding the lives of an extremely wealthy group of microchip innovators and investors. Walker, a former editor of the UPI, weaves his knowledge of current events into the stories, which makes them very topical and has a “ripped-from-the-headlines” feel. Bruno is in over his head but comports himself well, with an ease and charm that is very French. A delightful read! — 3 stars (out of 4); Susan Tracy, Denver

“A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains,” by Isabella L. Bird (Digireads.com Publishing, 2019)

Isabella Bird puts paid to the notion that women in the 1800s lacked adventuring spirit. First published as a serial in 1879, Bird — the nineteenth-century traveler, writer and historian — left Britain in 1872, going to remote locations around the world and winding up in Colorado. Her time in Estes Park with a “dear desperado” mountain man as companion entrances and inspires. She never stopped breaking society’s dictates and continued pursuing her passions throughout her life and convinces the reader that the more things or women change, the more they stay the same. — 4 stars (out of 4); Bonnie McCune (bonniemccune.com)

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On the Shelf

The Smash-Up

By Ali Benjamin Random House: 352 pages, $27 If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org , whose fees support independent bookstores.

Just in case you’ve forgotten (or possibly blocked out) that semester in high school or college when you read Edith Wharton’s 1911 novella “ Ethan Frome ,” here is a brief refresher: During a desolate New England winter, a stoic, unhappy man, Ethan, yearns to leave his domineering wife, Zenobia (or Zeena ), for her cousin Mattie, who has been living with the couple as Zeena’s aide. After financial circumstances and propriety prevent Ethan and Mattie from running away together, they attempt double suicide by crashing their sled into a tree, so they’d “never have to leave each other any more.” Spoiler alert: The “smash-up,” as it’s referred to, permanently injures Ethan and leaves Mattie paralyzed, bitter and forever dependent on Zeena.

As I reread “Ethan Frome” in preparation for this review, I found myself admiring Wharton’s sumptuous descriptions and her ability to infuse every moment with a sense of inexorable tragedy. But I also wondered: Who the hell would want to retell this story in a contemporary setting?

This is exactly what Ali Benjamin has done with “ The Smash-Up ,” which takes Wharton’s bleak, turn-of-the-century dirge and updates it to the equally bleak Trump era. It’s September 2018, the Senate is holding a hearing on Brett Kavanaugh ’s nomination to the Supreme Court, and Ethan and Zenobia (“Zo”) Frome and their exasperating 11-year-old daughter, Alex, navigate life in Starkfield, Mass.

Drama abounds. The marketing firm Ethan cofounded faces financial ruin due to the sexual misconduct of his former business partner. Zo, a freelance documentary filmmaker, struggles with her latest project while conspiring with her coven, a women’s group called All Them Witches, to protest Kavanaugh’s misogyny. Maddy, the Fromes’ live-in nanny, earns extra money as a cam girl via a gig site called Ten Spot. Alex, prescribed Adderall for an ADD diagnosis, is on the verge of expulsion from her expensive alternative private school. This is white liberal America writ large.

BETHESDA, MD - OCTOBER 5, 2020 : Washington Post reporter Carlos Lozada has read over 150 books on Donald Trump. Lozada’s book “What Were We Thinking: A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era" is a compendium of 150 books on a man we already know too much about. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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As Benjamin wrangles her characters into straits of heightened topicality, she focuses, like Wharton, exclusively on Ethan’s point of view. Through him, we see a culture mired in bewildering metamorphoses about which he remains deeply suspicious. “It’s all outrage these days,” he thinks. “An infinite loop of outrage.” Even in his youth, in the ’90s, he centered himself in the global narrative, seeing the world as unreasonably demanding: “Is he going to have to continue learning the meanings for things, shedding old selves for new, like some sort of molting snake, forever? Does he ever get to simply be?”

The novel nods toward a lot of hot buttons — transphobia, rape culture, hot takes, the whole post-truth smorgasbord — without ever really pushing any. Ethan is meant to typify male fragility but also — as the only character given full interiority — to earn our sympathies (or at least our interest). It is a difficult balancing act, and at times the scales tip toward villainy, as when Ethan crankily dismisses his wife for calling a customer service hotline: “Perhaps the company just advertised on the wrong television show, some cable news outlet whose host said something terrible, or at least clumsily, and someone tweeted it, and now the company’s 1-800 number is fielding furious calls from all over the country.” His disdain can wear out the tolerance of anyone who doesn’t care to spend hours thinking about “ cancel culture ” one way or the other. Is this really fertile ground for political fiction? Ethan’s not quite a straw man, but occasionally you can’t help thinking: If he only had a brain.

Book jacket for Ali Benjamin's novel "The Smash-Up"

Benjamin litters the novel with heaps of literary allusions and references: Austen, Beckett, Proust, Gogol, Eliot, Rand, Melville, Shakespeare, Stein, Frost, Nabokov, Updike, Wallace, Flaubert — this is a partial list. She is as interested in these authors as she is in Wharton. In fact, one might wonder how Benjamin landed on her particular source text. Couldn’t she engage with all these subjects and allusions and insights without remaking a well-read classic?

The answer to this question is also what makes the novel — for the most part — succeed. It is not the transposition of that well-trod narrative and its character types that compels; it is the contrast sharpened in the act. Wharton’s world is isolated, stifling and dire, and the political implications of her characters’ choices are subtextual. In the polarized, interconnected present of Benjamin’s novel, everything is expressly political, even the ostensibly apolitical.

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What this shift sacrifices in symbolic subtlety, it earns back in emotional depth. Wharton’s Zeena remains until the end of “Ethan Frome” a tyrannical spouse whose chronic illnesses are constantly dismissed as hypochondria. Benjamin’s Zo begins in a similar predicament but her human complexities emerge by the end. Ethan too is given not one obstacle to confront but a complex web of them. Like Wharton’s Ethan, he deals with his attraction to a much younger woman who lives in his house, but he also struggles with his daughter’s academic struggles, his business emergency, his stalled career, his suburban neighborhood overrun with wealthy New York expatriates and his withering marriage. Benjamin doesn’t remake “Ethan Frome” so much as she contends with it. “The Smash-Up” is an homage and a critique.

Perhaps the most effective update comes in the conclusion. Benjamin subverts Wharton’s notorious ending in a way that doesn’t just surprise; it complicates. The finale diverges in numerous ways, but one is crucial: who causes the smash-up. In Wharton’s narrative, the effects of a puritanical society work on the characters in spite of their isolation, and the violence is self-inflicted. In “The Smash-Up,” everything seems to be happening to the characters. The violence here is terrorism, and the culprit an incel type whose act ties the narrative into a neat bow, a kind of douche ex machina. It’s an astute commentary on the differences between Wharton’s time and ours, but it also lets the Fromes off a bit lightly. A reader unfamiliar with the source material will inevitably miss out on some of these distinctions, but that’s the price an author pays for literary cosplay.

Some of the novel’s approaches to politics are a bit clumsy or obvious, but that’s often in the nature of political observations: clumsy, obvious truths that are not any less true because they don’t sound original or profound. “The Smash-Up’s” political scope can only make out blurry figures beyond the usual truisms about masculinity and white feminism, but for a narrative focused on its characters’ political and personal myopia, these limitations feel appropriate. Because another unremarkable truth is that all our perspectives are limited; the remarkable tragedy is that these are precisely the limitations we are unable to see.

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COMMENTS

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
127,412 ratings7,545 reviews. The classic novel of despair, forbidden emotions, and sexual undercurrents set against the austere New England countryside. Ethan Frome works his unproductive farm and struggles to maintain a bearable existence with his difficult, suspicious and hypochondriac wife, Zeena. But when Zeena's vivacious cousin enters ...
Festive re-reads: Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
It is a snow globe of a story, its characters held in stasis until someone new comes along to shake it up, setting the past swirling again. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (Penguin Books Ltd, £6.99 ...
Review: Ethan Frome
Wharton's fourth novel, Ethan Frome was published in 1911, and despite being described by American literary critic Lionel Trilling as a book lacking in moral or ethical significance, it remains one of Wharton's most popular. Set against a hugely atmospheric winter backdrop, the novel tells the tale of failing farmer Ethan Frome and the love ...
Readers' Review: "Ethan Frome" by Edith Wharton
When Edith Wharton's novel "Ethan Frome" was first published in 1911, reviews were largely negative. Critics called the story cruel and violent and sales of the novel were dismal. Today, Edith Wharton's haunting tale of forbidden romance in a rural New England town is her most widely-read novel. An Unusual Novel For Wharton.
Edith Wharton: Ethan Frome
Ethan Frome begins with a framing device. The narrator has recently moved to Starkfield, Massachusetts, and has noticed a broken figure of a man sometimes going about his business in the streets. This man is Ethan Frome, fifty-two years old. Bit by bit the narrator learns Ethan's history — some disfiguring event happened to Ethan one ...
Book Review: Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Despite having finished Ethan Frome a good fortnight or so ago now, Im still haunted by this book, and suspect that I will be for a long time to come. If youre after a read thats relentlessly desultory but that is, despite its inherent emo-ness, worthy of your emotional investment, then pick up a copy of this book, and read it straight through.
Ethan Frome: Study Guide
Overview. Ethan Frome, a novel published in 1911 by Edith Wharton, is a tragic love story set in the fictional town of Starkfield, Massachusetts. The story revolves around the eponymous character, Ethan Frome, a struggling farmer trapped in a loveless marriage to his sickly and embittered wife, Zeena. When Zeena's cousin, Mattie Silver, comes ...
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (1911)
Ethan Frome was by and large critically acclaimed when it was published, and has since become a staple in classrooms. An original review in the San Francisco Call from the year the book was published, following, sketches the outline of this classic novella.. . . . . . . . . . Somber and Beautiful Quotes from Ethan Frome. . . . . . . . . . . A ...
Book Review
Book review - Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. 181 pages, Paperback. First published January 1, 1911. In this superb novella 'Ethan frome' by Edith Wharton, a man arrives in Starkfield, Massachusetts and is intrigued by the figure of Ethan Frome, a man of whom the townsfolk say little. Later, the man is forced to spend the night in the Frome ...
ETHAN FROME by Edith Wharton
Piecing together the story of monosyllabic Ethan Frome, his grim wife, Zeena, and Mattie Silver, her charming cousin, Wharton explores psychological longing, resentment, passion.First published in 1911, the novella stunned its public with its consummate handling of the unfolding drama, and has remained for many readers the most compelling and ...
Ethan Frome Study Guide
In writing Ethan Frome, Wharton was greatly influenced by Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, Robert Browning's The Ring and the Book and Balzac's short story "La Grande Bretèche," from which she drew her narrative method, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Blithedale Romance, from which Zeena's name is taken (Ethan's name was based on another Hawthorne character, Ethan Brand), and John Keats' poem ...
Ethan Frome
Ethan Frome is a 1911 book by American author Edith Wharton. It details the story of a man who falls in love with his wife's cousin and the tragedies which result from the ensuing love triangle. The novel has been adapted into a film of the same name. Plot. An unnamed male narrator spending a winter in Starkfield, Massachusetts spots a limping ...
Ethan Frome and Summer by Edith Wharton
Ethan Frome is (as 1001 Books says) about sexual frustration and moral despair. Like Summer, it's set in a turn-of-the-century New England farming community, or what we might less charitably call the backblocks i.e. impoverished rural communities characterised by limited opportunity and populated by people with little education or wider ...
Ethan Frome: Full Book Summary
Ethan Frome Full Book Summary. Finding himself laid up in the small New England town of Starkfield for the winter, the narrator sets out to learn about the life of a mysterious local named Ethan Frome, who had a tragic accident some twenty years earlier. After questioning various locals with little result, the narrator finally comes to learn ...
Ethan Frome (Wharton)
Ethan Frome appeared six years later, solidifying Wharton's reputation as an important novelist. Often in the company of her close friend, Henry James, Wharton mingled with some of the most famous writers and artists of the day, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, André Gide, Sinclair Lewis, Jean Cocteau, and Jack London. ... Book Reviews Wharton's ...
Book Review: Ethan Frome
Review. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton is a tragic love story between a poor miller with an ailing wife and his wife's cousin. Ethan Frome was a poor sawmill owner who got the mill from his father after he and his mother died. While his parents were on their death bed a girl named Zeena came to help take care of them while Ethan ran the mill.
The Book Club: "Ethan Frome," "A Chateau Under Siege" and more reviews
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (Wordsworth Classics, 2005 reprint of 1911 novel) It's not often I have such a love-hate relationship with a book as I do with "Ethan Frome.". Love: Wharton ...
Book Review: Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton is a very old classic novel first published in 1911. It's a small novel at 77 pages in my copy but it left a huge impression on me. So much so that I'm looking into reading more of Edith Wharton's novels for the Classics Challenge over at Trish's Reading Nook. If they are as well written as this one I've found myself a favorite author.
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton: 9781101554883
Ethan Frome is a poor farmer, trapped in a marriage to a demanding and controlling wife, Zeena. When Zeena's young cousin Mattie enters their household she opens a window of hope in Ethan's bleak life, but his wife's reaction prompts a desperate attempt to escape fate that goes horribly wrong. Ethan Frome is an unforgettable story with ...
Ethan Frome
Charles Scribner, 1922 - Accident victims - 180 pages. This is a tragic 19th century love story. The main characters are Ethan Frome, his wife Zenobia, called Zeena, and her young cousin Mattie Silver. Frome and Zeena marry after she nurses his mother in her last illness. Although Frome seems ambitious and intelligent, Zeena holds him back.
Ethan Frome
Edith Wharton. Scribner's sons, 1970 - American fiction - 181 pages. The classic novel of despair, forbidden emotions, and sexual undercurrents set against the austere New England countryside. Ethan Frome works his unproductive farm and struggles to maintain a bearable existence with his difficult, suspicious and hypochondriac wife, Zeena.
Review: Ali Benjamin's 'The Smash-Up' updates 'Ethan Frome'
Benjamin doesn't remake "Ethan Frome" so much as she contends with it. "The Smash-Up" is an homage and a critique. Perhaps the most effective update comes in the conclusion. Benjamin ...
Review: Ethan Frome
I could feel the cold seeping into my bones as I read this book. It wasn't just the cold of the New England winter, but the sense of a lack of life, a lack of vibrancy in the eponymous character and his household. The pages in my copy are marked (in pencil of course) all the way through, to highlight wonderfully-crafted sentences. Such as: