Ethan Frome

Written by Edith Wharton

Narrated by C.M. Hebert

Ethan Frome is a keenly etched portrait of the simple inhabitants of a nineteenth-century New England village. Ethan, a gaunt, patient New Englander, is a man tormented by a passionate love for his wife’s young cousin. His desperate quest for happiness ultimately leads to pain and despair.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blackstone Audio
• Release date: Jan 1, 2006
• ISBN: 9780786105878

Edith Wharton

EDITH WHARTON (1862 - 1937) was a unique and prolific voice in the American literary canon. With her distinct sense of humor and knowledge of New York’s upper-class society, Wharton was best known for novels that detailed the lives of the elite including: The House of Mirth, The Custom of Country, and The Age of Innocence. She was the first woman to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and one of four women whose election to the Academy of Arts and Letters broke the barrier for the next generation of women writers.

Reviews for Ethan Frome

[k6gst · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Louis Auchincloss, a favorite of mine, thought very highly of Edith Wharton, and wrote a short biography. They were from the same world, though separated by a couple of generations. I found this charmer about doomed, wasted lives, forbidden passion, and deathwish tobogganing in the bleakest patch of late 19th century New England to be more fun when I read the dialogue aloud in an old-timey Yankee accent. The ending is a bang-up twist. I enjoyed it, but I’m ready to read about rich people’s problems again.

[charlie68_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Dark and shadowy and full of foreboding. Predictable near the end, but the epilogue isn't.

[cavernism · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I reread this because I read it in high school and HATED it. It is a big ball of misery - I wanted to read it again, partially because I wanted to see if knowing how depressing it is going into it would make it a better read. And it did - it's really well-written story. But also now I need something extremely cheerful to read...

[booklover3258 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's Tiny Book Tuesday! This gem is part of the 1001 books to read before you die list. I absolutely loved this book from beginning to end. It's about a married couple whose wife's cousin comes to live with them. The husband falls madly in love with the cousin but keeps it secret from everyone. I did not see the ending coming and was shocked! Very sad indeed.

[n.w.moors-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Ethan Frome is a classic. I don't remember ever reading it though I saw the movie with Liam Neeson and Patricia Arquette a long time ago. Both of my sons love this book and talk about it frequently. The younger one mentioned it recently, and I decided to give it a read. Ethan Frome is married to Zeena, a hypochondriac. They're very poor but have taken in Zeena's cousin Mattie Silver to help Zeena around the house. Mattie is everything Zeena isn't; she's young and a breath of fresh air in Ethan's life.This book is deservedly a classic. The pacing of the plot is excellent with the beginning and end told by a third-party narrator and the main story told as it happened. The setting is western Massachusetts in the small fictional town of Starkfield, and the author captures the scenery and time period well. The dialogue fits, and the ending is a surprise. I'm glad they encouraged me to read this book. It truly is a must-read.

[gabarito-3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I adored this book as a teenager, I remember it extremely vividly. I wonder what I would think of it 20 years later, I want to re-read this soon.

[narshkite · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I read this to satisfy a Book Riot Read Harder Challenge: Read a book you were assigned and hated or did not finish. Positive Bonnie thought "You hated Faulkner in college and have come to love his work, maybe the same will happen for Ethan Frome." Positive me is feeling mighty disappointed because this is straight up shit. The book is far worse than I remembered. The first half is nothing but unbelievably boring people doing mundane things. Think Big Brother without the possibility of sex. The story is so loaded with symbolism (oh the barren cold!) that I get why high school teachers love it as a teaching tool, but for the common reader it is ridiculous. The second half pivots into nauseating melodrama acted out by people who, until the very moment of DRAMA suffered from clinically flat affect. Suddenly they long for one another in a manner common among 12 year old girls and those diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and launch themselves into a tragic final act that made me laugh so hard I almost gave the book another star for bringing the (clearly unintentional) fun. You will never look at pairs sledding the same again.

[melissalenhardt · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I'm sure if I read this as part if a class and could discuss the symbolism, over arching themes and foreshadowing I would have enjoyed Ethan Frome more. As it is, I just thought it was depressing and a little shallow. But, hey, I read the entire book in a few hours so at least I didn't waste a bunch of time on it. For that reason, and I like Edith Wharton, it gets three stars.

[stevetempo_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Most excellent!...her style is unmatched...my second favorite of the three of her books I have read so far....Age of Innocence is No. 1

[rainpebble_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton; (5*); VMC; the Classics; New England; (dark); VIRAGO MONTHLY AUTHOR READ; (1911)One of Wharton's very best, if not her best! The story is about the seamier side of life and what can happen in a cold clime when one makes a snap decision. Sometimes one ends up paying for that second in time for the remainder of their lives. This is a wonderful, but dark, Wharton novel. Very intense and very good. Highly recommended.

[rattycore · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great book, sad, read in one sitting, page turner.

[tess_w · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Hauntingly sad and beautifully written describes Root #89, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. This reminds me of the works of George Eliot and Thomas Hardy. It is the story of Ethan Frome and his icecube of a wife, Zeena, who is also a hypchondriac. Zeena's cousin, Mattie, comes to live in and help and of course she is verbally abused by Zeena. This abuse and neglect draw Ethan and Mattie together. Zeena notices the attraction and sends Mattie off. ""The inexorable facts closed in on him like a prison-warder handcuffing a convict. There was no way out—none. He was a prisoner for life, and now his one ray of light was to be extinguished." The story is told as a flashback, 24 years in the past and takes place in the brutal northeast of Massachusetts. This may be the best book I've read thus far in 2017!

[justjukka · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed invasive oral surgery more than I enjoyed reading this book. All three of them, actually. The first one made me rather sick, due to the general anesthesia. At least the dentist provided anesthetics during the procedure. There was nothing dulling the pain of reading this book. It should NOT be on the required reading list for any high school.

[majesdane-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love it; the prose is beautiful. Everyone I've ever met seems to hate this book. It's Wharton's most famous book. Make of that what you will.

[voracia · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

For more book reviews and other posts of interest to readers and writers, please visit my blog, Voracia: Goddess of Words.Ethan Frome is set in Starkfield, Massachusettes, where everything is very stark indeed. Much of the story also takes place in the winter, when the New England town is covered in snow and bitter cold. At the heart of the story is, of course, Ethan Frome: a farmer living in the early 1900's who has been dealt a bad lot in life. He had been living away from Starkfield, at college, studying to become an engineer, when his father died and he had to return home to the family farm to care for his ailing mother, Zenobia. He ends up marrying Zeena, the nurse who took care of his mother, more out of duty and gratefulness than love or passion. Before long Zeena becomes a hypochondriac, inventing illnesses and perpetually seeking possible cures for them. Into this depressing scene steps Mattie, who is quite the breath of fresh air for Ethan. A distant relative—-she was the daughter of Zenobia’s cousin-—Mattie's father had squandered all of the family’s money, a fact which was only revealed after his death. Mattie’s mother apparently dies of the shock and shame, leaving Mattie a penniless orphan. Zeena’s doctor suggests that Zeena find someone to help with the household chores, so Mattie comes to Starkfield to do just that, and also ends up winning Ethan’s heart.The story is so depressingly tragic that at times I wanted to stop reading it. But it was like watching a scary movie or sitting down on a roller-coaster: you want to stop, kind of, but you also want to keep going. The story starts out by revealing that Ethan was in a freak accident, and then goes back in time, so you know things don’t end up well. The entire feel of the book is incredibly ominous and its pace marches you right on from the sweet tale of a simple and down-on-his-luck farmer who falls in love with a young, care-free girl, to the bad ending you know is coming. The language is simple and no-nonsense, yet it alternatively scares you like Stephen King and pulls on your heart strings like Jane Austen. There’s a scene near the beginning in which Ethan has gone to pick Mattie up from a barn dance that puts you right there in the middle of their budding relationship, which is technically illicit and wrong, but feels so right that you find yourself rooting for them, even though you know it will end horribly. Ethan watches Mattie dancing, yearning for both Mattie herself and the simple innocence and hopefulness of youth, which is long-lost for him. When the dance ends, a young boy flirts with Mattie and offers her a ride home, and Ethan thinks that soon Mattie will get married and leave him. Yet, she is so surprised and happy that he is there to pick her up, and she reassures him that she’s not going anywhere. The tone of the relationship between Ethan and Mattie is light-hearted, casual and happy, in the middle of this otherwise entirely depressing book. Despite its tragic subject matter, Ethan Frome is a gem of a book I plan to re-read again and again. I also want to read more of Wharton’s work. This is the first book I’ve read by her and I know that most of the rest of her works deal with the upper class New York society from which she came. I don’t know how she can write so well about a poor New England farmer, so I can only imagine what she writes about those characters that comprise her own element. I give Ethan Frome four and a half stars and highly recommend it to anyone. For more book reviews and other posts of interest to readers and writers, please visit my blog, Voracia: Goddess of Words.

[jennysbookbag.com · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm not an Edith Wharton fan, but I enjoyed this. Nice ending.

[addictedtomorphemes · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Ethan Frome by Edith WhartonBlackstone Audio, narrated by C.M. HebertI think this may have been Wharton's warning to her readers to avoid making a hasty decision on whom you will marry. Avoid the shrews! Ethan Frome was the most handsome man in his little town of Starkfield, Massachusetts. He was a quiet man with dreams of becoming an engineer. He thought running his father's farm would be temporary, but he was devoted to caring for his ailing parents before they died. He received help one winter from a woman named Zeena; and once both parents were gone, Ethan realized he had gotten used to her and asked her to stay. They married and shortly after, she started evidencing what surely must have been hypochondria (and general laziness). Her days were spent lying in bed with her false teeth in a glass, complaining about her symptoms, and working Ethan to the bone to provide for her. When Ethan was 28 and Zeena 35, they took in Zeena's cousin, Mattie Silver. She was to help with the household chores and whatever else Zeena desired. She was there for about a year when Ethan started becoming quietly fascinated by her happiness and vibrancy--such a polar opposite from his wife and his life in general. Zeena notices, and we witness what transpires from her jealousy, manipulation, and mean-spiritedness. Ethan has been given one difficulty after another in his life and takes it on the chin. You can't help but wish for him to be pulled from his life's downward spiral and have his brief moments of hope for a different life to be fulfilled.

[lkernagh · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is my first Wharton read, which was recommended by a couple of other readers here on LT as something I could easily fit into my October reading plans. One of the things I really liked about this one is Wharton's ability to paint a realistic picture of a northern winter in a small farming community where life can be a hard scrabble and everyone knows - or thinks they know - everyone else's business. Wharton has the ability to tell a story in straightforward language, almost with a meagerness of descriptive prose, as if she was writing in a manner to reflect the bleak the New England winter landscape of its setting. The book is described as being "a powerful tale with compelling characters trapped in circumstances they seem unable to escape." From a strictly character analysis perspective, I am not quite sure I wholly agree with that statement. For me, Mattie is nothing more than a vehicle - and a bit of an air-headed one at that - to drive the story forward. Ethan has his interesting aspects but I found him to be limited, and not just by his circumstances. It is really Zeena who I found to be the most compelling of these three characters and I found myself pondering over her character more than the other two. Overall, a great introduction for me to Wharton's writing style and I will be adding more of her books to my future reading list.

[jnwelch_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Hard to believe Ethan Frome was written by the same author as Age of Innocence. This 1911 novel is set in the New England town of Starkfield. Farmer Ethan is the physically twisted survivor of a mysterious "smash-up" many years prior, and through the narration of a man who comes to know him, we find out what happened. Ethan has a difficult, hypochondriac wife, and unfulfilled dreams of becoming an engineer. Poverty dogs their life. When a young girl relative is sent to help around their house, Ethan feels romantic stirrings and reminders of what his life might have been. The "stark" story and its outcome are haunting. A compelling and sobering read.

[gracez-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I thought this book was... well, very well-written, and all of that good stuff. Unfortunately, I didn't read it through, I read it in about 3 sections, with a few hectic days of interruption in between.

However, I can say that my expectations were not disappointed, and that I really like the characters - they are not entirely likeable. Mattie is naive and Ethan is somewhat weak, first for marrying Zeena for all the wrong reasons and then for what happens in the rest of the book. But then, it wouldn't be any good if it was your stereotypical hero...

And the book ends very well. I was rather impressed with the epilogue-style last chapter.

[maryreinert · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love this story which I've read over the years. As a high school student it made an impression as I saw the results of an unfulfilled life; a life of self imposed narrowness. In a strange way it taught me to take advantage of opportunities. Reading it again years later, the sadness is even more profound. How many lives have been spent in self-created misery. So often unspoken words have a greater affect on lives than those that are uttered. A great piece of writing.

[kraysaulis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this because so many people had told me how horribly depressing it was. True, this is not a happy story, but if you can get beyond that and look at it for literary merit it is beautiful. Every emotion is perfectly and miserably described. It is a perfect depiction of a heart-breaking situation.

[benuathanasia · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

So, yeah...I can safely say I have no idea why anyone likes this. Not a damn thing of any interest happened. It's about an "affair" (though not much more beyond affectionate feelings happen). As a former high school English language arts teacher, I can easily see how "classics" like this can kill a student's potential enjoyment of literature. It was just ridiculously mediocre.

[adonisguilfoyle · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I decided to download this novel because a character in my favourite film refers to it as 'a horrible book' that should be taken off the curriculum; apart from that, I was only on nodding acquaintance with the title. Though depressing, Ethan Frome is not a horrible book - stark, yes, but also evocative and powerful. (My nomination for the 'Horrible Book' award goes to Moby Dick.) Opening with a pointless narrator like Wuthering Heights, Frome's Yorkshire stable mate, Ethan Frome tells the story of a miserable husband so frustrated that he drives himself and the object of his affections into a tree. Personally, I would have strapped the wife to the sleigh, but then none of the characters are perfect. Ethan is weak, Zeena manipulative, and Mattie immature. Still, I was hoping for a more satisfying ending, or at least an escape route for Ethan, but hey ho.

[jmoncton_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ethan Frome is a man trapped in a loveless marriage to a bitter and miserable woman. His wife, Zenobia, always complaining about her imagined illnesses, sends for a poor cousin, Mattie, to help out in the house and care for her. Ethan falls in love with Mattie and is given the difficult choice of finding love and happiness in an immoral relationship with Mattie, or following society's conventions and spending the rest of his life, as a miserable hen-pecked husband.

Although this story is short, it immediately captivated me. Told as a flashback from a stranger who Ethan helps out in a cold winter storm, there is a constant sense of foreboding. I listened to this as an audiobook, read by George Guidall - excellent narration. Although this story is short, there is one scene from this book that will stay with me always (no spoilers here though...).

[tjsjohanna_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A classic tragedy - a man who pays too dearly for his impulses and who has the best of himself stamped out by the unkindness of those who should have loved him best.

[melumebelle-1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

He whines too much. >__<'

[bexaplex · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ethan Frome is House of Mirth made over with a male protagonist and a rural backdrop. Wharton's Starkfield (!) has become the literary epitome of wintry hardscrabble New England. Like Lily Bart, Ethan chooses freedom and happiness. He wants to pay for that choice with his death, but instead pays for it with his life.

[eadieb-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ethan Frome is a story with a tragic ending. It expresses the power of love and how far one will go for love. Even though Ethan is married, his love for Mattie Silver causes the two to partake in an unthinkable act. Edith Wharton uses this theme, illicit love to present "a drama of irresistible necessity." The emotion of Mattie and Ethan was very evident and could be felt by the reader. It's hard to believe that anything so classic could be such a page turner. This novel is recommended for anyone who wants to read a short, simple love story.

[epictale · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Bottom line: "Ethan Frome" (EF) is a kick-ass great book. My son (a Wharton fan) suggested it as an introduction to Wharton's writing, but cautioned that it was a glum tale. Even reading the book while living alone in chilly northern Japan last winter, I felt mesmerized by the quality of Wharton's writing and her sympathetic tone. The story was very compelling, the main characters all seemed plausible and worthy of sympathy, and the agony of unrequited passion between Ethan and Mattie felt palpable. Maybe I am naive...but, for me, the ending was a great surprise. It pleased and saddened me. Finally, the author's masterful and confident prose floored me as well. Not to sound like a pedantic twit, but Wharton's use of semicolon constructions struck me as unusually impactful and exemplary.