num_pages: 77
description: Perhaps the best-known and most popular of Edith Wharton's novels, Ethan Frome is widely considered her masterpiece. Set against a bleak New England background, the novel tells of Frome, his ailing wife Zeena and her companion Mattie Silver, superbly delineating the characters of each as they are drawn relentlessly into a deep-rooted domestic struggle.Burdened by poverty and spiritually dulled by a loveless marriage to an older woman, Frome is emotionally stirred by the arrival of a youthful cousin who is employed as household help. Mattie's presence not only brightens a gloomy house but stirs long-dormant feelings in Ethan. Their growing love for one another, discovered by an embittered wife, presages an ending to theis grim tale that is both shocking and savagely ironic.(back cover)
language: English
title: Ethan Frome
titlecomplete: Ethan Frome (Dover Thrift Editions: Classic Novels)
characters: Daniel Byrne, Ned Hale, Mrs. Homan, Eliza Spears, Andrew Hale, Dr. Kidder, Lawyer Varnum, Jotham Powell, Ethan Frome, Mrs. Frome, Mrs. Ned Hale, Mrs. Varnum, Mattie Silver, Harmon Gow, Michael Eady, Orin Silver, Zeena Frome, Aunt Philura Maple, Dr. Buck, Mrs. Hale, Denis Eady, Aunt Martha Pierce
genres: Fiction, Classics, Read For School, American, Historical Fiction, High School, Romance, Literature, Novels, School
ratings_count: 123725
places: Starkfield, Massachusetts, New England, Massachusetts
publisher: Dover Publications