Ethan Frome

A marked departure from Edith Wharton's usual ironic contemplation of the fashionable New York society to which she herself belonged, Ethan From is 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 a 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 of happiness. Like The House Of Mirth, and many of Edith Wharton's other novels, Ethan Frome centers on the power of the local convention to smother the growth of the individual. Written with stark simplicity, this powerful and tragic novel has long been considered one of her greatest works.

With an introduction by Cynthia Griffin Wolff. (back cover)