Ethan Frome. By Edith Wharton. (Macmillan and Co. 3s. 6d.
net.)—In this slim volume Mrs. Wharton outlines as grim a tragedy as can be found in the pages of contemporary fiction. The situation, indeed, which her story illustrates is almost too poignant to be bearable. Ethan Frome is left through straits of poverty to conduct the remains of his existence shut up in a house with his wife and with the girl with whom he has been desperately in love, and who was almost fatally injured in their attempt to commit suicide together. It may seem captious to quarrel with the morality of a book which has so moral an ending, that is, in which the guilty persons are so completely punished, but what is to be regretted is the entire want of a moral standard. It appears to occur neither to the author nor to the cha- racters of the story that Ethan and Mattie, as the girl is called, are in any way to blame for /allowing their passion for each other to develop while they are living under the same roof with Ethan's very sickly and unpleasant wife. The book is extremely powerful, and this is the only good word which can be said for it. The plot is horrible in itself and ruthless in execution.
Previous page
