In the early years of the 20th century, life on a farm in Massachusetts is not easy. The New England winters are hard;snow and ice cover the fields for months, and the nights are long and cold.For a poor farmer like Ethan Frome, life has few bright moments.A marked departure from Edith Wharton's usual ironic contemplation of the fashionable New York society to which she herself belonged, Ethan Frome is a sharply etched portrait of the simple inhabitants of a nineteenth-century New England village. The protagonist, Ethan Frome, is a man tormented by a passionate love for his ailing wife's young cousin. Trapped by the bonds of marriage and the fear of public condemnation, he is ultimately destroyed by that which offers him the greatest chance at happiness. Like The House of Mirth and many of Edith Wharton's other novels, Ethan Frome centers on the power of local convention to smother the growth of the individual. Written with stark simplicity, this powerful and tragic novel has long been considered one of Wharton's greatest works.完全不同于伊迪丝·华顿的其他从自身出发的其他讽刺纽约上流社会的小说, Ethan Frome锋锐刻画了19世纪单纯的新英格兰村居民.主人公Ethan frome被他对久病的妻子的表妹Mattie Silver的深爱折磨着. 在与妻子的婚姻以及被公众的谴责的恐惧的约束下,这份爱在给了他极大幸福的机会的同时,也最终毁灭了他.如同欢乐屋及伊迪丝·华顿的其他小说一样,Ethan Frome以当地习俗对于个人成长的影响为中心.这部简洁却强有力的悲剧小说一直被认为是伊迪丝·华顿最精彩的作品之一.Edith Wharton, bornEdith Newbold Jones(January 24, 1862 - August 11, 1937), was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer.