Ethan Frome

This dark, regionally-flavored novella chronicles the lives of three people on a small Massachusetts farm – a sharp departure from Wharton’s usual novelistic settings in American high society. Farmer Ethan Frome marries whining hypochondriac Zeena in a fit of bad judgment, and spends his scant earnings from the farm to pay for her medicines. When Zeena’s impoverished cousin Mattie comes to live with the two, however, Ethan and Mattie fall madly in love. Deciding a future together is impossible, the lovers attempt suicide -ending in a fate worse then the death they so desperately longed for.