ETHAN FROME With an introduction by Clifton Fadiman

LIMITED EDITION, one of only 1500 hand-numbered copies SIGNED by the illustrator, Henry Varnum Poor. Illustrated with striking and moody full page colourplates evoking New England winters from the watercolour paintings of Henry Varnum Poor. 4to, publisher's dark green buckram, pictorially decorated on the upper cover in gilt, the spine gilt lettered, in the scarce original glassine dustwrapper and publisher's slipcase of marbled-paper-covered boards, the back gilt lettered. ix, 145, [1] pp. A very fine copy, the book is pristine and as mint and remains partially unopened,as fine a copy as is imaginable, the glassine is also well preserved, still supple and near fully intact but for a little minor edge chipping and a slit on the rear, the slipcase is also in excellent condition.

Edizione: a beautiful limited edition of wharton’s masterpiece and her greatest tragic story, ethan frome, a sharply etched novelette concerning simple new england people. it was written while the author was in lenox, massachusetts. wharton likely based the story on an accident that she had heard about in 1904. five people were in the actual accident, four girls and one boy. they crashed into a lamppost while sledding down courthouse hill. a girl named hazel crosby was killed in the accident. another girl involved in the accident, kate spencer, became friends with wharton while both worked at the lenox library and it was from spencer that wharton learned of the accident. it shows a marked departure from the ironic contemplation of aristocratic mores and highly complex characters of her earlier works. yet, as in the house of mirth, the central problem is that of the barriers imposed by local conventions upon an individual whose happiness depends on rising above them. a fine novel, made more so by its elegant simplicity. a ‘high spot’ of american literature. it shows a marked departure from the ironic contemplation of aristocratic mores and highly complex characters of her earlier works. yet, as in the house of mirth, the central problem is that of the barriers imposed by local conventions upon an individual whose happiness depends on rising above them. a fine novel, made more so by its elegant simplicity. a ‘high spot’ of american literature.