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
Wordsworth Classics covers a huge list of beloved works of literature in English and translations. This growing series is rigorously updated, with scholarly introductions and notes added to new titles.
Synopsis
With an Introduction by Dr Pamela Knights, Department of English Studies, Durham University.
With this intensely moving short novel, Edith Wharton set out 'to draw life as it really was' in the lonely villages and desolate farms of the harsh New England mountains. Through the eyes of a visitor from the city, trapped for a winter in snowbound Starkfield, readers glimpse the hidden histories of this austere and beautiful land. Piecing together the story of monosyllabic Ethan Frome, his grim wife, Zeena, and Mattie Silver, her charming cousin, Wharton explores psychological dead-lock: frustration, longing, resentment, passion.
First published in 1911, the novella stunned its public with its consummate handling of the unfolding drama, and has remained for many readers the most compelling and subtle of all Wharton's fiction.