Ethan Frome Quotes

“They stood together in the gloom of the spruces, an empty world glimmering about them wide and gray under the stars”
― Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome

“The return to reality was as painful as the return to consciousness after taking an anesthetic”
― Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome

“The motions of her mind were as incalculable as the flit of a bird in the branches”
― Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome

“I went on steadily trying to 'find out how to'; but I wrote two or three novels without feeling that I had made much progress. It was not until I wrote "Ethan Frome" that I suddenly felt the artisan's full control of his implements. When "Ethan Frome" first appeared I was severely criticized by the reviewers for what was considered the clumsy structure of the tale. I had pondered long on this structure, had felt its peculiar difficulties, and possible awkwardness, but could think of no alternative which would serve as well in the given case: and though I am far from thinking "Ethan Frome" my best novel, and am bored and even exasperated when I am told that it is, I am still sure that its structure is not its weak point.”
― Edith Wharton, A Backward Glance