A masterwork of American literature from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Age of Innocence. A marked departure from Edith WhartonΓÇÖs usual ironic contemplation of the fashionable New York society to which she belonged,Ethan Frome is a sharply etched portrait of the simple inhabitants of a nineteenth-century New England village. The protagonistEthan Fromeis a man tormented by a passionate love for his ailing wifeΓÇÖs young cousin. Trapped by the bonds of marriage and the fear of public condemnationhe is ultimately destroyed by that which offers him the greatest chance at happiness. Like The House of Mirth and many of Edith WhartonΓÇÖs other novelsEthan Frome centers on the power of local convention to smother the growth of the individual. Written with stark simplicitythis powerful and tragic novel has long been considered one of WhartonΓÇÖs greatest works.