By: Edith Wharton Publisher: Waking Lion Press Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Waking Lion Press Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 108 Publication Date: July 06, 2006 Release Date: July 06, 2006
Product Description: One of Edith Wharton's greatest works, this classic novel is a portrait of the simple inhabitants of a 19th-century New England village. Crafted with stark simplicity, Ethan Frome portrays the power of convention to smother the growth of the individual. Newly designed and typeset in a modern 6-by-9-inch format by Waking Lion Press.
Best Book I've Ever Read, Hands Down First of all, I want to say -- Stephen Masse, you are an exquisite writer and I absolutely concur with your review. Thank you for what you said about this book, I so rarely find anyone who fully appreciates it. I don't think that I can add much more except to say that I read this book at a time in my life that absolutely matched the emotion found within it, and it will always be my most cherished book for that reason. I thank my sister (and her flawless taste in all things beautiful) for insisting that I read it. When she suggested it, just the title "Ethan Frome" immediately grabbed my attention. The name of the main character itself was so evocative of something fathomless beneath a silent surface. My first reading of it was incidentally in the dead of January, which added greatly to the experience.
Reading this work, my jaw literally dropped so many times at the visceral, poignant visual and emotional imagery that Wharton evokes, and I honestly felt like I was going to have a heart attack at the story's climax. I've never read anything else that can quite match its intensity. You can bet that I sobbed my eyes out, from the climax to the end of the story. I related so much to the story on so many levels that it was the most profoundly intimate reading experience I've ever had. I return to it often to once again glimpse rare vistas of raw beauty and power. I recommend this book with all my heart.
Spare, relentless and incredibly human Ethan Frome was given to me many years ago, and remains a favorite. Probably the most spare, relentless and incredibly human story of unrequited love in American literature. The male point of view of an unfulfilled marriage is impeccably drawn by Edith Wharton, and the reader's sympathy for Ethan Frome grows with each page. Of course the New England winter setting adds the grip of cold and darkness to the fictional town of Starkfield, and the character of Mattie Silver so bright and warm in contrast to the worn and manipulative Zenobia -- one can not read this book without strongly felt heart activity.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
