Staff Pick
Wharton's moody story contains an accident in the winter snow, a bitter wife, a young houseguest, and a startling love triangle which shouts out loud: "Be careful what you wish for." These things add up to a perfect slice of irony, and one of my very favorite classics. Fabulous! Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
This edition presents Wharton's two most controversial stories, which she considered inseperable, in one volume for the first time. Set in frigid New England, both deal with sexual awakening and appetite and their devastating consequences. This text includes newly commissioned notes.
Synopsis
A pair of masterly short novels, featuring an introduction by Elizabeth Strout, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Anything Is Possible and My Name Is Lucy Barton Thought Edith Wharton is best known for her cutting contemplation of fashionable New York, Ethan Frome and Summer are set in small New England towns, far from Manhattan's beau monde. Together in one volume, these thematically linked short novels display Wharton's characteristic criticism of society's hypocrisy, and her daring exploration of the destructive consequences of sexual appetite. From the wintry setting of Ethan Frome, where a man hounded by community standards is destroyed by the very thing that might bring him happiness, to the florid town of Summer, where a young woman's first romance projects her into a dizzying rite of passage, Wharton captures beautifully the urges and failures of human nature.
Praise for Edith Wharton and Ethan Frome
"Ethan Frome is considered] Mrs. Wharton's masterpiece . . . The secret of its greatness is the stark human drama of it; the social crudity and human delicacy intermingled; the defiant, over-riding passion, and the long-drawn-out logic of the paid penalty. It has no contexts, no mitigations; it is plain, raw, first-hand human stuff."--The New York Times
"Ethan Frome has] become part of the American mythology. . . . Wharton's astonishing authority here is to render such pain with purity and economy . . . Truly it is a northern romance, akin even to Wuthering Heights."--Harold Bloom
"Traditionally, Henry James has always been placed slightly higher up the slope of Parnassus than Edith Wharton. But now that the prejudice against the female writer is on the wane, they look to be exactly what they are: giants, equals, the tutelary and benign gods of our American literature."--Gore Vidal
Synopsis
This book features two of Wharton's most famous novels -- "Ethan Frome and Summer" -- both set in dark, rigid New England far from Wharton's socialite New York.
Ethan Frome is the story of a young man, trapped in an unfulfilling marriage to an ailing older woman. Yearning for his wife's orphaned cousin who has come to live on his isolated farm, Ethan Frome learns the power of local convention to smother the growth of an individual.
Summer, Wharton's most daringly erotic novel, tells of Charity Royall, bored in a small New England town until she meets visiting architect Lucius Harney. A story about love, desire, and blooming adulthood, it is a study of society, nature, and human needs.
About the Author
Elizabeth Strout is the winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction for her novel Amy and Isabelle. She lives in New York City and teaches literature and writing at Manhattan Community College.
Reading Group Guide
1. Many critics have disagreed with Wharton's choice of narrative style in Ethan Frome, saying it is unrealistic that an outside character could intimately know all the details of the Frome household. Wharton, however, felt the narrative style necessary to convey the harshness of the story and the taciturn nature of New Englanders. What are the pros and cons of the third person narrative? Do you feel the narrative style hurts or hinders the story and its implied moral?
2. Consider Ethan's courting of Zeena and his "courting" of Mattie. How do they differ? Do you feel Ethan is a different person at these two times in his life, or is it Mattie that makes the difference?
3. Do you feel the "accident" at the end of Ethan Frome was Wharton's way of ending the story in a neat and tidy way? If not, what are the implications of the two disfigured people and their new life?
4. At first, Charity is ashamed of her biological ties to "the Mountain." Yet, she visits some of the inhabitants with Harney, the person whose opinion matters most to her. Why does she put herself in this situation?
5. Consider the town name of North Dormer, the most popular library book being Uncle Tom's Cabin, and the disrepair of many estates around North Dormer. What is Wharton saying about New England, its society, and its attitude to art?
6. Summer's ending marriage between Charity and Lawyer Royall is quite disturbing for many readers. What are the implications of this marriage? Consider his first interactions with Charity in the beginning of the story compared to his later interactions with her at the end of the story. Has his character changed?
7. While the novellas take place in New England, Ethan Frome's action revolves around winter and Summer's action revolves around summer. Both dark, sexually explorative tales, why did Wharton choose to set them in two different seasons? How do the seasons further, and hinder, the stories?
8. Compare Mattie, a more reserved woman, and Charity, who at first is independent and assertive. While their personalities are at first different, their final situations are sadly quite similar. What is Wharton saying about New England society and the women who live in it?