Ethan Frome, on a small farm in Massachusetts, is under the domination of his wife Zenobia, a shrewd hypochondriac who spends all the household money to cure imaginary illnesses. The arrival of Mattie Silver, a cousin of Zenobia, illuminates Ethan's life by bringing him gentleness and understanding. But it unleashes the jealousy of the formidable Zenobia, who will succeed in chasing the girl. In a sleigh, Ethan will take Mattie to the station. They then understand that they need each other. Ethan throws the sledge against a tree, to die with Mattie. But instead of finding death, they are cruelly mutilated. They will spend the rest of their lives under the wicked gaze of Zenobia. Edith Wharton, a great novelist, the best disciple of Henry James, wrote with this tragic history the most representative work of New England's regionalist literature Edith Wharton, born Edith Newbold Jones in New York on 24 January 1862 and died in Saint-Brice-sous-For t (Val-d'Oise) on 11 August 1937, is an American novelist Biography edit - Change the code] Edith Newbold Jones is the third child and first daughter of George Frederic and Lucretia Jones. His family belonged to high society in New York. She spent part of her childhood in Europe, first in Paris, then in Bad Wildbad in Germany and Florence. Her family did not return to New York until 1874. From her childhood she showed exceptional intelligence and imagination. Adolescent, she wrote poems and a short story, Fast and Loose, completed in 1877. She published a collection of poems, Verses, in 1878. Several of her poems appeared in the Atlantic Monthly from 1880 onwards. At 23, she married Edward (Teddy) Robin Wharton, from the same background as she but twelve years her elder. They do not share any intellectual and artistic interest and end up divorcing in 1913, after many infidelities of Teddy, whose mental health declines. In 1890, her first novel, Mrs Manstey's View, appeared in Scribner's Magazine, where she published regularly. In 1893, she meets the United States for the first time the writer Paul Bourget, who will introduce her into high Parisian society when she goes to France. His first book, The Decoration of Houses, written in collaboration with his architect friend Ogden Codman (in) and published in 1897, is an immediate success.