num_pages: 176
description: A marked departure from Edith Wharton's usual ironic contemplation of the fashionable New York society to which she herself belonged, Ethan Frome is a sharply etched portrait of the simple inhabitants of a nineteenth-century New England village. The protagonist, Ethan Frome, is a man tormented by passionate love for his ailing wife's young cousin. trapped by the bonds of marriage and the fear of public condemnation, he is ultimately destroyed by that which offers him the greatest chance at happiness.Like The House of Mirth and many of Edith Wharton's other novels, Ethan Frome centers on the power of local convention to smother the growth of the individual. Written with stark simplicity, this powerful and tragic novel has long been considered one of Wharton's greatest works.(back cover)
language: English
title: Ethan Frome
titlecomplete: Ethan Frome (Signet Classics)
characters: Aunt Philura Maple, Jotham Powell, Mrs. Ned Hale, Mattie Silver, Zeena Frome, Mrs. Varnum, Denis Eady, Dr. Kidder, Mrs. Frome, Daniel Byrne, Orin Silver, Dr. Buck, Lawyer Varnum, Aunt Martha Pierce, Mrs. Hale, Eliza Spears, Michael Eady, Ned Hale, Ethan Frome, Harmon Gow, Mrs. Homan, Andrew Hale
genres: Classics, American, Novels, High School, Read For School, School, Romance, Historical Fiction, Literature, Fiction
ratings_count: 123725
places: Massachusetts, New England, Starkfield, Massachusetts
publisher: Signet Classics