Ethan Frome Audiobook By Edith Wharton cover art

Ethan Frome

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Ethan Frome

By: Edith Wharton
Narrated by: Scott Brick
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Ethan Frome, a poor, downtrodden New England farmer, is trapped in a loveless marriage to his invalid wife, Zeena. His ambition and intelligence are oppressed by Zeena's cold, conniving character. When Zeena's young cousin Mattie arrives to help care for her, Ethan is immediately taken by Mattie's warm, vivacious personality. They fall desperately in love as he realizes how much is missing from his life and marriage. Tragically, their love is doomed by Zeena's ever-lurking presence and by the social conventions of the day. Ethan remains torn between his sense of obligation and his urge to satisfy his heart's desire, up to the suspenseful and unanticipated conclusion.

Perhaps reflective of Wharton's own loveless marriage, this sophisticated, star-crossed love story vividly depicts her abhorrence of society's relentless standards of loyalty. Ethan Frome is one of Wharton's most popular and best-known works.

Public Domain (P)2002 Tantor Media, Inc. Classics Marriage Heartfelt

Editorial reviews

Published in 1911, Wharton's novel is set in the desolate New England town of Starkfield. Ethan Frome, a painfully loyal farmer and his demanding wife, Zeena, are trapped in a cheerless marriage. When her cousin Mattie comes to work for them, Ethan and Mattie struggle against forbidden feelings, but inevitably, they fall in love. Scott Brick's able narration conveys the pervasive dreariness of lives only briefly relieved by the advent of possibility. However, as with many of Wharton's novels, irony dominates. Brick's performance offers a familiarity with Downeast colloquialisms and thoroughly believable New England accents. He brings Wharton's characters to oppressive life in this unrelentingly grim story. This production opens with a brief summary of the author's life, offering insights.
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Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

It was good to tick off a classic I had never before read, but this was a seriously depressing read. This book on a grey drizzly February day and I would probably be suicidal.

A classic, but not much fun

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This is one of those novels/novellas that is so cold, barren and bleak that the full beauty of it isn't completely evident until you put the book down, drink a warm beverage, and warm your brain, body and soul back up. Wharton's prose is amazing and her plot is perfection.

'Ethan Frome' is another novella that proves that bigger isn't always better. This book joins a short but very amazing list of short novels that seem to almost acheive literary perfection in under 150 pages: 'Heart of Darkness', 'Of Mice and Men', 'Animal Farm', 'Old Man and the Sea' and 'the Metamorphosis'. Anyway, I've read/listened to books well over 600+ pages that have 1/2 as much to say.

Slow is smooth and smooth is Fast until it isn't

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Any additional comments?

I thought this was very well written, it was just not a subject that over interests me.

Not really my cup of tea

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"Ethan Frome" is a little gem! Short enough to be read in a day, I confess it took me longer as I stopped from time to time to think about the story. Wharton has written a passionate book hidden behind the austere exteriors of her New England characters. The melancholy beauty of it took my breath away! This is not a book to read and move on; she leaves her readers considering her setting, characters, and conflict and knowing there is more depth than a single reading can reveal. The narrator seemed to capture the tone and only added to the story. Highly recommended!

A Classic for a Reason

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th the exception of Maddie. By the end, I have a bit more sympathy for each of the characters, and how they came to be the way they are, as more three-dimensional characters. Xena is in constant pain and her bitter attitude towards life and everyone in it seems to reflect as such. Ethan is honestly a bit cowardly, but his turnarounds seemed to show that his character means well enough. Maddie seems to be the most sypathetic to interact with as a reader, as the loss of her father, followed by the scandal that followed, put her in a rough situation—especially for the turn of the 20th century, when women still basically had no rights. The ending tied everything up nicely enough, and was well put-together. Honestly, it was almost a bit gratifying seeing how two of the characters interacted with each other at the end, considering the rest of the book. This book is a classic, and one of the most well-known of Edith Wharton. I plan on reading “Summer“ next by her, written a couple years later (and has been called the “hot Ethan Frome“), so I wanted to compare these two side-by-side.

Needs and Lovers Collide in a Triangle

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