Ethan Frome

About “Ethan Frome”

Edith Wharton's novella uses a frame story: a nameless engineer in Starkfield, Massachusetts, becomes fascinated by the crippled Ethan Frome and eventually learns his story. Twenty-four years earlier, Ethan, married to the ailing Zeena, fell in love with her cousin Mattie Silver, who lived with them; when Zeena decides to send Mattie away, Ethan and Mattie attempt to kill themselves by sledding into an elm tree, but survive, leaving all three living together unhappily.