Ethan Frome
Edith Wharton
128 pages
First published 1911
I read the new Penguin Classics edition, which I bought
This is a bleak book. The wintry setting is bleak, the characters are mostly bleak, and the situation is bleak. If you’re in the mood to be depressed, this should do the trick. If you’re not feeling like this is the book for you, then it’s safe to read the rest of this post. If you are planning on reading it, go away (not because I don’t like you, but because there be spoilers ahead).
Despite a few other minor characters, the focus is on three people:
Ethan Frome: a farmer who is struggling to eke out an existence. Ethan has an appreciation for the beauty of nature, but he’s stuck with a wife who is pretty much his polar opposite. He is deeply alone.
Zenobia “Zeena” Frome: Ethan’s wife, a hypochondriac who is pretty much all about me, me, me.
Mattie Silver: Zeena’s young cousin, who comes to help with the household work, since poor, sickly Zeena is too frail to do it herself. Mattie is good-natured and fun-loving, and Ethan falls ass over tea kettle in love.
Kind of like Wuthering Heights (and wow, does it kill me to mention that horror of a story), this story is being told by a narrator who’s trying to puzzle out what happened. In this case, though, our narrator isn’t quite as nosy and the story is much shorter (thank god) and there aren’t multiple Catherine’s running around acting like total ninnies (and again, I say thank god).
However, there is Ethan occasionally acting like a ninny. But then, Ethan is stuck with a whiny butt for a wife, so who can blame him. When Mattie comes to help out lazy Zeena, Ethan is smitten with the younger, livelier (although compared to Zeena, grass would be livelier) woman. When Zeena catches on to Ethan’s infatuation, she orders Mattie away. As Ethan drives her (this is pre-auto days, though, and they’re in a buggy, but “buggies her” doesn’t sound quite right) to the train station, they make a suicide pact. I shit you not. And wow, didn’t see that coming. However, death by oak tree (note the cover) didn’t exactly work out, and poor Mattie ends up crippled for life.
And then, total shocker. Guess who ends up taking care of her??? Yep, oh-woe-is-me Zeena. Man, that had to be a miserable household to live in. If Ethan thought he had it bad before, it was surely hell on earth to live with a Zeena who is caring for the woman you fell in love with.
So. As I said before…bleak, bleak, bleak. Ultimately, it’s about a man wishing for a different life, but who is too afraid of social conventions to take action to break away. And when he decides that death is the only alternative, even that isn’t allowed. But it’s hard to feel sorry for someone who wasn’t courageous enough to change his life by any other means than death.
Have you read any of Edith Wharton’s other books? Is she always this much of a downer?
Bleak, bleak, bleak? Sounds like uck, uck, uck (see, I would have said “yuck” but you might think that was laughing sounds. Then again, you might think “uck” is a euphemism for f plus uck. Maybe I should have said, ugh, ugh, ugh…)
Yep, she’s always that depressing. I’ve read 3-4 of her novels and this one was the most cheery. Seriously. At least in this one, no one gets married to the adoptive father they were raised by even though he’s 30 years older than them and crippled.
I need not leave a comment — what she said.
Beth F´s last [type] ..Can I Challenge You
I have to say that I really enjoyed this one – in part because it was so perfectly bleak.
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Bleak, yes, but I love it! That cover cracks me up because at first glance it looks like they’re just having a roll in the hay, er, snow. Then you see her leg is a little out of whack.
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I’ve only read Wharton novel, The House of Mirth, and it was not really a happy tale, but it was not unrelentingly dark and sad either. I believe Ethan Frome is known for being a really depressing book, certainly Wharton’s darkest. That said, I just can’t get into her… House of Mirth was a real battle for me – something about her writing doesn’t click with me. I might try her again in the future, but will not pick this one!
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I haven’t made it through any of her books. I tried Age of Innocence and was just never interested enough to finish it. I think she does tend to be pretty bleak. It seems that people are miserable, stuck in their choices and die.
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Wow, I had to read this in high school and you just made me realize I remember NOTHING about it. I went through an Edith Wharton phase back then (after I read Ethan Frome and not because of it), and I liked her stuff. I don’t recall feeling overly bleak with her novels, but I guess she kinda is. My favorite was Summer and I also like Twilight Sleep. I think I really just liked the historical setting of her novels, but I haven’t read anything by her in FOREVER.
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As you know from my review post, I really expected more of a hot mess from that cover. What I got was cold bleakness. It reminded me of WH too. So grim and depressing.
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Yes, Wharton is that bleak all the time. She had issues. But I love her writing. I really do. Maybe her non-fiction (travel memoirs) might not be so depressing. If you want a hot mess, The Custom of the Country is a good one.
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I’m just about to start Age of Innocence, but haven’t read any of her other works.
I read this a few years ago, and you are right, it was very bleak. I did like the ending though, and totally didn’t see it coming. I did read one other Wharton book, and it was also a little bleak as well.
Sounds like a drag. I LOVED That Age of Innocence, you should have read that.
My sister read this book in high school and moaned and groaned so much that she scared me away from Wharton’s work.
I read this so long ago I don’t remember a thing about it except ick. And, one of our 12th grade English teachers has her students read it. Every time they come in to the library to check it out I think, “oh, you poor things.”
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I wonder why they don’t continue to try killing themselves after that. After all their existence seems to be even more miserable. I haven’t read any Wharton, but I don’t mind bleak and this book is thin. I might just pick it up when the mood strikes!
ha! I said the same thing! Somebody got any spare arsenic?
Care´s last [type] ..Happy National Pie Day!
I haven’t read this since high school, and I thoroughly enjoyed your lively, to-the-point summary. If I remember correctly, this is my least favorite novel by edith Wharton.
I did love the snarky reviews I found after I read this. It almost made up for the bleakness.
Care´s last [type] ..Happy National Pie Day!
I’ve only read Ethan Frome and The Age of Innocence. I read Ethan Frome on my own and probably wouldn’t have picked up any more Wharton if it hadn’t been for a class, which required me to read Age of Innocence. It was so much less depressing, I thought. I’m planning to read House of Mirth at some point, if you’d like to give Wharton another go!
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I love the cover on this edition. Sorry it was so depressing. I do want to read it.
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How perfect that you posted this review on Wharton’s birthday! I love Wharton, but think this is the bleakest. The Custom of the Country and Summer are my favorites … and she writes a pretty good ghost story, too.
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Such a depressing book – yet, one I really enjoyed. Weird, huh? Not only was the story of Ethan depressing, but the landscape and cold just made me freezing the whole time I read the book. The House of Mirth is also incredibly depressing as well, so don’t expect sunshine and rainbows with that one, either.
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The House of Mirth makes Ethan Frome look like fun on a snowy day.
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Okay, so I’ve actually never read any Edith Wharton. What I see from the comments and your review is, if I’m having a bad week, skip her or I’ll slash my wrists.
I so enjoyed this review. For a bleak book, you had me giggling throughout the review.
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Never read Wharton but I do have this one sitting on my shelf. Thanks for warning me!
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Isn’t it strange how so many classics ARE depressing books? I wonder why happy books generally don’t make it to that stage…
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