Read the prologue and chapter one
Content Summary for Teachers
Ethan Frome
The prelude of the novella serves as an introduction to the main story. The narrator, who is an engineer working on a project in Starkfield, a fictional New England town, becomes curious about a local man, Ethan Frome. He asks the locals about Ethan but finds it difficult to learn much due to the town's closed and reserved nature.
The narrator eventually meets Ethan Frome and is intrigued by his quiet and sorrowful demeanor. Ethan is a poor farmer who has been dealt a bad hand and endured many hardships: his father's accident, his mother's and wife's illnesses, and his own accident. The Frome farm has fallen into...
