Ethan Frome

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

Ethan Frome works his unproductive farm and struggles to maintain a bearable existence with his difficult, suspicious, and hypochondriac wife, Zeenie. But when Zeenie’s vivacious cousin enters their household as a “hired girl,” Ethan finds himself obsessed with her and with the possibilities for happiness she comes to represent.

In one of American fiction’s finest and most intense narratives, Edith Wharton moves this ill-starred trio toward their tragic destinies. Different in both tone and theme from Wharton’s other works, Ethan Frome has become perhaps her most enduring and most widely read novel.

• Updated with a new introduction

Only in Pocket Books Enriched Classics will readers find: - A concise introduction that gives readers important background information- A chronology of the author's life and career- A timeline of significant events that provide the book's historical context- An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations- Detailed explanatory notes- Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work- Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction- A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience- Consistently readable text

Set against the frozen waste of a harsh New England winter, Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome is a tale of despair, forbidden emotions, and sexual tensions, published with an introduction and notes by Elizabeth Ammons in Penguin Classics. Ethan Frome works his unproductive farm and struggles to maintain a bearable existence with his difficult, suspicious, and hypochondriac wife, Zeenie. But when Zeenie's vivacious cousin enters their household as a 'hired girl', Ethan finds himself obsessed with her and with the possibilities for happiness she comes to represent. In one of American fiction's finest and most intense narratives, Edith Wharton moves this ill-starred trio toward their tragic destinies. Different in both tone and theme from Wharton's other works, Ethan Frome has become perhaps her most enduring and most widely read novel.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

First published in 1918, My Ántonia is the unforgettable story of an immigrant womans life on the hardscrabble Nebraska plains. Together here with O Pioneers!, a classic American tale of pioneer life and the transformation of the frontier, this volume of Willa Cathers works captures a time, a place, and a spirit that are part of our national heritage.

These novels played a unique and lasting role in the development of American literature, and each one remains a beloved and widely read work of fiction. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?arguably the great American novel. Ethan Frome?an enduring rural tragedy. And Moby-Dick or, The Whale?a profound inquiry into character, faith, and the nature of perception. Now, Penguin Classics is proud to present these three novels in gorgeous graphic packages featuring cover art by some of the most talented illustrators working today.

Edith Wharton (1862–1937) was born in New York but made her home in France. In 1915 the French government gave her the cross of the Legion of Honor for her generous guidance and charity during the First World War. She published more than forty works in her lifetime, including The House of Mirth.

Elizabeth Ammons is professor of English and American studies at Tufts University. She edited the Penguin Classics edition of Wharton’s Summer.