This project began as part of an independent study at Rutgers University–Camden in the Spring of 2016, and quickly developed into my Master's thesis the following year. My objective was to explore how a modern digital tool could aid in the study of classic literature, and the result was the idea to compose a digital scholarly edition. Progression in the digital humanities does not mean an evolution past the need to study the classics. Rather, it means that historians and critics are given new tools with which to perform this work re-envisioning the past with what we have now. The application of digital tools to the study of literature can help preserve the artifacts of our history as we continue to use them to understand our culture, and ourselves.
As a digital scholarly edition, this volume intends to enhance readers’ interaction with
Ethan Frome, appreciating the virtues of a classic work, while also embracing the affordances of the modern age. The open-access nature of Scalar as a digital publishing platform makes this text openly available online for all scholars and readers of Wharton. Scalar is innovative in its ability to organize a text along narrative paths (which in this edition serve to separate chapters) and incorporate media into the book’s content. With media annotation, explanatory notes are accompanied by images, videos, or audio that aid to the content of the note.
The copy-text of this edition is a reproduction of the 1922 Scribner’s publication of
Ethan Frome, the second edition of the story that originally appeared in 1911. The introduction Wharton wrote for this edition has been included because of the insight it offers on the story’s composition and Wharton’s fictive intentions. Its discussion of the dark realism of Starkfield, and the experimental nature of Ethan Frome’s narrative structure, are essential in understanding the story through the vision of its author.
Before choosing the 1922 edition as the copy-text, I consulted all versions of
Ethan Frome extant during Wharton’s lifetime. This survey included the
original manuscript, the initial
serialization by
Scribners in 1911, the first
1911 Scribner’s volume, and the special
1922 Scribner’s edition with Wharton’s introduction. I chose the latest edition published while Wharton was still alive, the Scribner’s volume from 1922, because that is the last edition that Wharton would have exercised creative liberties over during the publication process; the suggestion being, that the 1922 edition is the most recently revised version of Ethan Frome that Wharton ever worked on.
This version of
Ethan Frome was meant to be a special anniversary edition, celebrating the success of the novel over the past ten years. The book's acclaim was commemorated by the publication of the new volume and the writing of Wharton’s thoroughly insightful introduction. It represents a high point in the commercial success of the story, so any substantial edits leading up to this edition were meant to refine the text to its most pristine state. The 1922 edition has also been collated with the previous editions, as well as Wharton’s manuscript, to capture the revisions that Ethan Frome underwent throughout the writing process. These are presented and discussed in depth as a part of this book’s supplementary materials.
Damiano Consilvio, 2017
