There is a lot of emotion packed into this haunting cautionary tale of forbidden love.  Set in old fashioned (circa early 1900’s) rural Massachusetts, it is written of the poor society, unlike other books I’ve read by this author.  It is a thought provoking read and addresses hardships and the moral choices made despite them.  The characters Ethan and Mattie were developed in such a way that the reader has compassion for them despite their moral dilemma of Ethan’s difficult marriage.   These characters and the ultimate fate of their love will stay with me for a long time.  I loved this book and although it is sad, it is not a difficult read, and I was drawn in from the very first page.  If you like Edith Wharton, or just want to sample her works, I highly recommend this one.  It is short enough to be read in one sitting.

71st book of 2021. Artist for this review is American painter Aldro Thompson Hibbard (1886–1972).

3.5. My first Wharton. The prose impressed me at first and though I found it at times a bit too heavy, reminiscent of Henry James, as she's so often compared, I thought the atmosphere of the wintery Massachusetts landscape was captured beautifully.
n  

They walked on in silence through the blackness of the hemlock-shaded lane, where Ethan's saw-mill gloomed through the night, and out again into the comparative clearness of the fields. On the farther side of the hemlock belt the open country rolled away before them grey and lonely under the stars.

n

"Snow Mantle"

Bloom says that "Ethan Frome is Wharton's only fiction to have become part of American mythology...". Like The Scarlet Letter, I've often considered it one of those short American classics that one must read. It appears that this is read frequently read in schools in America as The Scarlet Letter is. It's a framed narrative, as the period favoured: Ethan Frome is a mysterious man with a limp, observed by an unnamed narrator in the fictional town of Starkfield, Massachusetts. The narrative then takes us into the past to explore Frome's past, before returning, in the final chapter, to the present. It's a bleak story, pushed deeper with the thick snow and muffled quiet of the winters. Though it's clear that Wharton has great technical skill as a writer, I found the middle of the novella waned. The ending is rather abrupt but I liked the final hanging note and sentiment, depressing as it is. For a novella that can be read in a day, I would not dismiss it, it's importance in American literature notwithstanding. Gore Vidal calls Wharton and Henry James the "benign gods of our American literature."


"Winter Afternoon, Belmont, Massachusetts"—1918

I've got Summer, Bunner Sisters, The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence now to read too. With Wharton's writing and evident skill, I am eager to read her larger works. Ethan Frome is a soft, silent, but tragic entry into her body of work.

This is my third read of Edith Wharton, and in all three one common thing can be detected - social commentary. It looks that the author was a strong believer in the independence and freedom of men and women from the stringent social conventions prevalent at her time. Whatever the class she chooses to set her story in, she has carefully observed, irrespective of the sex, the people's struggle trying to balance their lives between social convention, duty, honour and following their own hearts.

Ethan Frome is yet another effort by Ms. Wharton to show the tragedies which follow when the balance they try to achieve is impaired. In this depressing story, Ms. Wharton brings out three characters - Ethan, Zeena, and Mattie to paint the picture of the rough life of the rural working class, the suffering of a man in a loveless union as well as women's pitiful plight in the hand of dependency.

With her sensitive writing, she weaves a tragic tale of Ethan Frome, whose vision in life is lost by circumstances, who endlessly suffer in a loveless union, who is torn between duty, honour, and passion, and who labours pitifully at the hand of poverty. From the outset, Ethan is a victim. Zeena, the older wife of Ethan seems to be the villain with her shrewd and subtly manipulative nature. Mattie was yet again a victim; wrapped in layers of poverty and in the absence of any skill to establish her independence, her only hope is in the charity of a relative. Her only sin is to fall in love with the one man who shows her kindness. But this character analysis undergoes a surprising twist in the end leaving you questioning whether you fully understood them.

Although conceptually good, I wasn't much impressed with the storyline in which it was developed. The characters felt nothing to me. They didn't generate any emotion. There was an artificial touch to the whole thing. Perhaps, it might have been due to my having expected too much or perhaps, because of the comparison with her much loved work The Age of Innocence (which I loved). Whatever the reason, I was disappointed. If not for Wharton's beautiful writing, it would have been quite a task to push through it.

I started reading this on the Serial Reader app but finally paid for the full version so I didn't have to wait so long to finish it.

"Guess he's been in Starkfield too many winters."

I read this long ago, in 8th or 9th grade. I imagine we were assigned this at that age because it was a short novel, more of a novella, but it could not possibly have been as meaningful without having lived through some life first. Probably back then we were looking at Ethan and the symbols of winter, but this time around for me I was more interested in the character of Mattie, his desire for this warm and bright girl, and all the dreams that can never be. I thought it was beautiful, chilling, and heartbreaking.

"She clung to him without answering, and he laid his lips on her hair, which was soft yet springy, like certain mosses on warm slopes, and had the faint woody fragrance of fresh sawdust in the sun."

But don't get me wrong, because the writing about the winter is one of the best things about this novel.

"Here and there a star pricked through, showing behind it a deep well of blue. In an hour or two the moon would push over the ridge behind the farm, burn a gold-edged rent in the clouds, and then be swallowed by them. A mournful peace hung on the fields, as though they felt the relaxing grasp of the cold and stretched themselves in their long winter sleep."

The ending is a bit punishing but reflects the era.

3rd book of 2022

Wharton had a true gift for crafting sparse, beautiful prose. Sensual tensions pervade throughout the narrative of Ethan Frome, as well as throughout the characters interactions, particularly those between Ethan and Mattie.

This was a quick read for me, but one that I truly enjoyed. Would recommend! Four stars.

This year I'm doing a Reading Challenge; so I have 26 books with specific subjects that I need to read.
Book 3: A book over 100 years

Eathan Frome was first published in 1911 (106 years ago)


Every time I read a classic it's like I'm reading a true story; a bit of history being shared.
I love the old English and the composition of sentences that just paints a picture that leaves you awestruck.

This was my first acquaintance with Eadith Warton and it truly was a pleasurable one. Even-though the book is very predictable and straight forward, it was still a pretty piece of work.



The topic is something so everyday that you can't help find solace in it. The feelings is so vivid, you can't help feeling them. The characters so real, you can't help thinking that somewhere out there at this very moment someone is feeling that exact emotions.

I had already read most of Edith Wharton's major novels by the time I got around to reading Ethan Frome, and I was surprised by how different it was. Where did this come from? Wharton came from the high society of New York City which she so adeptly portrayed in The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth. Ethan Frome was set in a small New England town aptly named Starkville, and concerns the life of a poor farmer and his unhappy marriage. His wife's cousin comes to live with them, Ethan falls in love and the story descends from there to it's tragic conclusion. It turns out Edith had heard an account of a sledding accident and thought it would make a good subject for a story. The unhappy marriage and subsequent love affair mirrored Wharton's own life. Ethan Frome remains one of Wharton's most recognized novels.

Every review of this contains so many spoilers that I think everyone is beyond being spoiled. Regarding Ethan Frome, you’re all unspoilable.

A SONG

Just hear those slay-bells jingling, ring ting tingling too
Come on it's lovely weather for a slay-ride together with you
Outside the snow is falling and that nasty sick old wife of yours is calling "Yoo hoo!"
But I’m going to ignore the old bag for once and go for a slay-ride with you
Our cheeks are nice and rosy and comfy and cozy are we
We've snuggled close together and we’re going to plunge right into a tree

This song is not from the opera version of Ethan Frome. Yes, there is an opera of Ethan Frome. It doesn’t appear to be very popular though. The soundtrack was released in 2001 and Amazon records that it is currently at number 2,034,987 in their sales list. There are no current reviews of it. But I guess it must have seemed a good idea at the time.

Anyway poor Ethan for the first time meets a cute girl and likes her and she likes him back but because he’s already married and also is a poor farmer they can NEVER BE TOGETHER so they are saying their tearstained farewells when out of the blue she says let’s do a Thelma and Louise and he says without batting an eyelid yeah sure baby, climb into my sled (not a euphemism) and off they go KA BLAMMMM. I really don’t know about this, if my beloved sweetheart said to me hey, let’s drown ourselves I might want two or three minutes to talk it over (how could you suggest such a thing! You know I can’t swim!) but not this guy Ethan.

I think there are several morals of this story. The first is, don’t be a poor farmer. Second, don’t marry a woman who looks healthy enough but immediately becomes a full time hypochondriac. And third, don’t get a girlfriend who suggests a suicide pact the first time things don’t go well. And fourth, a tree is not as reliable as the Grand Canyon.

****

SOUNDTRACK

Country Death Song : Violent Femmes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWZf_...

Ballad of Hollis Brown : Bob Dylan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8xkx...

Old Man on the Farm : Randy Newman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hQUC...

On Tanner's Farm : Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClrWq...

Bleak fiction for bleak fiction’s sake about a miserable man in an inescapable, loveless marriage and his desire for another woman. Hollow and myopic, easily one of the most disappointing experiences I’ve ever had with a supposed classic. Other gothics would earn their tragedy, but this is just cold. If it has any merit it is an argument against theodicy, for look what gods we make when we play as authors.

Don't bother reading Ethan Frome. Go sledding instead.

The first time I read Ethan Frome was in the ninth or tenth grade. I remember sitting in Mr. Guevremont’s American Lit class listening to people drone on about how miserable everyone’s life is at the end of the book, especially Ethan’s. How pityingly we must feel for the man who has lost everything—and worse than that, has assumed in its place a smorgasbord of further let-downs. Ethan Frome is not even afforded the decency of remembering Mattie as she once was, but now has to endure—as punishment for his philanderin’ ways—a Mattie whose soul was crushed as completely as was her spine on the day those idiots went sledding. A Mattie who, let’s face it, we could just as well refer to as Zeena Part Deux.

“But that’s not fair!” 15 year-old Jason Morais countered. “This book portrays Zeena wretchedly, yet she has a husband who would rather suffer a crushed cranium than spend another day with her and must now spend the rest of her days caring for his mistress. Shouldn’t we feel more sorry for her than for anyone else?”

I give Mr. Guevremont credit for not responding the way he should have: “No you fucking moron, we shouldn’t.” But I suppose not saying what you really want to say is often the mark of a good teacher.

Reading this again as an adult, I have to admit there is not much room for interpretation here, at least not where Zeena’s concerned. Zenobia Frome is cold and wretched, her behavior toward Ethan being only the tip of the iceberg. She is also unkind to strangers, unwelcoming to visitors, and pretty vicious toward Mattie. I suppose someone could come along to argue (another 15 year-old, perhaps?) that Zeena’s cruelty toward Mattie is justified, or at least explainable, by the mere fact that Mattie consumes all of Ethan’s attention, but I don’t buy it. There is no contextual basis for Zeena being a jealous person. She has very little regard for Ethan’s feelings one way or the other, and in fact might even derive pleasure from knowing of his being lovestruck, because Zeena thrives on misery. It is what gets her up in the morning. When she is not surrounding herself with those on whom life has taken its biggest dumps, she wallows in miseries of her own, real or imagined. Knowing her husband was in love with Mattie is perfect for Zeena because it provides yet another means of nurturing what I like to call her “anguish fetish.” The whole sledding situation is another contribution to her porn stash. Remember Sartre’s No Exit? That is the picture of paradise for Zenobia Frome.

I am still friends with Mr. Guevremont on Facebook and on Goodreads (Hi, Mr. G!), and I think if he were reading this he would agree that my Zenobia defense back in high school probably stemmed more from my youthful naïveté than from any kind of narcissistic need to express vocal dissension. But either way, 15 year-olds can be real argumentative pricks sometimes, can’t they? Thank god I’ve outgrown that phase.

n  Much Like a Fairy Tale Sans Magic or Fantasy Charactersn



The bleak winter setting and harshly cold town folk frame Wharton's fable offering a moral for both adulterous commoners and sloppy sledders.

An A- for mood and background; otherwise, this doesn't rate a comparison to Edith Wharton's outstanding social novels, The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence, aimed at the moneyed muscid.

When a man loves her woman

Once upon a time in New England, when people still used the horse and buggy for transportationl, there lived a kind man with his mean wife. She was seven years older than he, and so grew to look old and ugly much sooner. This did not help their marriage, nor did it help that she always thought that she had one illness after the other and so took to going to doctors and to bed but not with them for she was a moral woman, a woman of most men’s dreams.

Her husband Ethan may have been unhappily wedded, but I do not recallif he complained. Then one summer day when the birds were out singing their songs of joy, his wife’s cousin Matt, a woman, came to live with them. She was young and beautiful, and she sang like the summer birds. This gladdened Ethan so much, but like I said, I didn’t know that he needed to be gladdened, but he enjoyed getting up in the morning to share coffee with her at his wife’s breakfast table. He loved being around her, he loved her voice, and he even loved her footsteps in the hallway or on the steps leading up to her bedroom. He even dreamed of that. If he had been sad, he was now full of joy, and when he took care of his farm, he whistled happy tunes.

Then one Cold, dreary, rainy day his wife desired to send Matt away, and poor Ethan did not know what to do. Matt had been there a year, and it took him that long to get up the nerve to try to kiss her. And for those who are Waiting for the Hand of god to strike them dead, there is a moral to this story. (Note: It helps to have a moral to stories so We can build our own character.) No one should be so happy as to leave a partner who is not sell suited to them, because marriage is forever. Next classic.