Edith Wharton 
Ethan Frome 

‘Ethan Frome’ is an American novella written by Edith Wharton in 1911. Wharton based some of the plot on a news story about young people dying in a sledding accident. The novel employs a few significant literary devices, including the use of an extended flashback. Most of the novel takes place in the past, from the point of view of an unnamed narrator. The narrator describes the life of the titular Ethan and all his misfortune.



Ethan lives with his wife Zenobia and her cousin Mattie. Ethan and Mattie once had an emotional affair. Feeling suffocated, they attempted suicide by sledding into a tree, but they survived the accident and now live in misery.



Like Wharton´s novel ‘Summer’, considered ‘Ethan Frome’´s sequel , it is set in New England. Both deal with sexual awakening and appetite and their devastating consequences.