Koks gražus ir koks tyliai liūdnas pasakojimas. Apie didelę meilę, didelę neteisybę, didelį orumą, susitaikymą, žmogiškumą, nedrąsia svajonę, nedrąsią mintį, tylų įsijautimą ir kelis visiškai sudužusius likimus. Daug iš knygos tikėjaus, daug ir gavau. Maža, plona, bet nė vieno nereikalingo žodžio. Toks jausmas, kad Wharton Fromo rankraštį tol trumpino, kol paliko tik pačią pačią esmę, pačiais giliausiais ir paveikiausiais sakiniais. t
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Itanas Fromas gyvena nemeilėje su savo žmona Zena. Pastaroji nuolat kažką gydosi, nuolat skundžiasi, nuolat sau išsigalvoja sveikatos bėdas ir brangius jų gydymo būdus. Itanas, tuo tarpu, lenkia nugarą dvilinkas, kad nuolat į kapus besirengainti žmona mažiau skųstųsi. Lygiai dėl tų pačių skundų, į jų namus pagyventi ir buity padėti atsikrausto jaunutė jos giminaitė Metė. Kantri, darbšti, gyvenimu besidžiaugianti Metė tampa Itano akių šviesa ir širdies atgaiva. Tik tos minutės kai ją mato ar girdi padeda susitaikyti su nedėkingu likimu, tik Metė jam reiškia džiaugsmą ir atokvėpį nuo realybės.


Knyga neliūdina tavęs akivaizdžiais dalykais: slogutį ir išeičių neturinčių pagrindinių veikėjų skausmą pajauti per nutylėjimus, žvilgsnius, piktus dialogus su ktais personažais ir tiesiog bendroje knygos atmosferoje. Tiek Itanas, tiek Metė tokie geri, tokie žmogiški ir nelaimingi, kad tampa beprotiškai lengva jiems pajaust simpatiją ir atjautą.Kaip gražiai knygoje parinkti žodžiai, kaip jausmingai, bet be didelių ditirambų dėliojami sielon smingantys liūdni sakiniai ir jais apipinama neišvengimai nelaiminga meilės istorija. Nuostabus vertimas. Perskaičiau vienu sykiu ir dvejopi jausmai liko: liūdna, skauda, bet taip gražu, taip tikra, taip talentinga ir sodru. Labai labai patiko.

I knew of Ethan Frome as an apparently dreary book used to inflict tedium on American high schoolers. It seemed somehow separate from "Edith Wharton", who signified novels about rich young American women in Edwardian dresses, which I wasn't really interested in reading. (This is one of the points of history in which my general interest is lowest anyway, and adding that to Americans, and the typical 'marriage plot', well.) But if I'm finally to make inroads towards finishing a reading project that's been hanging about me since 1994, to read all the authors from The Divine Comedy's The Booklovers, some Edith Wharton must be read. It turned out that this one is handily very short, *and* one of the author's most canonical texts, thanks to said high schools *and* set in a down-at-heel rural milieu that I find more interesting to read about than yet another Buccaneer conquering an early-20th century drawing room.

(Such an American name, too, Ethan. For many years, the only Ethan I knew of was Ethan Hawke, one of those generic young actors whom teenage girls' magazines would inexplicably drool over in the early 90s - and the name always sounded to me as if it must be short for something else. Apparently it isn't. And in recent years it's become more popular in Britain.)

My sympathies to those who were bored into loathing this book; it can happen to anyone if the teaching is bad, or long-drawn-out for the benefit of lower-ability students in a class that's too mixed to work for all levels. Having had to bear an entire term on Of Mice and Men at GCSE - a book which I'm sure I'd have had no particular problem with if we'd dealt with it in two or three weeks - I think I can empathise. But if this was you with Ethan Frome, you probably haven't read this far anyway...

Elaine Showalter acknowledges in her introduction to this Oxford edition, "Generations of American readers have studied Ethan Frome as a set text in secondary school, less recommended, I suspect, for its artistic brilliance than for its brevity and absence of explicit sexual references." Mostly, the novel seems an absurd choice for the average modern teenager. There are plenty of essay-ready instances where one can point out symbolism, pathetic fallacy and the like, but its strengths are in beautiful descriptions of winter scenery, of details of the lifestyles of working-class rural New Englanders of the 1900s, and the subtle dynamics between two people who are attracted to one another but whom the morals of the day forbid from acting on it. However, in its favour, the dénouement is an antidote to the Romeo & Juliet trope of destroying oneself for impossible love, and many teachers no doubt feel responsibility to try and imprint this on their pupils. These ideas sit there in the mind for longer than the teenage years.

The framing narrative - in which an engineer goes to work in Starkfield, Mass., and becomes curious about taciturn local man Ethan Frome - has a class dimension it was surprising the introduction didn't touch on. Showalter explains that for Wharton, Ethan was a character exemplifying 'here but for the grace of God go I'. She had felt trapped in her relationship with a husband who was both sickly and difficult to live with - but the couple's wealth and social standing allowed them to go their separate ways, and for Teddy Wharton to pay for whatever assistance he needed. The opening narrator, a proxy for the reader, has a strong sense of entitlement to know about the details of the Fromes' lives, and manages to get an invitation into their home, as few locals have had for years. Ethan is also brighter than the average local, and went to the nearest college for a while, cutting short his degree because of responsibilities to his ailing parents. There is an implication that he is worth more, and more interesting, than the rest of them because of this. But on the other hand, most people in the 1910s who would reading what would now be called a literary novel *were* those with higher-than-average levels of education and those who either got out, or felt they should have got out, of places like Starkfield; it's also just attuned to its contemporary audience.

The sickly women of Starkfield can be read as a feminist indictment of what happened to women trapped in unfulfilling lives, suffering physical symptoms of depression as a result - one which can still be seen in works 50 years later (such as Simone de Beauvoir's Les Belles Images, which I read the same week as Ethan Frome). But it can also look like a snobbish condemnation of poor people failing to pull themselves together, as Zeena finds she can when she needs to become a carer again herself. This narrative is a product of its time in not having the theories available to explore and understand the causes of widespread ill-health in the area, which may well have been as complex as those for which Glasgow is notorious.

It's perhaps not since childhood that I read much fiction set in rural North America (Laura Ingalls Wilder, L.M. Montgomery, and other girls' classics of the late 19th and early 20th century). Because so much of what I've read about the American wilderness in adulthood has been via articles, mostly of a leftward and/or environmental bent, I hadn't quite grasped how white Americans thought of it as historically "theirs", and not that they were fairly new to it. Films and TV don't have the same sense of implicit history as a novel, somehow, and for all that the portrayal of Native peoples in the Little House books has been condemned, they are *there* and it's evident they were there first. After reading Trout Fishing in America and Ethan Frome, I'm starting to understand how white Americans' felt sense of connection to the land exists, and how it must feel normal, and how it's replicated across generations via stories like these.

It's easy to understand why a GR friend says Ethan Frome must be read in winter: the weather and setting are wonderfully atmospheric. But so much so that I found them vividly evocative on cooler, rainy summer days too. By no means all books are powerful enough to work so well out of season as this one did. Wharton gets one so effectively into the characters' heads that even if demographics suggest that a reader should have more sympathy with Zeena, one is drawn into Ethan's and Mattie's minds, and sympathy with them. Their dynamic with Zeena evokes that of teenagers trying to get out from under the thumb of an unreasonable parent. (Zeena even gets mad about the breakage of crockery.) I appreciate Wharton as an excellent writer now, of setting, characters and metaphors. I'd consider reading Summer or The Bunner Sisters, but the subjects of her major novels still don't appeal much: if I want to read about that upper-class milieu, I just prefer it to be set a little earlier or later in history.

Every year I try to make it thru a winter in New England but only rarely do I succeed. The short winter days can be hard for this California girl. Reading this book in November probably was not a good idea--the bleakness of it and the cold can almost be felt through these pages. What a great story, as well as tragic and sad. When can a man get a break? Not in the long short days of winter in New England.
I started with the audio of this book read beautifully by George Guidall (one of my favorite narrators) but picked up the book about midway to read at night by the fire. A good story for that and another Wharton gem.

*Spoilers, proceed with caution*. This very sad tale Ethan Frome is an account of the life of Zenobia Frome, ‘Zeena’. She was named after the great Roman queen who led a revolt against the empire - somewhat like Princess Leia.

Zeena had sacrificed her life to the man she loved, Ethan Frome. However, he repaid her by having a secret love affair with Zeena’s pennyless and lazy cousin, Matty, to whom Zeena had given a home. She was pretty, and knew when to flutter her eyelashes.

But poor Zeena was quite homely. They made fun of her, for she had false teeth, and looked much older than her 35 years. This was a direct result of caring for the sick and not taking care of herself. True, it made her a little queer, sort of a hypochondriac – a sad condition caused by anxiety.

When Zeena was in extreme pain, and had to go on an overnight trip to see a doctor, these two ungrateful persons could hardly wait to see her go, so they could act out their little fantasy. While playing a shameless game of ‘house’, they destroyed the one possession that Zeena valued, a lovely red pickle dish. This dish was a wedding gift, and to Zeena, it was the symbol of her love for Ethan. She cried when she found the broken pieces, while the two calloused lovers laughed about the ‘cat’ breaking it.

Now, it should be understood that Zeena had found a potential husband for Matty, a decent hardworking businessman, albeit somewhat socially awkward guy named Denis Eady. But Matty was having none of it. She was too good for him.

Thus Zeena knew the only way to save her marriage was to send Matty away. Ethan hated Zeena’s guts for this, and wanted to run away with Matty. That could not happen. They had no money.

On the way to the train station, they decided to have one last little fling - sledding! There was a famous sledding hill nearby, conveniently with a large elm tree at the bottom. Their first run down the hill was so much fun that Matty knew she could not live without Ethan. She slyly suggested to him that they commit suicide together, by crashing into the tree. At first he thought she had gone completely nuts, but then he remembered Zeena`s false teeth and, yeah, realized it was for the best. It is no surprise that this plan went very wrong. They both ended up crippled, and Zeena, a woman of character and principle, took care of them both for the rest of their lives.

One of those books I read when I was young, but always thought I should read again. It was a quick read with an unexpected ending and held my attention to the end. Sometimes life makes us pay too high a price...I probably understand that better now than I would have in my 20s.

Like so many of Wharton's characters, Ethan Frome is searching for his place in the world and hoping for a happiness that is always just out of his reach. I suppose our sympathies ought to lie, to some extent, with Zenobia, the wronged wife, but how can they when she is so harsh and cruel. Aside from that, this is a very different novel from Wharton's other works. It is not about class. Frome isn't hungry to join the wealthier class, he is hungry to join the world. He wants to lead a life with meaning, and he is tied to a farm that holds him because of an accident of birth, and a woman who holds him because of an accident of circumstances.

Like all of Wharton's works, this one packs a lot into a small space. It does not stretch beyond what is needed, and the images of Ethan Frome that we see in the beginning become very poignant by the end.

Plot - 12/20
Characters - 12/20
Creativity - 11/20
Writing - 18/20
Pace - 7/10
Ending - 6/10
66/100 =
D+
2/5 stars

WHAT DID I JUST READ?! I can't believe I read this for english. It felt like such a pointless story. When I finished the book I didn't even realize it (reading the ebook) trying to go on to the next page to find that, nope! It's actually the end. I found the first half to be very slow but as the story went on it picked up pace and got really crazy with all the drama coming down. A lot of things were confusing and because of that I'm going to have to go back and reread the prolong. Over all I felt like the storyline didn't do much for me, I just felt bad for Ethan and everyone else in his world. Won't necessarily recommend.

In the bleak setting of 1880's Starkfield, appropriately named, (Lenox, western Massachusetts) where it always seems like perpetual winter, and its cold, dark, gloomy, ambiance, a poor, uneasy farmer, Ethan Frome, 28, is all alone, his mother has just died, the woman who took good care of her, Zenobia (Zeena) Pierce, is about to leave, though seven years junior to the lady, he purposes, she accepts gladly and the biggest mistake he believes, of his life, occurs. Zeena, not a beauty, likes nursing sick people, the capable woman knows what to do, unlike the hapless Frome, but soon develops a strange illness herself, while idle, seeing many doctors, they tell her what she wants to hear, given some pills, advice and then off to another one. The hypochondriac continues this ceaseless pattern, Ethan becomes quite disillusioned, after only a year of marriage, Zeena's, physicians prescribe that she get a maid, to help with the hard, tiresome housework, which is ludicrous, since her husband does most of it...Yet the struggling farmer, not the best around, has troubles of his own, a deteriorating, old house, that frequent blizzards, cause much damage to, a failing, lumber mill, also, and the new expenses... he reluctantly agrees, though, Mattie Silver, Zeena's petite cousin arrives, with no close family left, she is healthy, cheerful, lively and yes, pretty, Mr. Frome, a lonely man, falls in love, but naturally keeps it a deep secret, his sour, silent wife lives in another world and does not notice. He begins to daydream, neglects his not prosperous farm and negligible mill, thinking about pleasant thoughts, their few walks and rides together... bliss. Does Mattie, not the best maid, either, rather more a dreamer, like Ethan, love him too, the possibilities are endless, thinks he, can they dare run away together, to the western frontier, forget the people they abandoned and live only for themselves? The triangle if it exists, will have winners and losers, but Ethan must find out quickly how Mattie feels, a new woman is coming to replace Miss Silver, at the insistence of the unpleasant Zeena, the crises looms, decisions have to be made now, the scared girl has no place to live...An uncommonly captivating story of love, ( but not for all, the narrative can be difficult to digest) responsibility, and propriety, in an age that demands this from everyone, scandals are not tolerated by society, all must know the rules, the few who brake them are ostracized in perpetuity...

Finally, I have the right word for this predicament: When a capable author uses her prowess to create a work whose sole purpose seems to be to depress the reader, it can be described as Frome. This word can also be used as a verb, noun, adjective (Frome-ish, Frome-ier, etc), adverb (Frome-ly), etc. to similarly describe the effect it has on the reader, (ie, "I was Fromed.")

An example used in a sentence may be: "John Steinbeck was clearly suffering from a touch of the Frome when he penned The Pearl"
Or, "Can we go see a rom-com? These foreign films are beautiful but leave me feeling Fromey."

And for the most of the book I was thinking its a brilliantly written, captivating yet quite predictable and generic story....
It made me angry, irritated, was thinking I'm grateful for liberalism and individualism, yet kept on wondering about differences in convenances now and then, and what currently ties us down to lives we don't want. Was thinking I have everything sorted out, and then BANG!!!
Perspective was changed, a rush of thoughts questioning my early judgments... brilliant stuff, well deserved 4 stars.

I didn't know anything about it when I picked it up except that it was short.

I love sparse poetry and this is such a great example of it. It's very tragic, but in a realistic way that was gut-wrenching at times. Also a lot of scenes are "show don't tell" perfected. I'm really curious to read more Edith Wharton now.

”He seemed a part of the mute melancholy landscape, an incarnation of its frozen woe, with all that was warm and sentient in him fast bound below the surface; but there was nothing unfriendly in his silence. I simply felt that he lived in a depth of moral isolation too remote for casual access, and I had the sense that his loneliness was not merely the result of his personal plight, tragic as I guessed that to be, but had in it, as Harmon Gow had hinted, the profound accumulated cold of many Starkfield winters.”

From the first pages, Wharton’s descriptions of the landscape, setting a scene and showing us all of the emotions attached to life in this time and this place. As my goodreads friend, Julie, has noted in referring to Wharton as “the queen of sparse prose,” it is how much emotion which she manages to place into so few pages that is notable and inspiring.

Set in the fictional small town of Starkfield, Massachusetts in time period around the late 1800s – early 1900s, where the winters can be brutal and isolating, Ethan’s farm encompasses enough land that neighbors are quite a distance away.

Ethan has lived in on his farm, in the house where he had lived with his mother, which is how his wife, Zeena, came into his life. Zeena was hired to care for his mother in her last years.

”After the funeral, when he saw Zeena preparing to go away, he was seized with an unreasoning dread of being left alone on the farm; and before he knew what he was doing he had asked her to stay there with him. He had often thought since that it would not have happened if his mother had died in spring instead of winter."

Now Zeena’s health is now poor, and she hires her cousin Mattie to help with chores and cooking, but regrets that decision when Mattie arrives. Mattie is both pretty and young, and so Zeena begins to make plans for her dismissal.

A tale of forbidden love, simply told, this story would not be the same in another place, another time or another season. The isolation, the feeling of being trapped in an unsatisfactory life, the desperation of desiring a life we envisioned, one including happiness, feeling defeated by living ”in Starkfield for too many winters.” All add another layer, as if Winter, the seemingly never-ending season, were another character steering their lamentable state of affairs.

I’ve wanted to read this one for a while now, and am so pleased to have finally made time for it. Many thanks to Julie, whose review had me move this to my January reads.

Julie’s review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Ethan Frome is my fourth Edith Wharton story and again, she has not disappointed. I came into this one blind, and I was expecting Wharton to provide another humorous study of the stuffy upper-class in New York society.

Well, this is not what she delivered on this occasion.

Ethan Frome lives in a rural fictional town in Massachusetts in the early 1900s. He only just scrapes out an existence from an unproductive, worthless piece of land. His horses are old and knackered, he has an old guy who helps out and a very sickly wife called Zeena who seems to be mostly bed-bound and miserable. This would normally engender some sympathy in the reader, but it is clear Wharton’s intention is to paint Zeena as a mean-spirited, hyper-critical person. I couldn’t stand her.

Early on we discover Ethan was badly injured in an accident many years ago, leaving him physically impaired, but still able to perform some duties. We are not sure what exactly happened to cause his injuries – Wharton adds a little tension and suspense here, as we discover the cause of his injuries. The hapless Ethan, also had to care for each parent before they passed away, and now he is caring for Zeena. Wharton makes us feel for this poor guy – it’s obvious the cards haven’t fallen his way………….and on top of all this, it is freezing cold, typical of this state in winter I understand. This gives the whole story a feeling of extreme hardship and misery.

Enter Mattie Silver, a young bright bubble of a woman, who comes to the house to help with the house duties due to Zeena’s incapacity – Mattie is related to Zeena, and is taken on because she herself has hit hard times. The three main characters of Ethan, Zeena and Mattie weave an interesting web – all largely as a result of Ethan’s obsession with the girl.

This makes for a fascinating story. Ethan is obviously conflicted, not only due to societal norms of the day, but also (in my opinion) due his own moral compass – Ethan is a good bloke. But how much can the man put up with?

Wharton increased the tension as this story progressed, growing to a surprising crescendo. I wont say if the ending was sad, happy or in between.

But, my oh my, Edith, you’ve done it again!!

4 Stars