Subject
Rural poor -- Fiction Books
Best books
Edith Wharton
Ethan Frome
"Ethan Frome" by Edith Wharton is a novella published in 1911. Set in the harsh winter landscape of rural Massachusetts, it tells the story of a man trapped in a loveless marriage who falls deeply in love with his wife's young cousin. As passion conflicts with duty and circumstance, their forbidden connection leads toward a desperate act with devastating consequences. This tragic tale explores how desire, obligation, and fate can intertwine to shape lives in unexpected and irreversible ways.
James Hogg
The Shepherd's Calendar. Volume I (of II)
"The Shepherd's Calendar. Volume I (of II)" by James Hogg is a collection published in 1829. Drawing from articles that appeared in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine since 1819, these tales capture the haunting landscape and folklore of the Scottish Borders, particularly Hogg's native Ettrick Forest. The stories range from supernatural encounters and mysterious deaths to dreams of damnation and eerie manifestations. Witches, fairies, brownies, and vengeful spirits populate these narratives of judgment, misfortune, and the uncanny forces that shape rural Scottish life.
Ernest Pérochon
Les creux-de-maisons
"Les creux-de-maisons" by Ernest Pérochon is a novel published in 1912. The story follows Séverin Patureau, a day laborer who returns from military service with nothing but determination. He marries Delphine, and together they work tirelessly on farms in the Bocage region, dreaming of renting their own smallholding. To save money, they live in a "creux de maison," a squalid, half-underground dwelling. The novel exposes the brutal poverty of agricultural workers during France's Belle Époque.
Edith Wharton
Sous la neige
"Sous la neige" by Edith Wharton is a novella published in 1911. Set in the fictional Massachusetts town of Starkfield, the story unfolds through flashback as an engineer learns about Ethan Frome, a limping man marked by tragedy. Twenty-four years earlier, Ethan lived with his bitter, hypochondriac wife Zeena and her young cousin Mattie, who helps with household duties. When forbidden love develops between Ethan and Mattie, they face an impossible choice between duty and desire in the harsh New England winter.
Recently surfaced classics