Penguin Classics presents Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome, adapted for audio and available as a digital download as part of the Penguin English Library series. Read by Nathan Osgood. 'He seemed a part of the mute melancholy landscape, an incarnation of its frozen woe, with all that was warm and sentient in him fast bound below the surface' 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 ...
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Penguin Classics presents Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome, adapted for audio and available as a digital download as part of the Penguin English Library series. Read by Nathan Osgood. 'He seemed a part of the mute melancholy landscape, an incarnation of its frozen woe, with all that was warm and sentient in him fast bound below the surface' 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 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 towards their tragic destinies. Part of a series of vintage recordings taken from the Penguin Archives. Affordable, collectable, quality productions - perfect for on-the-go listening.
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Add this copy of Ethan Frome to cart. $4.82, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2018 by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.
Add this copy of Ethan Frome to cart. $4.82, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2018 by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.
Add this copy of Ethan Frome to cart. $4.82, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2018 by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.
Add this copy of Ethan Frome to cart. $4.92, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2009 by Penguin Publishing Group.
Add this copy of Ethan Frome to cart. $4.94, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2021 by Mint Editions.
Add this copy of Ethan Frome to cart. $4.98, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2017 by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.
Add this copy of Ethan Frome to cart. $5.06, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2017 by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.
Add this copy of Ethan Frome to cart. $5.14, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2018 by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.
Add this copy of Ethan Frome to cart. $5.54, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2017 by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.
Add this copy of Ethan Frome to cart. $5.54, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2017 by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.
Many years ago, I read Edith Wharton's (1862 -- 1937) novella "Ethan Frome" (1911), and in the intervening years read other novels set among the rich by this well-born American author including "The Age of Innocence" and "The House of Mirth". I have always remembered the sadness of "Ethan Frome", a story of poor New Englanders, and its climactic sled ride. I recently reread "Ethan Frome" to be moved again by the emotion of the story of doomed, forbidden love set in small town Massachusetts late in the 19th century. The edition of the book I read includes an Afterword by critic Alfred Kazin who writes: "No reader can escape the emotional force of "Ethan Frome", the heartbreak of what the great New England poet Robert Frost, working the same regional cry of frustration, called 'finalities beside the grave'."
The story is made by its writing style with Wharton's depictions of the chill of the New England air, the poor, struggling farms, the hills, the frustrated lives of people wanting but unable to leave. The austerity of the surroundings contrasts with and enhances the repressed passion of the tale, which moves forward with an air of inevitability to its tragic climax and denouement. The story is a love triangle involving Ethan Frome, his wife Zeena, and Zeena's cousin Mattie. Frome, 28 when the story begins, is a struggling small farmer who has given up his dreams of education to take care of his dying mother. Zeena, 35, had assisted in the care and Frome feels duty-bound to marry. Zeena is also hypochondriacal, controlling and domineering. When Zeena's cousin Mattie, comes to live on the farm to help out without pay, the stage is set.
Young men in the (fictitious) town of Starksville woo the lovely, flirtatious Mattie. But a simmering romance develops between Mattie and Ethan under the very eyes of Zeena who may or may not fully realize what is happening. When Zeena at last sends Mattie away, the heartbroken Ethan cannot bring himself to leave his wife, and the situation seems lost. The novel builds in tension to an unforgettable moment of love and death followed by long lives of bitterness and bleakness for the three protagonists.
A highly emotive, tragic work, "Ethan Frome" hit me when I read it years ago, and did so again upon rereading. It is a story told by a great American writer of harshness, illicit love, and repressed human needs.
Robin Friedman
Linda
Feb 14, 2014
Great Read.Romance, Tragedy
This is a classic which is still used today in many psychology classes. A romance in marriage gone wrong. Another woman? This has all the twist to make it a great read. It has an ending like no other! No, you cannot guess the ending.
PeachTea
Mar 10, 2009
Zzz
I supposed I was biased against this book since I had to read it for a class, but found it dull and depressing. The characters were 2-D and there was little time for development. The story itself held an interesting (if worn) concept, but Wharton didn't do much /with/ it. I decided I felt more sorry for Ethan's wife than anything else, and that was about all this book made me feel or think. I wouldn't advise you to spend your time on it.
