Saturday, August 28, 2010

Zeena Frome

Shockingly, this appears to be Edith Wharton, minx.
I've reread Ethan Frome (whom I believe bears his fate uncomplainingly as complaining would be churlish at best. After all, he has had nearly everything he desired given him, but, like Victorian children who find a genie, has rashly forgotten to specify the terms.)
After marrying Zeena...

But purchasers were slow in coming, and while he waited for them Ethan learned the impossibility of transplanting her. She chose to look down on Starkfield, but she could not have lived in a place which looked down on her. Even Bettsbridge or Shadd's Falls would not have been sufficiently aware of her, and in the greater cities which attracted Ethan she would have suffered a complete loss of identity. And within a year of their marriage she developed the “sickliness” which had since made her notable even in a community rich in pathological instances.

3 comments:

ilduce said...

LUVS me some Edith!

i'm awake said...

I knew you would! She was amazing!

Anonymous said...

Hey - I am really delighted to find this. Good job!