Early reviewers praised Wharton's style but were dismayed by the novel's bleakness and the inability of her characters to find a way out of their situation. The attempt is a failure, and it leaves Mattie and Ethan crippled for life and condemned to Zeena's care. Unable to bear the idea of parting, the lovers attempt to kill themselves by sledding into a tree. When Zeena realizes their mutual attraction, she arranges to engage a less attractive companion and to have Mattie sent away. Ethan, who has long been resigned to the care of his ailing wife and farm, is drawn to Mattie's youthful beauty and good humor.
Young Mattie Silver arrives in the mountain village of Starkfield to help with housekeeping for her cousin Zeena, the sickly, cantankerous wife of Ethan Frome. The novel is a naturalistic-that is, unsentimental-portrait of emotional frigidity set in the New England winter. Garrison A19.1.a.Critics have called Ethan Frome the most carefully constructed of Edith Wharton's novels, and have praised the economy of its language and its intensity. In any event, this is a very nearly fine copy (one very faint damp-mark on the front cover, one leaf with a repaired marginal tear). Both copies with gilt top edge and copies with plain top edge appear with this word both perfect and battered: therefore, although it is generally assumed that "wearily" became battered during the 6000-copy print run (though it's possible it became battered and was then fixed), one cannot assume that the 2500 copies with gilt top edge were printed or issued earlier than the 3500 copies with plain top edge.
This copy's leaves have a gilt top edge, and the word "wearily" is printed properly at the bottom of p.
"As in THE HOUSE OF MIRTH, the central problem is that of the barriers imposed by local convention upon an individual whose happiness depends on rising above them".
First Edition of Edith Wharton's best-known book, a grim novella sited on a bleak Massachusetts farm.
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