86. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Ethan Frome lives in Starkfield, Massachusetts, a bleak town in Western New England. Ethan himself is bleak and unapproachable and lives in a loveless marriage taking care of his sick wife. When his wife’s cousin, the young and beautiful Mattie comes to take care of sick Zeena, Ethan’s life changes. Life suddenly seems more fun and hopeful, until a tragic accident and a desperate decision changes the lives of all three family members.

In her autobiography, Wharton wrote that before she wrote Ethan Frome, she had wanted to explore what life was like in the villages of New England. To her “the snow-bound villages of Western Massachusetts were grim places, morally and physically: insanity, incest and slow mental and moral starvation were hidden away behind the paintless wooden house fronts of the long village streets.” Wharton is one of my favorite female writers and I have read Ethan Frome many times. I am always drawn to the great descriptions of the time period and the bleak New England winter. In my opinion, it is one of the most tragic love stories gone wrong.