Edith Wharton, Kristin O. Lauer, Cynthia Griffin Wolff, Susanna (AFT) Moore, Susan Kingsley - Ethan Frome

Pros: Very Intense Story, Tinged With Emotion, Well Developed Characters

Cons: Very Depressing, Deals With Serious Issues

Review: This novel by Edith Wharton is a tragic one. I find it surprising that this book is listed under children's fiction because of some of the serious themes it deals with, including a love triangle and a suicide attempt.

Ethan Frome, the main...

Pros: Brilliant characterizations, suspenseful.

Cons: Very quick read.

Review: Well, for something different, I took the advice of my step-mother and took a break from watching summer blockbusters and reading lighter fare (i.e. Pure Drivel by Steve Martin) and I read a classic story by a timeless author.

As...

Pros: great story, interesting character, setting and mood

Cons: drags in scenery descriptions, loses you sometimes

The Bottom Line: Ethan Frome is a sad, simple story that introduces a lonely character whose life is interesting to read about.

Review: What a nice, simple little story. I would not be quick to say that it is a romantic novel. It's a love story, yes, but it's one that causes you to observe and read the literal world that surround it. In other words, it is filled with symbolism, ...

Pros: Interesting Story, Realistic Characters

Cons: Some Plot Flaws, A bit Melodramatic at Times

Review: Ethan Frome (1911) is widely considered to be Edith Warton’s masterpiece, regardless of the fact that it was a later novel, The Age of Innocence (1920), which earned her the first Pulitzer Prize ever awarded to a woman. I am in no position to judge...

Pros: quick read; easy to read; Shirley Jackson-esqe ending

Cons: overwhelming bleakness makes the entire book depressing, but this isn't really a con

The Bottom Line: Ethan Frome is not Edith Wharton's best work, but is definately a worthwhile read. But not bedtime reading unless you like going to sleep depressed!

Review: (For some reason I had always thought Ethan Frome was a town's name instead of a man's name.) The novel is about a man named Ethan who is married to Zeena. He mistakenly married her years ago, and she has feigned too sick to work ever since.
...

Pros: Gripping, emotionally powerful, and easily readable

Cons: Edith Wharton has some better books

Review: **Warning: Plot spoilers**

Overview:

Once in a while, it's good to tap into a genre without making the full-scale investment of a serious, classic novel or reaching for a dictionary. Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton's novella of love and...

Pros: symbolism

Cons: none

Review: In Edith Wharton’s work, Ethane Frome, she uses several different literary elements to add to the story. Her use of foreshadowing and symbolism are seen throughout the work. Also, Wharton uses a prologue to set up the story and an epilogue to conclude...

Pros: Advanced thinking

Cons: Might get frustrated with charachters

Review: A book that is engrossed with symbols make a novel so much more intriguing, and gives significant implied information for the reader. In the book Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton utilizes key symbols throughout the book to help reach her theme. Three of...

Pros: Interesting format, compact and well-written.

Cons: Fails to hit the reader as hard as Ethan and Mattie hit the tree.

The Bottom Line: Read it because it's a so-called classic and because it doesn't take a huge commitment, just don't expect too much.

Review: Edith Wharton’s “Ethan Frome” is a delight for slow readers who like the feeling of having read “classic literature”. I consider myself one such reader and so the fact that this book is basically a novelette (157 pages) gives it a ...

Pros: ending, complex characters

Cons: kind of slow

Review: Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome, published in the late 19th century, is a tale of love, frustration, being tied by the rules, and irony.

For the most part, Ethan Frome is a fairly slow read, like much of the literature from the pre-Realist period....