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A review by she_reads_alot
Ethan Frome & Selected Stories (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) by Edith Wharton
4.0
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I read this collection last month, and I was impressed.
This fist story, Ethan Frome, was great . It’s about a man (Ethan), his sickly wife Zeena, and her cousin/aid Mattie. It’s a triangle of a tragic love story—-but the last paragraph is just **chef’s kiss** perfect !!
“There was no way out—none. He was a prisoner for life, and now his one ray of light was to be extinguished.”
I also enjoyed the next story titled The Pretext.
It’s about an aging woman in a dull marriage living in a conformist atmosphere . A younger man comes to town, meets her, and is smitten, but must return home to England + fiancé .
This pretext liaison is so ironic and I flew through this story .
“What had happened was as much outside the sphere of her marriage as some transaction in a star. It had simply given her a secret life of incommunicable joys, as if all the wasted springs of her youth had been stored in some hidden pool, and she could return there now to bathe in them.”
The third story, Afterward, was pretty good. It is a ghost story and I was shocked to find it here, but eerily happy to read it on Halloween.
“Life’s too short for a ghost who can only be enjoyed in retrospect.”
The subsequent story, The Legend, was okay—but it was difficult for me to read. My mind kept wandering and I kept losing interest. Just about a man—and everyone keeps explaining the legend to the actual legend.
The final story, Xingu, is excellent, and definitely my favorite from this particular assemblage.
It’s about a group of privilege, snooty women in a lunch/book/social club. They have read a particular story and the author is coming to chat. An excluded and mocked member steals the show and the others are left baffled .
“Why not look it up?”
I am so impressed with Wharton’s writing that I have ordered her #pulitzerprize winning novel, The Age of Innocence.
#qotd : Have you discovered any favorite new (to you) authors this year ??
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#ethanfrome #thepretext #thelegend #afterward #xingu #shortstories #edithwharton #barnesandnobleclassics #classicstories #classicbooks #firesidereading #bookquotes #readmorebooks #booksbooksbooks #bookstagram #bookreview
I read this collection last month, and I was impressed.
This fist story, Ethan Frome, was great . It’s about a man (Ethan), his sickly wife Zeena, and her cousin/aid Mattie. It’s a triangle of a tragic love story—-but the last paragraph is just **chef’s kiss** perfect !!
“There was no way out—none. He was a prisoner for life, and now his one ray of light was to be extinguished.”
I also enjoyed the next story titled The Pretext.
It’s about an aging woman in a dull marriage living in a conformist atmosphere . A younger man comes to town, meets her, and is smitten, but must return home to England + fiancé .
This pretext liaison is so ironic and I flew through this story .
“What had happened was as much outside the sphere of her marriage as some transaction in a star. It had simply given her a secret life of incommunicable joys, as if all the wasted springs of her youth had been stored in some hidden pool, and she could return there now to bathe in them.”
The third story, Afterward, was pretty good. It is a ghost story and I was shocked to find it here, but eerily happy to read it on Halloween.
“Life’s too short for a ghost who can only be enjoyed in retrospect.”
The subsequent story, The Legend, was okay—but it was difficult for me to read. My mind kept wandering and I kept losing interest. Just about a man—and everyone keeps explaining the legend to the actual legend.
The final story, Xingu, is excellent, and definitely my favorite from this particular assemblage.
It’s about a group of privilege, snooty women in a lunch/book/social club. They have read a particular story and the author is coming to chat. An excluded and mocked member steals the show and the others are left baffled .
“Why not look it up?”
I am so impressed with Wharton’s writing that I have ordered her #pulitzerprize winning novel, The Age of Innocence.
#qotd : Have you discovered any favorite new (to you) authors this year ??
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
#ethanfrome #thepretext #thelegend #afterward #xingu #shortstories #edithwharton #barnesandnobleclassics #classicstories #classicbooks #firesidereading #bookquotes #readmorebooks #booksbooksbooks #bookstagram #bookreview