Ethan Frome

Favorite Book

This is my favorite book of all-time. I first read this book in high school (about 20 years ago!) and have read it several times since.
It is a love story with a sad ending.

I don't understand why people say this is boring. I think I'll blow the dust off of my copy and read it again.

3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

This is a great, sad story

It is about the life of a man who had nothing but hard luck. It is an old fashion romance that unlike Hollywood movies- cannot be said to have a happy ending. Thought provoking.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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1 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

BBOORRIINNGG!!!!!!!

I had to read this as a english summer read and had so much trouble getting into the story. The plot is hard to follow and there is little to no personality in the characters. I would not recommend this book.

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

could not read

Again with huge sentence spacing, word spacing and long list of numbers, it was just too difficult to read.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Tragic, depressing and grim.

The story takes place in a nineteenth-century New England village. Ethan Frome is married to Zeena. Zeena has a great many problems. One of which is her ailing self. It's not clear if she is truly ill, of if her meanness just makes her so, but she is bedridden to the point of needing a helping hand. Mattie, her cousin, comes to help them out.

As the three of them spend time together, it's clear that Ethan has fallen hard for Mattie. He secretly catches glimpses of her at the supper table, and finds excuses to be alone with her. Although he hopes that she feels the same way, it's hard to tell as first what Mattie is thinking. However, it's not hard to tell what Zeena is thinking and it's no surprise that she makes it difficult for them in the end.

My frustration with this book is that there is really no honor to be had when it comes to Ethan. He loves Mattie, but he doesn't really act upon it in a realistic way. He sort of fumbles along and experiences moments of gushing that you'd expect from a young girl, not a grown man. I mentioned the honor part because it's not really out of a sense of honor that he is with his wife. It's as if he doesn't have the energy to live any differently. He puts up with her but I'm not sure why. Certainly not for money, as they are poor farmers and with her medical costs, there is nothing extra to be had.

I wanted to feel something for Ethan, but I felt nothing. It was like downing a glass of wine and having it go right to your head. I was numb to his plight and I felt no pity for him. The end of the book, as seen through a third-party visitor to the house, has got to be one of the most depressing endings ever.

Although I didn't love it, there is plenty to discuss.

On a funny note, when I saw the cover above, I was thinking torrid love affair, a "roll in the hay" so to speak, but when you read the book you realize the cover has nothing to do with what my dirty, smutty mind was thinking. Too bad

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Short, sour, and to the point!

I was very skeptical about reading this at first because I love a happy ending. However, Edith Wharton completely changed that with her stark and simple realism that left you thinking there was no better way to end this story than tragically. I read it in 1 sitting... and I think that's the only way to do it with this story! Even though Ethan's relationship with his wife's cousin is borderline immoral... Wharton is able to manipulate your emotions and actually make you feel compassion for these two lovers. I will read this story over and over!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Ughhh

I had to read this for school, and I did not like it at all. It started out depressing, became even more depressing as the story progressed, and ended in a very depressing way. Throughout the entire story, the only glimmer of hope that Ethan had was cheating on his wife with her cousin; very immoral. Then, that hope was lost too, after the accident, and he was stuck with two sad, whiny, bitter ladies and lived a sad, hopeless life.

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Great book

I had to read this novel for class and though it is written very differentlybthan other Wharton books, it is personally my favorite. I recomend it to anyone looking for a quick read with a great story and a twist that will make putting the book down impossible.

Wasn't great

I read this book for school and it wasn't that bad, but also not great. Also, this version was full of weird spacing, and starting new paragraphs in a middle of a sentence. It also would randomly put the title places, even in the middle of a sentence.

Lousy copy

This is a lousy copy, spacing spelling etc is awful. A person and not just a computer is needed to make sure that it looks good and is readable.

Five Star Story, One Star Proofreading

The story itself contained in this e-book is just as compelling a story as you would expect from Edith Wharton. Very few authors have even come close to her ability to understand and communicate complicated human emotions and their consequences. Ethan Frome is a very simple, yet heartrending story of regret and what might have been. However, I have a huge complaint about the quality of the e-book itself. There are numerous typos, sections of text randomly missing, making for very awkward transitions, and, inexplicably the text:

Ethan Frome
Ethan Frome

in about the middle of almost every single page. We know what book we're reading, we don't need it doubly restated on every page! The nook is a great device, but if Barnes and Noble wants it to be taken seriously, it really needs to pay attention to the quality of the reading material it makes available. There are many other websites out there that provide these copyright-expired books in epub format that are error-free. Yes it's a little more complicated to get them onto the nook, but it can be a worthwhile tradeoff in order to get a readable edition of the book. I'd rather have a book I can read that takes a few more steps than the one-click convenience of getting an incomprehensible nookbook.

Disappointed

Seemed promising. Good climax, but then fell flat fast. Then it was over before I knew it. Horrible ending.

Cheyanne

I looked up this book becouse thats my best friends name.so..............

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Yeah yeah

:-p

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

i recommended this book to a lot of people

The book Ethan Frome is a love story with a lot of drama. I really enjoyed this book, the end is the best part. The story took place out in the New England countryside. There are farms and fields were people had to grow fruit and vegetables to eat. People sometimes had to give up things that may be very important to them such as a person or an object that may help them in life. For example, it could be a person that you are in love with that lives with you on the farm or farm animals. So this story is about love and romance.
This story takes place in Starkfield, Massachusetts. Ethan is one of the main characters lives on the farm with a wife Zenna. Zenna’s cousin Mattie comes to help with the housekeeping and Ethan and Mattie fall in love. However, Mattie also met other men such as Dennis Eady to socialize with. So who is Mattie going to fall in love with? Is it going to be Ethan who is married to her cousin Zenna or is it going to be this new character names Dennis. A lot can happen in nine chapters but I have to say that the ending may be a surprise to you.
This story has a lot to do with family and new relationships and the book would be great for people that love their wife or husband. However, it will be enjoyed by people that sometimes have trouble with their wife or husband. But hopefully it will get better in time, just like this family did. So I hope you recommend this book because it is excellent for people that love their family and pray that there life will be better when you do have a wife or a husband.

Not bad

I read this for english class and i first, had a hard time getting into it..but after awhile the story became more clear and it was an enjoyable read.

Terrible, terrible book.

This story is nothing more than an experiment in just how thoroughly a work of fiction can depress the reader. With stilyed prose and a truly unlikeable main character, this is a story not to be set aside lightly, but rather to be hastily buried in the woods and forgotten by history.

Depressing but a bit Uplifting

Read this some time ago; though it seems depressing due to the story line, it does make you think about life, love and marriage vows.

My only complaint is that I tried downloading the free B & N classic copy to my Nook, and it refuses to download!

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Fantastic

This book touched my heart and had me near tears before I was finished with it. The characters and their developments were astounding and the storyline was wonderful. I read it first in high school, then again a few years later. I could read it over and over and it would never lose its intensity.