Ethan Frome

New York: Charles Scriber's Sons, 1911 First edition, first issue text with "wearily" unbattered on p. 135. One of 6,000 copies. Publisher's red cloth, lettered in gilt, top edge gilt. About near fine, with some light wear to the extremities, faint soiling to the front board, slight lean to the spine, former owner name erased from front free endpaper, otherwise clean interior. Overall, a bright and attractive copy. Garrison A19.I.a. Ethan Frome is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel set in the fictional town of Starkfield, Massachusetts. It tells the story of Ethan Frome, a young man with a sickly wife, Zeena, who has fallen in love with his wife's cousin, Mattie, who lives with the Fromes to assist with Zeena's healthcare. Zeena, aware of her husband's wandering eye, is determined to send Mattie away, and Ethan is desperate to express his feelings. In a bizarre twist of events, Mattie and Ethan paralyze themselves in an attempt to commit suicide, and Zeena becomes their caretaker. The plot is framed as an extended flashback within a modern narrator's account of the local crippled legend, Ethan Frome, with whom he takes refuge one evening. Wharton based the plot for Ethan Frome on an actual sledding accident that occurred in Lennox, Massachusetts. Interestingly, she began writing Ethan Frome as a French composition while living in Paris and later expanded it to its current form.. 1st Edition. Hard Cover. Near Fine.