I first read EF about 25 years ago in a Wharton seminar and thought it was melodramatic. On this second reading, with more life and learning under my belt, the bleakness of the characters’s lives seems more believable or realistic.

It brought to mind some of Cather’s stories like My Mortal Enemy or those that depict rural poverty and hopelessness.

I reread it now to prepare for reading Wharton’s Summer, which folks at The Mount refer to as “hot Ethan Frome.”