This enforced lapse of time would seem to anyone persuaded - as I have always been - that every subject (in the novelist’s sense of the term) implicitly contains its own form and dimensions, to mark Ethan Frome as the subject for a novel.īut I never thought this for a moment, for I had felt, at the same time, that the theme of my tale was not one on which many variations could be played. The problem before me, as I saw in the first flash, was this: I have to deal with the subject of which the dramatic climax, or rather the anti-climax, occurs a generation later then the first acts of the tragedy. A short tale with a challenging structure

So much for the origin of the story there is nothing else of interest to say of it, except as concerns its construction. I give the impression merely as a personal one it accounts for Ethan Frome, and may, to some readers, in a measured justify it. I had known something of New England village life long before I made my home in the same county as my imaginary Starkfield though, during the years spent there, certain of its aspects became much more familiar to me.Įven before that final initiation, however, I had had an uneasy sense that the New England of fiction bore little - except a vague botanical and dialectical - resemblance to the harsh and beautiful land as I had seen.Įven the abundant enumeration of sweet-fern, asters, and mountain-laurel, and the conscientious reproduction of the vernacular, left me with the feeling that the outcropping granite had in both cases been overlooked. What do you think? Edith Wharton introduces Ethan Frome Has she expanded upon a readers’ view, or complicated the haunting tale? An argument can be made for either side.

It is such a complete and perfect piece of work that the reviewer can only say - read it”

Is it better to have a dispassionate eye trained on the story to unearth hidden meanings and perspectives, or is it the author who knows the tale best? Here is Edith Wharton’s own introduction to Ethan Frome, her 1911 classic short novel.Ī reviewerfrom the time when the book was published observed of its spare language and brevity: ” It is so short, a long short story, and not one word can be skipped in the reading. Sometimes it’s best for an author to introduce his or her own story sometimes it isn’t.

Ethan frome by edith wharton