Who is the Author?
Edith Wharton |
Born into a wealthy family in 1862, Edith Wharton spent the early years of her life touring Europe until her family returned to the United States, where she was a privileged child in Rhode Island and New York. By just 18 years of age, Edith had already shown her talent for writing as she had written a novella and published poetry. After marrying a wealthy man, Edward Wharton, Edith continued on in her writing career. Edith and Edward's unsuccessful marriage is obvious in many of Edith's novels, for she often wrote stories with unhappy marriages. Her first well known novel was The House of Mirth. Ethan Frome appeared six years later. Finally after years of unhappiness, Edith divorced Edward in 1913 and lived out the remainder of her life in France. Edith Wharton is probably most known for her novel, The Age of Innocence, because it awarded her the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1921, which was the first time that a woman had been awarded with the honor.
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The Inspiration Behind Ethan Frome |
Edith's inspiration behind Ethan Frome was based off of an experience in her own town. At the time, Edith was living in Lenox, Massachusetts, where she based her story off of an accident. Four girls and one boy crashed into a lamppost while sledding down Courthouse Hill in Lenox. Edith was friends with one of the survivors. This accident clearly relates to the conclusion of the novel. This novel was actually unusual for Wharton to write because it involved an atmosphere filled with poverty, which was not familiar to the author. Wharton observed the severity of poverty while living in Lenox, which is why the main character, Ethan Frome, dealt with the impacts of poverty.
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