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Ethan Frome and Other Short Fiction
On a bleak New England farm, a taciturn young man has resigned himself to a life of grim endurance. Bound by circumstance to a woman he cannot love, Ethan Frome is haunted by a past of lost possibilities until his wife’s orphaned cousin, Mattie Silver, arrives and he is tempted to make one final, desperate effort to escape his fate. In language that is spare, passionate, and enduring, Edith Wharton tells this unforgettable story of two tragic lovers overwhelmed by the unrelenting forces of conscience and necessity.
Included with Ethan Frome are the novella The Touchstone and three short stories, “The Last Asset,” “The Other Two,” and “Xingu.” Together, this collection offers a survey of the extraordinary range and power of one of America’s finest writers.
Included with Ethan Frome are the novella The Touchstone and three short stories, “The Last Asset,” “The Other Two,” and “Xingu.” Together, this collection offers a survey of the extraordinary range and power of one of America’s finest writers.
237 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1911
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4221 people want to read
About the author
Edith Wharton
1,433 books5,254 followersEdith Wharton emerged as one of America’s most insightful novelists, deftly exposing the tensions between societal expectation and personal desire through her vivid portrayals of upper-class life. Drawing from her deep familiarity with New York’s privileged “aristocracy,” she offered readers a keenly observed and piercingly honest vision of Gilded Age society.
Her work reached a milestone when she became the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, awarded for The Age of Innocence. This novel highlights the constraining rituals of 1870s New York society and remains a defining portrait of elegance laced with regret.
Wharton’s literary achievements span a wide canvas. The House of Mirth presents a tragic, vividly drawn character study of Lily Bart, navigating social expectations and the perils of genteel poverty in 1890s New York. In Ethan Frome, she explores rural hardship and emotional repression, contrasting sharply with her urban social dramas.
Her novella collection Old New York revisits the moral terrain of upper-class society, spanning decades and combining character studies with social commentary. Through these stories, she inevitably points back to themes and settings familiar from The Age of Innocence. Continuing her exploration of class and desire, The Glimpses of the Moon addresses marriage and social mobility in early 20th-century America. And in Summer, Wharton challenges societal norms with its rural setting and themes of sexual awakening and social inequality.
Beyond fiction, Wharton contributed compelling nonfiction and travel writing. The Decoration of Houses reflects her eye for design and architecture; Fighting France: From Dunkerque to Belfort presents a compelling account of her wartime observations. As editor of The Book of the Homeless, she curated a moving, international collaboration in support of war refugees.
Wharton’s influence extended beyond writing. She designed her own country estate, The Mount, a testament to her architectural sensibility and aesthetic vision. The Mount now stands as an educational museum celebrating her legacy.
Throughout her career, Wharton maintained friendships and artistic exchanges with luminaries such as Henry James, Sinclair Lewis, Jean Cocteau, André Gide, and Theodore Roosevelt—reflecting her status as a respected and connected cultural figure.
Her literary legacy also includes multiple Nobel Prize nominations, underscoring her international recognition. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature more than once.
In sum, Edith Wharton remains celebrated for her unflinching, elegant prose, her psychological acuity, and her capacity to illuminate the unspoken constraints of society—from the glittering ballrooms of New York to quieter, more remote settings. Her wide-ranging work—novels, novellas, short stories, poetry, travel writing, essays—offers cultural insight, enduring emotional depth, and a piercing critique of the customs she both inhabited and dissected.
Her work reached a milestone when she became the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, awarded for The Age of Innocence. This novel highlights the constraining rituals of 1870s New York society and remains a defining portrait of elegance laced with regret.
Wharton’s literary achievements span a wide canvas. The House of Mirth presents a tragic, vividly drawn character study of Lily Bart, navigating social expectations and the perils of genteel poverty in 1890s New York. In Ethan Frome, she explores rural hardship and emotional repression, contrasting sharply with her urban social dramas.
Her novella collection Old New York revisits the moral terrain of upper-class society, spanning decades and combining character studies with social commentary. Through these stories, she inevitably points back to themes and settings familiar from The Age of Innocence. Continuing her exploration of class and desire, The Glimpses of the Moon addresses marriage and social mobility in early 20th-century America. And in Summer, Wharton challenges societal norms with its rural setting and themes of sexual awakening and social inequality.
Beyond fiction, Wharton contributed compelling nonfiction and travel writing. The Decoration of Houses reflects her eye for design and architecture; Fighting France: From Dunkerque to Belfort presents a compelling account of her wartime observations. As editor of The Book of the Homeless, she curated a moving, international collaboration in support of war refugees.
Wharton’s influence extended beyond writing. She designed her own country estate, The Mount, a testament to her architectural sensibility and aesthetic vision. The Mount now stands as an educational museum celebrating her legacy.
Throughout her career, Wharton maintained friendships and artistic exchanges with luminaries such as Henry James, Sinclair Lewis, Jean Cocteau, André Gide, and Theodore Roosevelt—reflecting her status as a respected and connected cultural figure.
Her literary legacy also includes multiple Nobel Prize nominations, underscoring her international recognition. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature more than once.
In sum, Edith Wharton remains celebrated for her unflinching, elegant prose, her psychological acuity, and her capacity to illuminate the unspoken constraints of society—from the glittering ballrooms of New York to quieter, more remote settings. Her wide-ranging work—novels, novellas, short stories, poetry, travel writing, essays—offers cultural insight, enduring emotional depth, and a piercing critique of the customs she both inhabited and dissected.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 140 reviews
May 27, 2019
The story (a novella – less than 100 pages) concerns a man with severe physical handicaps and how a visitor to a small New England town learned his story. The man is 52 and the accident happened when he was 21. The story was published in 1911 so we’re still in the horse and buggy days.
With his handicaps, the visitor asks ‘who cares for him’ and learns that ‘he does the caring,’ first for his parents and then for his always-sick wife, who is 7 years older than him. Since he is a farmer and a logger he struggles to get by and they live in a deteriorating house.
We learn that the accident involves a love story – he fell in love with his wife’s young working girl who did the housework and helped care for his wife.
It’s about loneliness, lost love, tragedy and being a “prisoner for life.”
I read this story years ago but re-learned an appreciation for Edith Wharton’s excellent writing and style. I think I’ll read her most popular book, Age of Innocence.
Some examples of what I thought was good writing:
[While he watches the girl sew] “The sudden heat of his tone made her color mount again, not with a rush, but gradually, delicately, like the reflection of the thought stealing slowly across her heart. She sat silent, her hands clasped on her work, and it seemed to him that a warm current flowed toward him along the strip of stuff that still lay unrolled between them. Cautiously he slid his hand palm-downward along the table till his finger-tips touched the end of the stuff. A faint vibration of her lashes seemed to show that she was aware of his gesture, and that it had sent a counter-current back to her; and she let her hands lie motionless on the other end of the strip.”
“ ‘I’ve got complications,’ she [his wife] said. … Ethan knew the word for one of exceptional import. Almost everybody in the neighborhood had ‘troubles,’ frankly localized and specified; but only the chosen had ‘complications.’ To have them was in itself a distinction, though it was also, in most cases, a death-warrant. People struggled on for years with ‘troubles’ but they almost always succumbed to ‘complications.’ ”
The last lines of the novella:
A good read.
Photos from top: Hampton, New Hampshire
Sledding in 1910 from s3.amazonaws.com
The author from cdn.nybooks.com
With his handicaps, the visitor asks ‘who cares for him’ and learns that ‘he does the caring,’ first for his parents and then for his always-sick wife, who is 7 years older than him. Since he is a farmer and a logger he struggles to get by and they live in a deteriorating house.
We learn that the accident involves a love story – he fell in love with his wife’s young working girl who did the housework and helped care for his wife.
It’s about loneliness, lost love, tragedy and being a “prisoner for life.”
I read this story years ago but re-learned an appreciation for Edith Wharton’s excellent writing and style. I think I’ll read her most popular book, Age of Innocence.
Some examples of what I thought was good writing:
[While he watches the girl sew] “The sudden heat of his tone made her color mount again, not with a rush, but gradually, delicately, like the reflection of the thought stealing slowly across her heart. She sat silent, her hands clasped on her work, and it seemed to him that a warm current flowed toward him along the strip of stuff that still lay unrolled between them. Cautiously he slid his hand palm-downward along the table till his finger-tips touched the end of the stuff. A faint vibration of her lashes seemed to show that she was aware of his gesture, and that it had sent a counter-current back to her; and she let her hands lie motionless on the other end of the strip.”
“ ‘I’ve got complications,’ she [his wife] said. … Ethan knew the word for one of exceptional import. Almost everybody in the neighborhood had ‘troubles,’ frankly localized and specified; but only the chosen had ‘complications.’ To have them was in itself a distinction, though it was also, in most cases, a death-warrant. People struggled on for years with ‘troubles’ but they almost always succumbed to ‘complications.’ ”
The last lines of the novella:
A good read.
Photos from top: Hampton, New Hampshire
Sledding in 1910 from s3.amazonaws.com
The author from cdn.nybooks.com
May 4, 2011
Sadness. The ultimate feeling I have upon leaving behind Ethan Frome is one of infinite sadness. Sadness for people stuck - stuck in poverty, stuck in relationships that lack even friendliness, let alone love, stuck in a life they can never leave behind. To watch the transformation of Ethan and Mattie from people filled with such passion to people so broken and alone filled me with such an ache.
That's the kind of story Ethan Frome is - one that leaves me aching. Aching with sadness for happiness lost, aching with gratitude and love for my own life (and love), aching to grab those near to me and shower them with affection simply because we are all here together.
It is a story full of starkness. Stark imagery of a stark landscape, stark people stuck in a place of dark and harrowing winter. But there's a sort of stark beauty, as well, in people that go on living.
That's the kind of story Ethan Frome is - one that leaves me aching. Aching with sadness for happiness lost, aching with gratitude and love for my own life (and love), aching to grab those near to me and shower them with affection simply because we are all here together.
It is a story full of starkness. Stark imagery of a stark landscape, stark people stuck in a place of dark and harrowing winter. But there's a sort of stark beauty, as well, in people that go on living.
October 24, 2025
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton is one of those books that you just have to read. Ethan, a poor farmer who has seen much loss in his life now he is struggling, torn between his hypochondriac wife and his feelings for her cousin. It is a societal no, no, to divorce at that time. An intriguing read.
This piece of work is slightly edgier than Edith's normal witty prose. It is a quick read, but it packs a punch. It is a vintage classic and a fine piece of work for its time.
Ethan Frome and Other Short Fiction, such as The Touchstone, Xingu, and The Other Two, are some great writing; unfortunately, they are too short.
This piece of work is slightly edgier than Edith's normal witty prose. It is a quick read, but it packs a punch. It is a vintage classic and a fine piece of work for its time.
Ethan Frome and Other Short Fiction, such as The Touchstone, Xingu, and The Other Two, are some great writing; unfortunately, they are too short.
January 19, 2024
At first, I intended to read only Ethan Frome, but I'm so glad I went on with other stories. Edith Wharton was such a gifted writer: her way with words here was immaculate and she branched out into so many different topics, which made the reading experience really interesting. In my opinion, The Touchstone was the highlight of this collection, an absolute 5* read. The other ones were a little bit weaker, however, I still enjoyed them very much. I'm definitely going to pick up some of her other works soon!
September 3, 2022
The five stars are for “The Touchstone” and “Xingu,” some of my new favorite short stories. The others I would give 3s and 4s.
September 3, 2022
The Touchstone and Xingu were some of the best pieces of short fiction I’ve read. Worth five stars for those two. Ethan Frome is a heavy, achy sort of work, but compelling and rich.
October 26, 2021
If Edith Wharton had been a man she would hands down have been declared America's most important 19th century novelist. She makes the other literary giants of that period seem either desiccated or myopic or both, despite their great story-telling capacities; and I do include Herman Melville, Nathanial Hawthorne, Mark Twain and even Henry James in the equation. No, Wharton--above them all--truly understands the homo sapien mind. Like no other talent she knows how to slow-reveal the truth of human nature, reeling in the reader with the skill of an expert angler.
This collection includes "Ethan Frome," Wharton’s justly celebrated long story of a lonely farmer, his hypochondriac wife, and the young and too pretty wide-eyed cousin who trips lightly into the claustrophobic bleakness of their New England winter.
This small paperback also includes such masterpieces as "The Touchstone," a kind of Tell-Tale Heart of the leisure classes that explores the impact of a man selling a famous woman's love letters with a microscopic look at human self-deception and paranoia; all this is done with psychological insight far ahead of Wharton's era. Wharton excels at slowly dredging up for her readers the small and subtle but accumulating clues to people's complex identities and flourishing foibles.
This is evident in her other fascinating story, "The Last Asset," in which a narrator recounts the small orbit of innocents who are caught in the web of an ice-cold and manipulative social climber.
"Xingu" also explores class and craving with a delightful romp into a pretentious ladies' Lit group who have lost all sense of what they're reading in favor of why: intellectual one upmanship, until a charming intruder milks their silly airs for all it's worth.
The last story, "The Other Two," is psychologically astute as well. The plot deals with a woman and the awkward relations among her three consecutive husbands. Wharton is weakest here, though, perhaps because divorce was a subject that was too close to Wharton's own marital woes.
While most of the main characters are abject in their blindness to their own motives and inevitably injurious to others, there is always a glint of redemption; in this Pandora's Box of avaricious and self-centered center-stagers there is always, in the wings the figure of Hope, a gentle but perceptive nature who redeems humanity for us and shows that the human cause is perhaps not entirely lost.
This collection includes "Ethan Frome," Wharton’s justly celebrated long story of a lonely farmer, his hypochondriac wife, and the young and too pretty wide-eyed cousin who trips lightly into the claustrophobic bleakness of their New England winter.
This small paperback also includes such masterpieces as "The Touchstone," a kind of Tell-Tale Heart of the leisure classes that explores the impact of a man selling a famous woman's love letters with a microscopic look at human self-deception and paranoia; all this is done with psychological insight far ahead of Wharton's era. Wharton excels at slowly dredging up for her readers the small and subtle but accumulating clues to people's complex identities and flourishing foibles.
This is evident in her other fascinating story, "The Last Asset," in which a narrator recounts the small orbit of innocents who are caught in the web of an ice-cold and manipulative social climber.
"Xingu" also explores class and craving with a delightful romp into a pretentious ladies' Lit group who have lost all sense of what they're reading in favor of why: intellectual one upmanship, until a charming intruder milks their silly airs for all it's worth.
The last story, "The Other Two," is psychologically astute as well. The plot deals with a woman and the awkward relations among her three consecutive husbands. Wharton is weakest here, though, perhaps because divorce was a subject that was too close to Wharton's own marital woes.
While most of the main characters are abject in their blindness to their own motives and inevitably injurious to others, there is always a glint of redemption; in this Pandora's Box of avaricious and self-centered center-stagers there is always, in the wings the figure of Hope, a gentle but perceptive nature who redeems humanity for us and shows that the human cause is perhaps not entirely lost.
November 15, 2022
"Ethan Frome" is a story within a story. It is the tale of what happened to Ethan in the past, told from the perspective of a narrator who arrives in the town a few decades after the incident.
A captivating read which is bound to get one's blood pressure up as times were different then. It shows the strength of character of a man who has had his dreams dashed due to tragedy and one really dreadful wife. Need I say more.
A captivating read which is bound to get one's blood pressure up as times were different then. It shows the strength of character of a man who has had his dreams dashed due to tragedy and one really dreadful wife. Need I say more.
August 15, 2015
I liked Ethan Frome and Xingu.
December 27, 2021
I am glad I read (listened to) this book-a classic. I love the setting in a time where manners, politeness and duty prevail over passion and desire even though it can make for a painful or much less happy life but honor is king so Ethan fulfills his duty as husband to care for his wife even though their is no love. And the one he loves can not be his. Definitely not the ending of fairytales. Short but not sweet story.
September 29, 2021
Ughhh short stories are so short. This had a great start but left me wanting more. Overall this book is a collection of short stories. A few of them were really good, a few were ok and a few I didn't quite wrap my head around. Hoping this goes up to 4 stars the next time I read it.
June 23, 2021
Wonderful, but impossibly sad and haunting...beautifully written...
March 1, 2023
Straightforward, witty, and easy to understand writing. I quite enjoyed reading it.
June 17, 2024
“We can’t any of us give up reading; it’s as insidious as a vice and as tiresome as a virtue.”
Edith Wharton is an author I’m returning to after reading the titular novella, Ethan Frome, a decade ago. Initially I was unsure how engrossing I would find her short fiction, but was quickly captured by her elegant writing and her talent for ruminating on societal expectations and the expectations we place upon ourselves.
If you haven’t picked her up, I highly recommend this collection as a great introduction to her work that truly highlights the shine she brings to describing who we are at the deepest points of our heart.
+++++++++++++++++++
INDIVIDUAL REVIEWS
+++++++++++++++++++
Ethan Frome - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“You’ve had an awful mean time, Ethan Frome.”
Honestly, a very scintillating and scandalous read. Forbidden love ending in a suicide pact gone wrong? Jeez.
I think the thing I love most about this story is that it’s impossible to hate any of the characters. They’re all so dynamic and sympathetic; even the ‘villain’ of the young would-be lovers, the wife, Zeena, you feel allied with as her husband begins fantasizing of leaving her for her cousin.
Ethan is a man trapped between the life thrust upon him by circumstance and the life he wanted as a younger man, before the realities of the world broke him.
Mattie is a young girl, finding love and comfort for the first time in her life of abuse and poverty. She just wants to keep hold of the security she’s found with Ethan, however meager their living situation may be.
Zeena has been playing the part of the dutiful wife for almost a decade, despite her poor health, to a man who, at best, is grossly indifferent towards her.
Everyone in this story deserved better and the real tragedy is that they were doomed to continue eating each other and wallowing in misery right up until the end.
+++
The Touchstone - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Love is the most impregnable refuge of self-esteem, and we hate the eye that reaches our nakedness.”
What if someone you loved shared the most private and intimate parts of yourself after your death? How much of yourself belongs to the people who love you? What about those they choose to tell?
A story of guilt, remorse, and unrequited love that will make your heart hurt.
+++
Xingu - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
“The cerebellum is not infrequently the seat of the literary emotions.”
A humorous tale that at once rebukes self-proclaimed intellectuals and celebrates cleverness. We all know that person who thinks of themselves as intellectually superior and this was a delightful moment of comeuppance.
+++
The Other Two - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“He asked himself if it were not better to own a third of a wife who knew how to make a man happy than a whole one who had lacked opportunity to acquire the art. For it was an art, and made up, like all others, of concessions, eliminations, and embellishments; of lights judiciously thrown and shadows skillfully softened.”
I loved this sweet story. In life we find ourselves thrust into a variety of awkward circumstances, but a bit of amicability and an open mind can do wonders for our ability to weather them.
All the characters were charming in their own way and imbued the story with a sense of hopefulness that most of us have nothing but the best of intentions, though sometimes, perhaps, misguided.
+++
The Last Asset - ⭐️⭐️
“There are lots of ways of being miserable, but there’s only one way of being comfortable, and that is to stop running round after happiness.”
The social climber mother, the indifferent father, the faithful daughter — all characters we’ve seen a million times. Though Wharton certainly has a way with words, this story did not break any new ground.
Edith Wharton is an author I’m returning to after reading the titular novella, Ethan Frome, a decade ago. Initially I was unsure how engrossing I would find her short fiction, but was quickly captured by her elegant writing and her talent for ruminating on societal expectations and the expectations we place upon ourselves.
If you haven’t picked her up, I highly recommend this collection as a great introduction to her work that truly highlights the shine she brings to describing who we are at the deepest points of our heart.
+++++++++++++++++++
INDIVIDUAL REVIEWS
+++++++++++++++++++
Ethan Frome - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“You’ve had an awful mean time, Ethan Frome.”
Honestly, a very scintillating and scandalous read. Forbidden love ending in a suicide pact gone wrong? Jeez.
I think the thing I love most about this story is that it’s impossible to hate any of the characters. They’re all so dynamic and sympathetic; even the ‘villain’ of the young would-be lovers, the wife, Zeena, you feel allied with as her husband begins fantasizing of leaving her for her cousin.
Ethan is a man trapped between the life thrust upon him by circumstance and the life he wanted as a younger man, before the realities of the world broke him.
Mattie is a young girl, finding love and comfort for the first time in her life of abuse and poverty. She just wants to keep hold of the security she’s found with Ethan, however meager their living situation may be.
Zeena has been playing the part of the dutiful wife for almost a decade, despite her poor health, to a man who, at best, is grossly indifferent towards her.
Everyone in this story deserved better and the real tragedy is that they were doomed to continue eating each other and wallowing in misery right up until the end.
+++
The Touchstone - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Love is the most impregnable refuge of self-esteem, and we hate the eye that reaches our nakedness.”
What if someone you loved shared the most private and intimate parts of yourself after your death? How much of yourself belongs to the people who love you? What about those they choose to tell?
A story of guilt, remorse, and unrequited love that will make your heart hurt.
+++
Xingu - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
“The cerebellum is not infrequently the seat of the literary emotions.”
A humorous tale that at once rebukes self-proclaimed intellectuals and celebrates cleverness. We all know that person who thinks of themselves as intellectually superior and this was a delightful moment of comeuppance.
+++
The Other Two - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“He asked himself if it were not better to own a third of a wife who knew how to make a man happy than a whole one who had lacked opportunity to acquire the art. For it was an art, and made up, like all others, of concessions, eliminations, and embellishments; of lights judiciously thrown and shadows skillfully softened.”
I loved this sweet story. In life we find ourselves thrust into a variety of awkward circumstances, but a bit of amicability and an open mind can do wonders for our ability to weather them.
All the characters were charming in their own way and imbued the story with a sense of hopefulness that most of us have nothing but the best of intentions, though sometimes, perhaps, misguided.
+++
The Last Asset - ⭐️⭐️
“There are lots of ways of being miserable, but there’s only one way of being comfortable, and that is to stop running round after happiness.”
The social climber mother, the indifferent father, the faithful daughter — all characters we’ve seen a million times. Though Wharton certainly has a way with words, this story did not break any new ground.
February 11, 2018
Ethan Frome is a reread; still an amazing story, and so different from most of Ms. Wharton's other work. The other short stories included in this edition are drawn from the same New York society world as Ms. Wharton's better-known novels. They are good, but don't pack the power of The Age of Innocence. Her gimlet eye must have caused many New Yorkers to squirm when she published, and she still has a message for us today even if the privileged world she describes has morphed into something very different.
August 21, 2015
I can't remember the last time I read something this depressing. Not one character gets away with any shred of happiness. The novella was well written. The characters are well drawn, but not one of them is particularly likeable. I really wanted the plot to take a turn and have someone murder Ethan's wife. Who would have missed the nasty hypochondriac anyway?
May 28, 2025
Five stars for Ethan Frome, two for the other short stories in this volume.
Ethan Frome stands alone in style and spirit among Wharton's work. Situated in the naturalist/derminist tradition, the story explores the impossibility of happiness and the theme of endurance. The main character, Ethan, is introduced via a narrator, a visiting engineer to the bleak New England village of Starkfield, Massachusetts. We get to know Ethan as a ruin of a man, who has had a smash up 24 years ago.
Gradually, Ethans background story is revealed: confined to his invalid wife Zeena, he fell in love with her cousin Mattie Silver. When a jealous Zeena sent Mattie away, Ethan and Mattie engaged on a mutual suicide pact, which failed- and left Ethan and Mattie equally crippled. The story excels in its evocation of setting: the house seems a vault, the winters are oppressive, Ethans farm is barren and his saw-mill is failing. Fully engaging in foreshadowing (the dangerous elm is mentioned early in the story), there's no redemption here: Ethan is confined to a life of misery and sacrifice, a prisoner for life. Move over, Thomas Hardy!
The other stories are situated in the privileged upper circles and deal with conventions of private life, and at what cost for individuals they have to be held up. I enjoyed Wharton's sardonic tone (Genius is of small use to a woman who does not know how to do her hair), but failed to engage with the characters. These are the stories:
The touchstone, in which a poor writer, Stephen Glennard, decides to sell the letters of his deceased admirer, the famous author Margaret Aubyn. As his fortune increases and he succeeds in marrying his beloved Alexa, his conscience starts eating him, and his feelings of disloyalty towards Margaret mount.
The last asset, in which mrs. Newell, a social parasite, convinces a friend to locate her estranged husband, so that he can attend their daughter's aristocratic wedding, a condition for the wedding to take place at all. By achieving this, she manages to secure her own rise on the social ladder.
Xingu, a satire of a snobbish and intellectually literary circle of upper class women. None of them want to admit their ignorance when the topic 'Xingu' (no high brow topic but a river in Brazil) is introduced.
The other two, in which the newly-wedded Waythorn has to come to terms with the fact that his wife has two ex-husbands that will remain very present in her/their life/lives. A bit anachronistic for 21st century minds, this story explores the complexities of marriage and the taboo of divorce.
Ethan Frome stands alone in style and spirit among Wharton's work. Situated in the naturalist/derminist tradition, the story explores the impossibility of happiness and the theme of endurance. The main character, Ethan, is introduced via a narrator, a visiting engineer to the bleak New England village of Starkfield, Massachusetts. We get to know Ethan as a ruin of a man, who has had a smash up 24 years ago.
Gradually, Ethans background story is revealed: confined to his invalid wife Zeena, he fell in love with her cousin Mattie Silver. When a jealous Zeena sent Mattie away, Ethan and Mattie engaged on a mutual suicide pact, which failed- and left Ethan and Mattie equally crippled. The story excels in its evocation of setting: the house seems a vault, the winters are oppressive, Ethans farm is barren and his saw-mill is failing. Fully engaging in foreshadowing (the dangerous elm is mentioned early in the story), there's no redemption here: Ethan is confined to a life of misery and sacrifice, a prisoner for life. Move over, Thomas Hardy!
The other stories are situated in the privileged upper circles and deal with conventions of private life, and at what cost for individuals they have to be held up. I enjoyed Wharton's sardonic tone (Genius is of small use to a woman who does not know how to do her hair), but failed to engage with the characters. These are the stories:
The touchstone, in which a poor writer, Stephen Glennard, decides to sell the letters of his deceased admirer, the famous author Margaret Aubyn. As his fortune increases and he succeeds in marrying his beloved Alexa, his conscience starts eating him, and his feelings of disloyalty towards Margaret mount.
The last asset, in which mrs. Newell, a social parasite, convinces a friend to locate her estranged husband, so that he can attend their daughter's aristocratic wedding, a condition for the wedding to take place at all. By achieving this, she manages to secure her own rise on the social ladder.
Xingu, a satire of a snobbish and intellectually literary circle of upper class women. None of them want to admit their ignorance when the topic 'Xingu' (no high brow topic but a river in Brazil) is introduced.
The other two, in which the newly-wedded Waythorn has to come to terms with the fact that his wife has two ex-husbands that will remain very present in her/their life/lives. A bit anachronistic for 21st century minds, this story explores the complexities of marriage and the taboo of divorce.
May 14, 2024
Yuck. I just don't care for Wharton. Her over-the-top verbosity and descriptions make reading her stories a slog, and her subjects are so bleak! I read this collection because a reading challenge I'm doing says to "reread a book you hated in high school." (I assume on the assumption that my tastes will have sharpened and/or "improved" now that I'm adult.) So it was either this or The Great Gatsby, and I know I'll never stop hating Gatsby, so I tried old Ethan again, and guess what? I still hate it too--though I still get my little reward for reading it, so that's good.
Now to give Wharton her due, the book does a good job with taut plot development and wire-trembling hope and despair--and the very last line: is sterling. But good grief, what a depressing story! When death is the better option in a story, you KNOW things are just bad, bad, bad.
"The Touchestone" was ridiculous, and Wharton couldn't stop jumping in with vast amounts of authorial intrusion and preaching at the reader. It was exhausting. "The Last Asset" was tedious and didn't seem to have much of a point, and I felt the same about "The Other Two"--Wharton just loves to create marriage studies of people who are suspicious of each other for no actual good reasons and throwing in so many words, the reader stops caring. (This reader, anyway.)
The only story in the collection I liked was "Xingu," and that was probably down to the fact that it didn't have to do with marriage or romance--just a bunch of self-important, self-proclaimed intellectuals in a book club who are schooled by someone who just doesn't care to put on airs. That story, and the last line of Ethan Frome, are what makes my review two stars instead of one.
Not that Edith Wharton would give two figs for my opinion of her work. (Or, said another, more Wharton-esque way: It is times like these when we must, with a firm grasp of our own perspicacity and an acknowledgement of how tastes and manners necessarily must, and indeed will, change, no matter with what fierceness we try to cling to veracity in the swirling sea of doubt, acknowledge that the author of who my reviews are indicated, were she living still, would doubtless have little regard--indeed, no regard at all--for the lowly opinion of her genius from one such as me.)
Now to give Wharton her due, the book does a good job with taut plot development and wire-trembling hope and despair--and the very last line: is sterling. But good grief, what a depressing story! When death is the better option in a story, you KNOW things are just bad, bad, bad.
"The Touchestone" was ridiculous, and Wharton couldn't stop jumping in with vast amounts of authorial intrusion and preaching at the reader. It was exhausting. "The Last Asset" was tedious and didn't seem to have much of a point, and I felt the same about "The Other Two"--Wharton just loves to create marriage studies of people who are suspicious of each other for no actual good reasons and throwing in so many words, the reader stops caring. (This reader, anyway.)
The only story in the collection I liked was "Xingu," and that was probably down to the fact that it didn't have to do with marriage or romance--just a bunch of self-important, self-proclaimed intellectuals in a book club who are schooled by someone who just doesn't care to put on airs. That story, and the last line of Ethan Frome, are what makes my review two stars instead of one.
Not that Edith Wharton would give two figs for my opinion of her work. (Or, said another, more Wharton-esque way: It is times like these when we must, with a firm grasp of our own perspicacity and an acknowledgement of how tastes and manners necessarily must, and indeed will, change, no matter with what fierceness we try to cling to veracity in the swirling sea of doubt, acknowledge that the author of who my reviews are indicated, were she living still, would doubtless have little regard--indeed, no regard at all--for the lowly opinion of her genius from one such as me.)
April 17, 2021
Frightening, though not truly horrific until the ultimate chapter. This book, a classic, is a gateway book to other horrific novels. Ethan Frome may not be a traditional horror story, but this tragedy, if not pure horror, is certainly horror adjacent.
Ethan Frome is a tale from a specific time, and yet the descriptions of rural America are still apt, the trapped feeling of dead ancestors holding you to a patch of barren land. This book will be of interest to those who are interested in rural USA, though it must be noted the author herself was not of this class.
Love exists in this story, though like the earth in the story it fails to bear fruit. A subtle build up of tension leads to a climax which was not surprising as it is hinted throughout, however the results are what makes this tragedy so terrifying.
The barren farmlands claws are as scary as any monster under a bed. Like any good monster, they are not explicitly described, but they are woven into every description, always right behind you. This book is comparable to Gothic Horror, and like all good Gothic Horror is filled with symbolism, a once beautiful, now shattered pickle jar cannot be re-made whole.
Horror often contains a moral, one of the rationalizations I can make to allow it into my life, this moral could be summed up by Psalms 107:17 "Some fell sick from their wicked ways, afflicted because of their sins".
This book is short, and with horror as my genre of choice I have no further comment on this story. Nor could I give it five stars at is more of a tragedy, a subject of which I know little. Three stars, I liked it. Eat well, live long.
-Honas
Ethan Frome is a tale from a specific time, and yet the descriptions of rural America are still apt, the trapped feeling of dead ancestors holding you to a patch of barren land. This book will be of interest to those who are interested in rural USA, though it must be noted the author herself was not of this class.
Love exists in this story, though like the earth in the story it fails to bear fruit. A subtle build up of tension leads to a climax which was not surprising as it is hinted throughout, however the results are what makes this tragedy so terrifying.
The barren farmlands claws are as scary as any monster under a bed. Like any good monster, they are not explicitly described, but they are woven into every description, always right behind you. This book is comparable to Gothic Horror, and like all good Gothic Horror is filled with symbolism, a once beautiful, now shattered pickle jar cannot be re-made whole.
Horror often contains a moral, one of the rationalizations I can make to allow it into my life, this moral could be summed up by Psalms 107:17 "Some fell sick from their wicked ways, afflicted because of their sins".
This book is short, and with horror as my genre of choice I have no further comment on this story. Nor could I give it five stars at is more of a tragedy, a subject of which I know little. Three stars, I liked it. Eat well, live long.
-Honas
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 2, 2021
Ahora entiendo porque dicen que es superior a sus obras mayores ( eso que aun no las leo todas) pero en 100 paginas y algo Edith hace que esta historia te cale en lo hondo de tu ser , que sufras , que quieras ayudarles a los protagonistas de esa vida , donde vemos el poder que tiene el dinero que sin este no eres capaz de nada , y como esto afecta a quienes menos tienen y se encuentran viviendo en lugares desiertos , como ahí algunos que tienen la felicidad a su alcance pero que no pueden tomarla.
La ambientaciones maravillosa , no quería que acábese pus era feliz en esa pequeña casita de madera en medio de la nieve , creo que es una historia que estará siempre en mi mente pues ese final no me lo esperaba tiene un giro bastante grande .
La ambientaciones maravillosa , no quería que acábese pus era feliz en esa pequeña casita de madera en medio de la nieve , creo que es una historia que estará siempre en mi mente pues ese final no me lo esperaba tiene un giro bastante grande .
August 4, 2022
3.5
“even in his unhappiest moments field and sky spoke to him with a deep and powerful persuasion”
“You must write to me sometimes, Ethan.”
“Oh, what good’ll writing do? I want to put my hand out and touch you. I want to do for you and care for you. I want to be there when you’re sick and when you’re lonesome.”
The short stories after Ethan Frome were also very interesting or funny, especially Afterward and Xingu
“Bernald had always fancied that she might have been pretty if she had not been perpetually explaining things.”
“there was nothing Mrs. Plinth so much disliked as being asked her opinion of a book. Books were written to read; if one read them what more could be expected?”
“even in his unhappiest moments field and sky spoke to him with a deep and powerful persuasion”
“You must write to me sometimes, Ethan.”
“Oh, what good’ll writing do? I want to put my hand out and touch you. I want to do for you and care for you. I want to be there when you’re sick and when you’re lonesome.”
The short stories after Ethan Frome were also very interesting or funny, especially Afterward and Xingu
“Bernald had always fancied that she might have been pretty if she had not been perpetually explaining things.”
“there was nothing Mrs. Plinth so much disliked as being asked her opinion of a book. Books were written to read; if one read them what more could be expected?”
September 5, 2017
Ethan Frome was chosen by my book club as our classic for the year. I would not have chosen to read it otherwise. I had never heard of it and quite frankly I did not care for it. I understand that there is a lot to learn from it, but it just did not capture my interest and I would never have finished it if it were not for wanting to be prepared for book club discussion. It started out too slow and with so many books and so little time I would have gone on to another book.
I did not attempt to read any of the additional stories in the book.
I did not attempt to read any of the additional stories in the book.
September 12, 2018
This was a decent storyline, and definitely a quick listen, but I did have a few issues. First, as an older book the language was a times difficult for me to understand. In addition, I'm not sure I liked how it included an introduction and a conclusion with an outside narrator. It gave me the ending before I knew the beginning, and I don't know that the story was any more effective by doing so. Still this is a classic, and I can understand why just from the subject matter, but I was left a bit disappointed.
March 12, 2021
Miserable tale of a struggling farmer with a grouchy wife who falls in love with a younger relative of hers whom wifey doesn’t like from the start. I might have liked this lech story as tragedy or psychological study. I might have admired the literary realism. But I felt cheated at the unsatisfying conclusion. We’re left to guess the extent of the injuries to a couple of main characters.
*Ethan Frome* probably had more sex appeal in 1911 that may have accounted for its success then.
*Ethan Frome* probably had more sex appeal in 1911 that may have accounted for its success then.
July 24, 2021
Decided to reread Ethan Frome for the first time since high school English class because all I remembered about it was that it was depressing and had something to do with sledding. For the record, my recollection was accurate. This time, the version I read also included short stories which were all new to me. Not a fan of "Afterward" because it's a ghost story, but I really enjoyed "The Legend" which pokes fun at snooty intellectuals.
September 26, 2021
An interesting and very well-written insight into the life and times of the wealthy class in the early 1900s. I'd just finished reading several P. G. Wodehouse that takes place in the same era and among the same socio-economic class, and yet so different, not in bias and attitude, but in how the works are framed. The gender lens in both authors is decidedly different. Even in her novella Ethan Frome, the main character (male) is outlined by his encounters with the women around him.
November 15, 2021
Ethan Frome, a poor New England farmer lives with his austere, sickly, hypochondriac wife and their help, his wife's cousin, Mattie. Every day is a struggle. Ethan becomes obsessed with this young woman, and the story explores his story to its dreadful conclusion. The landscape, Ethan's longings and despair, his bitter isolation are all explored in a book which, despite its bleakness, is hard to put down.
January 6, 2022
As a Vermonter, I could picture the snowy landscapes so clearly - Wharton's descriptions in Ethan Frome were perfect! Also loved the references to things like "the L" in New England architecture (my parents have one of these) and oilcloth rugs (also featured in my childhood home). The story was slow but compelling and overall I liked it. That said, I thought the last paragraph was harsh and lacking in empathy, especially the bit about the women having to hold their tongues.
February 20, 2018
On a bleak New England farm, a taciturn young man has resigned himself to a life of grim endurance. Bound by circumstance to a woman he cannot love, Ethan Frome is haunted by a past of lost possibilities until his wife's orphaned cousin, Mattie Silver, arrives and he is tempted to make one final, desperate effort to escape his fate. In language that is spare, passionate, a ...more
January 28, 2021
I read this independently in high school during a bout of depression and, well, my take on this book is testament to the fact that the time in which you read a book definitely colors how much you like it. To catatonic 16 year old me, I needed the kick in the pants that these even sadder new englanders gave me. The ironic ending made me laugh. Ethan! You're only 28! Cheer up!
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