Ethan Frome | Ethan Frome

At a glance:

Author: Edith Wharton
First Published: 1911
Type of Work: Novel
Type of Plot: Psychological realism
Time of Work: Late nineteenth century
Setting: Starkfield, Massachusetts
Principal Characters: Ethan Frome, Zenobia “Zeena” Frome, Mattie Silver
Genres: Long fiction, Domestic realism, Frame story
Subjects: Love or romance, Suicide, Nineteenth century, Marriage, Villages, New England, Poverty or poor people, Jealousy, envy, or resentment, Farms, farmers, or farming, Adultery, Accidents, Sick persons, Fate or fatalism, Happiness, Sleds or sledding
Locales: New England, Starkfield, MA

Ethan Frome was twenty-one years old when he married Zenobia Pierce, a distant cousin who nursed his sick mother during her last illness. It was a wedding without love. Zenobia, called Zeena, had no home of her own, and Ethan was lonely. So they were married. Zeena’s talkativeness, which had been pleasing to Ethan during his mother’s illness, quickly subsided, and within a year of their marriage, Zeena developed the sickliness that was to plague her husband all her life. Ethan became increasingly dissatisfied with his life. He was an intelligent and ambitious...

Ethan Frome | Ethan Frome

At a glance:

The Story:

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