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Customer Review: one of the bleakest tragedies in American literature
Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome is no doubt one of the bleakest tragedies in classic American literature. Everything from the sparse landscape to the unappealing personal circumstances within this depressing tale hint at a gloomy conclusion. When we first see Ethan Frome, the narrator describes him as a broken man, both physically and psychologically, even from a first glance. As the narrator learns more about Frome from townspeople and eventually Frome himself, this first impression proves to be quite accurate. After the unnamed narrator employs Frome to drive him to work, he slowly learns a few surprising tidbits about the obscure man.
One night, due to extenuating circumstances, Ethan takes the narrator into his home to stay the night. From there, the story switches to an omniscient point of view, detailing how Ethan became his current self. It is an age old tale: Man loves woman, man cannot have woman, Man and his love attempt to be together. Sadly, this love story has a tragic ending for everyone involved.
Despite Wharton's magnificently descriptive writing, the story tends to drag at particular points. The book may have been better suited as a short story as opposed to a novel. Overall, the story itself was thoughtful and well written, just not very captivating at times.
Customer Review: Sucks
I love Edith Wharton's work. I read it mostly for the mellifluous prose. This book, however, is dull in every sense. The prose are flat and spare. The story is flat and spare. And I hate it. It was boring. Usually her stories are engaging, interesting, and hard to put down. I knew when I bought this book it would be bad. I asked myself, "What the hell does Edith Wharton know about indigent peasants?" And after reading "Ethan Frome" I realized she knew nothing! Stick to the glittering affluent New York life that you knew and were a part of. I admire Edith Wharton's attempt to branch out and I'm sure she meant every word she wrote (since apparently her own marriage was falling apart), but the book is still boring. Read any other book by her, especially The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth.
Customer Review: Shoot me now
I got to know: what idiot decided this terrible thing should become a classic? It's depressing, overdramatic, and just plain silly. I realize that many people were deeply moved by this novel, but why? It seems to defy the very purpose of writing a novel. Call me a romantic, but I believe that the greatest stories, even the tragedies, did something to edify the human spirit--there was some aspect of them that was uplifting! This monstrosity did not. In fact, all I can think to say of it now is that it was something that desperately wanted to be inspiring. So, like a stick-in-the-mud English teacher this story pulled out all the obligatory ingredients of nice prose, various themes, angsty characters. But without heart, those ingredients cooked into nothing.I will not apologize for hating this novel. It is the kind of novel that exists only to lose itself in its self-pride and congratulate itself.
Product Description
Set against the bleak winter landscape of New England, Ethan Frome is the story of a poor farmer, lonely and downtrodden, his wife Zeena, and her cousin, the enchanting Mattie Silver. In the playing out of this short novel's powerful and engrossing drama, Edith Wharton constructed her least characteristic and most celebrated book. In her Introduction, the distinguished critic Elaine Showalter discusses the background to the novel's composition and the reasons for its enduring success.
Customer Review: Reading Ethan Frome has all the pleasures of swallowing a porcupine
I hate this book more than any other I've read. Edith Wharton indulges herself in a meticulous catalog of imaginary human misery. It is, in it's way, the spiteful grandmother of all the modern fiction that rejoices in the pathetic dysfunction of annoying nobodies. Read it and you have wasted precious hours of your life that you could have spent seeking real joy.
Customer Review: A Truly Beautiful Book - but have some Prozac on hand...
"Life, is the saddest thing, next to death." Edith Wharton
This brief peek into the lightless lives of Ethan & Zeeny Frome and Mattie Silver left this reader thankful that the novella wasn't very long. After all, how much bleakness can one person take? While I was perusing this one, I kept thinking to myself `what a shame, if only these people could have been born nowadays...' For in the Frome's little world, the early 20th century world of rural New England, divorce was rarely on option. Instead it seemed to be a privilege almost solely reserved for the extremely wealthy and/or celebrities. Also, Ethan's sickly, hypochondriac wife Zeena is obviously suffering from depression, which of course back in those days was about as treatable as all those phantom illnesses Zeena incessantly griped about.
So our ill-fated protagonist with his altruistic, caring nature is trapped. He is trapped because he is poor. He is trapped in a loveless marriage with a gloomy, woeful wife who does nothing all day but whine. He is trapped in a star-crossed love affair, with both participants knowing full well their heading down a one-way sled-ride to perdition. Ergo, I now know why Edith would pen a quote like the one above? All you have to do is read this short, sorrowful story and you will plainly see for yourself.
The million dollar question obviously is this: Why on Earth would anyone want to read such a melancholy tale about three people doomed to such an unfavorable fate? I am being 100% honest when I tell you folks that I did not think I was going to care for this one at all. I didn't think I was going to care for it after the first two chapters either. However, I couldn't stop reading it... I tried to stop, but I couldn't. The prose, as depressing as it is, is still loaded with charm and at the end of the day there's just no denying that Wharton is one hell of a great writer!
This is NOT a novelette that should be required reading for high-school or even college students. Most of their budding brains have not had enough experiences in life to appreciate and fully comprehend this one. This is a very adult yarn, as are most of Wharton's works, loaded with symbolism, while possessing her favorite theme of illicit love. And of all her heartsick idealists, Ethan Frome is without a doubt her most tragic character. In fact, move over Jude Frawley, Tom Joad, Clyde Griffiths, et al... cause Ethan Frome is arguably the most doomed of you all!
Again, my interest never waned while reading this one. It was very beautifully written and extremely thought provoking. What more can one ask for in a book? To say I was pleasantly surprised would be like saying Pablo Picasso was a pretty good painter. 5 Stars despite myself!
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