Ethan Frome

In a bleak New England village called Starkfield, a visiting engineer notices a crippled man with a strange look of endurance and pieces together his story. Twenty-four years earlier Ethan Frome, a poor farmer, was trapped in a cold marriage to his sickly wife Zeena, and fell in love with her young cousin Mattie, who had come to help in the house. When Zeena decides to send Mattie away, Ethan has to choose.

Published in 1911, this short novel is the starkest thing Edith Wharton wrote, as bare and cold as the winter landscape it describes, and it is often studied for its perfect construction. It is a complete contrast to the glittering drawing rooms of The Age of Innocence.