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Ethan Frome

Name: Ethan Frome
Author: Edith Wharton
ISBN: 9781554810178

by Edith Wharton, Carol Singley (Editor)

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Overview

Of her twenty-five novels and novellas, Ethan Frome is the one of which Edith Wharton was most proud. In the novel, young Ethan Frome marries Zeena Pierce, who is seven years his senior, after she nurses Ethan's mother through a terminal illness. When Zeena also turns sickly, she invites her cousin Mattie Silver to live in and help with household chores. Ethan and Mattie fall in love, and Zeena, aware of their attraction, decides to send Mattie away. A desperate Ethan cannot bear the thought of letting Mattie go, but neither can he escape with her. The couple decide upon a course of action designed to ensure that they remain together, but the plan falters and all three characters are left to suffer its nightmarish consequences.
Historically viewed as a high society writer or novelist of manners, Wharton is now receiving her due as an astute chronicler and critic of American life who brought literary realism to new levels and helped to usher in a new period of modernist innovation. This Broadview Edition demonstrates that Ethan Frome is not an anomaly in Wharton's career, but a natural outgrowth of her interest in the interplay of individual and society.

About the Author, Edith Wharton

Carol Singley is Professor of English at Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey. A past president of the Edith Wharton Society, she has published several books on Wharton.

Biography

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, (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.

Author biography from the Barnes & Noble Classics edition of The Age of Innocence.

Good To Know

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.

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Editorials

Irene Goldman-Price

"The Broadview Ethan Frome is that rare edition of a classic that will satisfy everyone. Carol Singley's comprehensive and beautifully-crafted introduction invites readers to consider deeply the themes and contexts of the novel. The collection of reviews, criticism, and contemporary commentary on health, marriage, masculinity, suicide, and other relevant issues will intrigue readers for its own sake and will enrich their understanding of the 'envelope of circumstance' in which Ethan Frome was written and has been read. This is a worthy addition to the Wharton canon."

Gary Totten

"Carol Singley's fine edition of Ethan Frome provides a detailed introduction to the novel's main themes and contexts, helpful explanatory notes throughout the text, and a useful bibliography for further reading. The range of secondary materials is excellent and highlights various aesthetic concerns, including the novel's reception and its relationship to modernist literary technique, as well as its engagement with classic and modern definitions of tragedy. The novel's cultural contexts are illuminated by materials focusing on health and fitness; sexuality, marriage, and divorce; suicide; and technological progress and economic issues in New England and the broader U.S. The edition also contains a judicious selection of correspondence revealing Wharton's thoughts on issues such as marriage and relationships, illness, and the novel's publicity. The edition is a wonderful resource for students, teachers, and researchers."

Observer

Her novels… ensure her place amongst the greatest writers of English in the twentieth century.

From the Publisher

"Brick's performance offers a familiarity with Downeast colloquialisms and thoroughly believable New England accents."—-AudioFile

From Barnes & Noble

Set in the harsh New England farmlands and told in flashback by a narrator, here is the story of the inexorable fall of a decent, rough-hewn man, ironically drawn by his most pure and beautiful feelings--his love for his wife's cousin, the gentle and sweet young Mattie.