My first surprise was finding Warton wasn't an English writer. Not sure why I thought Ethan Frome was a British classic, but I opened it with some trepidation, and was glad to find it wasn't.
Despite the bleak storyline and the tale of hard living and poverty, I found the writing itself uplifting, and never felt brought down by the telling of the tale. I was quite invested in the character of Ethan, and found myself shouting (in my mind) for him to just do it, to run away with Mattie and let the chips fall where they may. His sense of responsibilty was admirable, to not want to abandon Zeena to a life of penury, but then killing himself would have had the same result, so why not just go with his heart and leave? That was the tragedy of the book for me, not the fact that he spent the rest of his life looking after both of the women in a state of perpetual penance and misery.
Glad I have read it, and glad that the naysayers were wrong about it (you know who you are
).