Edith Wharton (born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 - August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper class New York "aristocracy" to realistically portray the lives and morals of the Gilded Age. In 1921, she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1996. Despite not publishing her first novel until she was forty, Wharton became an extraordinarily ...
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Edith Wharton (born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 - August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper class New York "aristocracy" to realistically portray the lives and morals of the Gilded Age. In 1921, she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1996. Despite not publishing her first novel until she was forty, Wharton became an extraordinarily productive writer. In addition to her 15 novels, seven novellas, and eighty-five short stories, she published poetry, books on design, travel, literary and cultural criticism, and a memoir. In 1873, Wharton wrote a short story and gave it to her mother to read. Her mother criticized the story, so Wharton decided to just write poetry. While she constantly sought her mother's approval and love, it was rare that she received either. From the start, the relationship with her mother was a troubled one. Before she was 15, she wrote Fast and Loose (1877). In her youth, she wrote about society. Her central themes came from her experiences with her parents. She was very critical of her work and wrote public reviews criticizing it. She also wrote about her own experiences with life. "Intense Love's Utterance" is a poem written about Henry Stevens. In 1901, Wharton wrote a two-act play called Man of Genius. This play was about an English man who was having an affair with his secretary. The play was rehearsed but was never produced. Another 1901 play, The Shadow of a Doubt, which also came close to being staged but fell through, was thought to be lost, until it was discovered in 2017. Its world premiere was a radio adaptation broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 2018. She collaborated with Marie Tempest to write another play, but the two only completed four acts before Marie decided she was no longer interested in costume plays. One of her earliest literary endeavors (1902) was the translation of the play, Es Lebe das Leben ("The Joy of Living"), by Hermann Sudermann. The Joy of Living was criticized for its name because the heroine swallows poison at the end, and was a short-lived Broadway production. It was, however, a successful book. Many of Wharton's novels are characterized by subtle use of dramatic irony. Having grown up in upper-class, late-19th-century society, Wharton became one of its most astute critics, in such works as The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence. (wikipedia.org)
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Add this copy of Ethan Frome to cart. $13.03, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2020 by Bibliotech Press.
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Add this copy of Ethan Frome to cart. $54.46, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Santa Clarita, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2020 by Bibliotech Press.
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.
