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    Ethan Frome
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    Ethan Frome
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    Ethan Frome
    Audiobook3 hours

    Ethan Frome

    Written by Edith Wharton

    Narrated by Pete Cross

    3.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

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    About this audiobook

    Burdened by poverty and spiritually dulled by a loveless marriage to Zeena, his older and ailing wife, Ethan Frome is emotionally stirred by the arrival of their youthful cousin, Mattie Silver, who becomes employed as household help. Mattie's presence not only brightens a gloomy house but also stirs long-dormant feelings in Ethan. However, their growing love for each other is discovered by the embittered Zeena, and it presages an ending to the tale that is both shocking and savagely ironic.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDreamscape Media Audio
    Release dateSep 12, 2017
    ISBN9781520079509
    Author

    Edith Wharton

    Edith Wharton was born in 1862 to a prominent and wealthy New York family. In 1885 she married Boston socialite 'Teddy' Wharton but the marriage was unhappy and they divorced in 1913. The couple travelled frequently to Europe and settled in France, where Wharton stayed until her death in 1937. Her first major novel was The House of Mirth (1905); many short stories, travel books, memoirs and novels followed, including Ethan Frome (1911) and The Reef (1912). She was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature with The Age of Innocence (1920) and she was thrice nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. She was also decorated for her humanitarian work during the First World War.

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    Reviews for Ethan Frome

    3.5/5

    2,122 ratings97 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Louis Auchincloss, a favorite of mine, thought very highly of Edith Wharton, and wrote a short biography. They were from the same world, though separated by a couple of generations. I found this charmer about doomed, wasted lives, forbidden passion, and deathwish tobogganing in the bleakest patch of late 19th century New England to be more fun when I read the dialogue aloud in an old-timey Yankee accent. The ending is a bang-up twist. I enjoyed it, but I’m ready to read about rich people’s problems again.
    • 4/5
      Dark and shadowy and full of foreboding. Predictable near the end, but the epilogue isn't.
    • 4/5
      I reread this because I read it in high school and HATED it. It is a big ball of misery - I wanted to read it again, partially because I wanted to see if knowing how depressing it is going into it would make it a better read. And it did - it's really well-written story. But also now I need something extremely cheerful to read...
    • 4/5
      It's Tiny Book Tuesday! This gem is part of the 1001 books to read before you die list. I absolutely loved this book from beginning to end. It's about a married couple whose wife's cousin comes to live with them. The husband falls madly in love with the cousin but keeps it secret from everyone. I did not see the ending coming and was shocked! Very sad indeed.
    • 5/5
      Ethan Frome is a classic. I don't remember ever reading it though I saw the movie with Liam Neeson and Patricia Arquette a long time ago. Both of my sons love this book and talk about it frequently. The younger one mentioned it recently, and I decided to give it a read. Ethan Frome is married to Zeena, a hypochondriac. They're very poor but have taken in Zeena's cousin Mattie Silver to help Zeena around the house. Mattie is everything Zeena isn't; she's young and a breath of fresh air in Ethan's life.This book is deservedly a classic. The pacing of the plot is excellent with the beginning and end told by a third-party narrator and the main story told as it happened. The setting is western Massachusetts in the small fictional town of Starkfield, and the author captures the scenery and time period well. The dialogue fits, and the ending is a surprise. I'm glad they encouraged me to read this book. It truly is a must-read.
    • 2/5


      I'm sure if I read this as part if a class and could discuss the symbolism, over arching themes and foreshadowing I would have enjoyed Ethan Frome more. As it is, I just thought it was depressing and a little shallow. But, hey, I read the entire book in a few hours so at least I didn't waste a bunch of time on it. For that reason, and I like Edith Wharton, it gets three stars.
    • 1/5
      I read this to satisfy a Book Riot Read Harder Challenge: Read a book you were assigned and hated or did not finish. Positive Bonnie thought "You hated Faulkner in college and have come to love his work, maybe the same will happen for Ethan Frome." Positive me is feeling mighty disappointed because this is straight up shit. The book is far worse than I remembered. The first half is nothing but unbelievably boring people doing mundane things. Think Big Brother without the possibility of sex. The story is so loaded with symbolism (oh the barren cold!) that I get why high school teachers love it as a teaching tool, but for the common reader it is ridiculous. The second half pivots into nauseating melodrama acted out by people who, until the very moment of DRAMA suffered from clinically flat affect. Suddenly they long for one another in a manner common among 12 year old girls and those diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and launch themselves into a tragic final act that made me laugh so hard I almost gave the book another star for bringing the (clearly unintentional) fun. You will never look at pairs sledding the same again.
    • 5/5
      I adored this book as a teenager, I remember it extremely vividly. I wonder what I would think of it 20 years later, I want to re-read this soon.
    • 5/5
      Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton; (5*); VMC; the Classics; New England; (dark); VIRAGO MONTHLY AUTHOR READ; (1911)One of Wharton's very best, if not her best! The story is about the seamier side of life and what can happen in a cold clime when one makes a snap decision. Sometimes one ends up paying for that second in time for the remainder of their lives. This is a wonderful, but dark, Wharton novel. Very intense and very good. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Most excellent!...her style is unmatched...my second favorite of the three of her books I have read so far....Age of Innocence is No. 1
    • 4/5
      Great book, sad, read in one sitting, page turner.
    • 2/5
      I think there was supposed to be some deeper metaphor in the story, but it didn't do much for me.
    • 5/5
      I don't seem to have mentioned this book in my diary when Iread it in September of 1948, but I know that i was blown away by it, and I still look on it as Wahrton's greatest work.
    • 4/5
      A classic tragedy - a man who pays too dearly for his impulses and who has the best of himself stamped out by the unkindness of those who should have loved him best.
    • 4/5
      A great example of how writing can create atmosphere without directly naming the emotions present.

      Because the book takes place in winter, I recommend reading it in that season.
    • 1/5
      Dreadful and boring.
    • 4/5
      So depressing! Yikes! Still a fascinating read, though.
    • 4/5
      Short but beautifully-written: a perfect miniature portrait of the claustrophobic natures of the harsh winters of small communities in North America in the mid-nineteenth century, of poverty and of a loveless relationship.
    • 5/5
      I don't think I'll be forgetting this book anytime soon- or ever.
    • 4/5
      Ethan Frome is a man trapped in a loveless marriage to a bitter and miserable woman. His wife, Zenobia, always complaining about her imagined illnesses, sends for a poor cousin, Mattie, to help out in the house and care for her. Ethan falls in love with Mattie and is given the difficult choice of finding love and happiness in an immoral relationship with Mattie, or following society's conventions and spending the rest of his life, as a miserable hen-pecked husband.

      Although this story is short, it immediately captivated me. Told as a flashback from a stranger who Ethan helps out in a cold winter storm, there is a constant sense of foreboding. I listened to this as an audiobook, read by George Guidall - excellent narration. Although this story is short, there is one scene from this book that will stay with me always (no spoilers here though...).
    • 1/5
      He whines too much. >__<'
    • 3/5
      Ethan Frome is a farmer who has little money to live. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife Zeena and Zeena's cousin Mattie. Mattie is younger than Zeena, so Ethan is fascinated and love her. But he has the wife, so he faces many difficulties. I was interested in this story. I think love is so difficult and scare because Ethan fell in love with Mattie even though he had the wife.
    • 5/5
      A farmer in turn-of-the-century New England struggles to survive and to make his farm successful. First he is tethered to the land by his helpless parents; then by his ailing wife. When Ethan's wife's alluring cousin comes to stay, she and Ethan become trapped in a hopelessly passionate love affair. Trapped by fear of public condemnation and the bonds of a loveless marriage, Ethan starts down a path which could eventually lead to tragedy for all involved.I had originally wanted to read this book after seeing the movie with Liam Neeson. Mareena and I caught the last part of the movie and were shocked at how sad it was. I love a sad book and Mareena loves the classics. I give this book an A+!
    • 3/5
      Not sure why this is considered one of her weaker works. I've read a couple others and this seemed to be the same-o story of failed love.Although a novella, it plodded like an old arthritic sorrel, through the hoary, biting ghostly whisps of evening snow, on an inky country road...
    • 4/5
      This is another that I just read for book club. I never read any Edith Wharton in High School or College, but after visiting her home and reading this book, I feel like I missed out on a lot.
    • 4/5
      A poor rural farmer in Starkfield, Massachusetts is involved in a love triangle with a poor relation of his older, ailing wife who has come to live with them. It was a marriage which probably should have never occurred in the first place. Readers see how this affects his relationship with his wife. Wharton is a master at painting a picture with words. While I'm not convinced this story would have played out this way in real life, the author's descriptions make the book worth reading. I'm not sure that I really liked Ethan or his wife that much, but I did like Mattie. It is her story that made me sad.
    • 4/5
      A melancholy read, with such descriptive writing that the snow on the stark fields of Starkfield glistens as you read, and the countenance of the various characters as they speak, convey their words straight to your mind's eye. The story a tragedy; the writing brilliant.
    • 5/5
      One of my all-time favourite novels, this beautifully written, spare tale of wasted lives and lost dreams has stayed with me for many years. The character of Ethan, an imperfect man with longings for something larger that he can sometimes glimpse, is one of the most moving in fiction.
    • 5/5
      Such a sad tragic story but so wonderfully written. Read it.
    • 4/5
      This was such a bleak, sad tale, that I kept wishing that Ethan could escape his loveless marriage and run off with Mattie, but there was no real happiy ending. Simplle story, beautifully written.