Ethan Frome
In the bleak, snow-covered landscape of Starkfield, Massachusetts, a nameless visitor becomes intrigued by the stoic, yet clearly broken, Ethan Frome. Drawn into Ethan's isolated life, the visitor learns the tragic story of his past, a tale of stifled dreams and a devastating choice made in the harsh grip of winter.
A once-promising young man kept in Starkfield by family duty and poverty, worn down by decades of hardship and a loveless marriage to his ailing wife.
Ethan's older, chronically unwell wife, whose quiet suspicion of his growing closeness to her cousin Mattie overshadows the household.
Zeena's orphaned young cousin, taken in to help around the farm, whose warmth and vitality draw Ethan's forbidden affection.
A village friend of Mattie's who later marries Ned Hale and, years afterward, tells the visiting narrator what became of Ethan, Zeena, and Mattie.
A prosperous young Starkfield storekeeper who courts Mattie Silver and stirs Ethan's jealousy.
No. Ethan Frome is a work of fiction. Edith Wharton set it in the invented town of Starkfield, Massachusetts, though she drew on the harsh rural New England winters she knew from living in the Berkshire Hills.
Ethan Frome is a novella, not a full-length novel. Most editions run under 150 pages, making it one of Edith Wharton's shortest major works.