Published 1900 onward

Triumph of the Egg: A Book of Impressions from American Life In Tales and Poems

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“The Triumph of the Egg” is a collection of stories and poems by Sherwood Anderson. Abandoning the interconnected quality of his more famous “Winesburg, Ohio,” the author adopts a variety of perspectives and settings while exploring similar themes: personal growth, disillusionment, loneliness, and urban-rural contrast. In the North American Review, critic Lawrence Gilman wrote, “Mr. Anderson has achieved a beauty that irradiates his page.” Though largely overshadowed by that celebrated, earlier book, “The Triumph of the Egg” remains a foundational work for Modernist literature, proven by its winning the first annual Dial Award from the influential journal The Dial. NOTE TO LISTENERS: The second story in this collection, “I Want to Know Why,” contains language that may be offensive. (summary by Ben Adams) [chương_files]

Fool There Was

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Published 1900 onward, Romance
Chapter: 19 | Listen: 2

Two friends were asked by their respective fathers on their death beds to promise to marry a special girl, who lived across the street and who they had been very fond of since childhood. Once they reached young manhood, one of these fulfilled his father’s wish. The story takes off from there, and, while all three continued to be very close to one another as they grew older, the married man was sent abroad on business, allowing his friend to take care of his wife and child while he was away. While overseas, the married man fell into temptation. Many twists and turns, as well as surprises were to follow, rendering the reader curious as to how it would all turn out. (Roger Melin) [chương_files]

Windy McPherson’s Son

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Published 1900 onward
Chapter: 26 | Listen: 3

Windy McPherson’s Son is the story of Sam McPherson’s rise in the world of business and search for emotional enlightenment in later life. McPherson starts out as an ambitious newsboy in Caxton, Ohio, with drunkard of a father who constantly embarrasses him. Eventually, after his mother’s death and an episode with a middle-aged schoolteacher, McPherson leaves Caxton for Chicago. In Chicago, he gets a job as a buyer of farm implements and establishes his reputation in business. While his professional life is blossoming, his personal life suffers. After meeting Sue Rainey, the daughter of his boss Colonel Rainey, they get married and twice fail to have children. Following a business deal that forces his father-in-law out of his own company, McPherson and Sue Rainey separate. One day, once McPherson had become quite wealthy, he gets a telegram saying that Colonel Rainey committed suicide. This causes Sam to realize that he is unhappy with his life. This feeling inspires him to leave Chicago and travel all over becoming involved in various adventures. Finally, McPherson’s comes across a promiscuous and alcoholic mother of three children. A deal is made and McPherson gets custody of the children. Showing up with the children at Sue’s current place of residence, the five of them become family. ( Wikipedia) [chương_files]

Her Mother’s Secret

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Published 1900 onward, Romance
Chapter: 24 | Listen: 4

What kind of secret could a mother be keeping that would keep long time lovers apart, and force her eldest daughter into a hasty marriage? Young Odalite and her cousin Leonidas have lived the past three years apart, with Leonidas at sea, and were planning on marrying when he came back. An old acquaintance turns up who knows something about Odalite’s mother’s past, and holds that secret over her, threatening dishonor to her and her family, unless she gives him what he wants. Will true love win the day? This story will be continued in the sequels “Love’s Bitterest Cup” and “When Shadows Die”. (Bridget Gaige) [chương_files]

Secret Places of the Heart

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Published 1900 onward
Chapter: 22 | Listen: 2

Richard Hardy, a member of the British gentry, tries to resolve problems in his marriage as he travels with a psychiatrist. The book is to a great extent autobiographical. H. G. had read some brilliantly composed articles by a writer who wrote under the name Rebecca West. In one piece she called H. G. “pseudo-scientific.” He contacted her and asked what she meant. When they met for lunch, it was the beginning of a very intense and volatile relationship. Soon she was pregnant, so he divided his time between her and his wife Jane with their two sons. After World War I, Rebecca became more demanding. She wanted him to divorce Jane. Finally, in 1923 Wells told Rebecca she should either get serious about her writing or break off their relationship. The criticism stung her. After a speaking tour in the U.S., she returned newly independent, and the two went their separate ways. In this novel H. G. based the character Martin on Rebecca, who both mesmerized and repelled him. (Summary by Bill Boerst) [chương_files]

Ambassadors

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Published 1900 onward
Chapter: 37 | Listen: 4

Henry James considered The Ambassadors his best, or perhaps his best-wrought, novel. It plays on the great Jamesian theme of the American abroad, who finds himself in an older, and some would say richer, culture that that of the United States, with its attractions and dangers. Here the protagonist is Lambert Strether, a man in his fifties, editor of a small literary magazine in Woollett, Massachusetts, who arrives in Europe on a mission undertaken at the urging of his patron, Mrs. Newsome, to bring back her son Chadwick. That young man appears to be enjoying his time in Paris rather more than seems good for him, at least to those older and wiser. The novel, however, is perhaps really about Strether’s education in this new land, and one of his teachers is the city of Paris — a real Paris, not an idealized one, but from which Strether has much to learn. Chad Newsome, of course is there too, and so are a scattering of other Americans, his old friend Waymarsh and his new acquaintance Maria Gostrey among them. Had Strether his life to live over again, knowing what he has now learned,. how different would it be? and what are the lessons he takes home with him? (Introduction by Nicholas Clifford) [chương_files]

Souls for Sale

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Published 1900 onward
Chapter: 61 | Listen: 5

Perhaps the most commercially successful Hollywood novel of the 1920s, Rupert Hughes’ Souls for Sale is a direct response to contemporaneous charges of the film industry’s moral laxities and predilections toward vice. Remember “Mem” Steddon, the pious and steadfast daughter of a religious firebrand who preaches about the sins of Hollywood, is forced to migrate to the west coast after discovering that she’s become pregnant out of wedlock. On her journey, Mem runs into the inhabitants of a movie colony and soon befriends many of these delightful (if somewhat peculiar) “film folk.” She finds temporary employment as a film extra and soon develops aspirations to become a star herself. But Mem soon discovers that Hollywood is a far different place than she had originally imagined and that the road to film stardom is not straightforward or easy to navigate. This novel was the basis for the popular 1923 film adaptation, which starred an up-and-coming Eleanor Boardman and was directed by Rupert Hughes himself. (Summary by ChuckW) [chương_files]

Emperor of Portugallia

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Published 1900 onward
Chapter: 26 | Listen:

Selma Lagerlöf was born in Vaermland, Sweden, in 1858 and enjoyed a long and very successful career as a writer, receiving the Nobel-Prize in Literature in 1909. She died in Vaermland in 1940. The Emperor of Portugallia was first Published 1914 in Sweden, and 1916 in English, translated by Velma Swanston Howard. The Story i set in Vaermland around 1860 or 1870. In the centre is Jan of Ruffluck Croft. He loves his daughter more than anything, but when she moves to Stockholm and never sends a word home about her doings, he sinks into a dream-world where she is a noble Empress of Portugallia. And he believes himself to be Emperor too. His whole world and all his thoughts are dominated by the thoughts of her return and what will happen then. In the role of Emperor in the poor forest country where he lives he can question the social hierarchies around him, and dressed in his Royal regalia he sits in the frontbench in the Church, and he takes the place of honour at Parties etc. After 15 years his daughter returns home and is shocked to see what a mad clown her father has become and …. (Summary by Lars Rolander) [chương_files]

We of the Never-Never

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Published 1900 onward
Chapter: 26 | Listen: 7

We of the Never Never is the second book written by Jeannie Gunn under the name of “Mrs Aeneas Gunn”. It is considered by many as a classic of Australian writing. The book was published as a novel but draws on the author’s own experience in settling on the Elsey Station way out in the “back blocks” of the Katherine region of the Northern Territories of Australia early in the 20th century. The primary concession to fiction was that she fictionalised the names of many of the real-life characters that featured in her life at the time, giving them names like “the Sanguine Scott”, “the Fizzer”, “the Quiet Stockman” and “the Dandy”. Shortly after their marriage, Jeannie Gunn (to be dubbed “the Missus”) and her husband, Aeneas Gunn “the Maluka”, travelled to Darwin then into the Katherine to take up the management of the Elsey Cattle Station. The idea of introducing a white woman into the outback of the Northern Territory of the time met with opposition from all directions, and with flurries of telegrams from the men of the Elsey, but on she travelled, proving to be resilient and energetic. What follows is a rural romance, punctuated with occasional lyrical descriptions of the surrounds of the Elsey. We of the Never Never covers the time that Jeannie and Aeneas Gunn lived at the Elsey in 1902 and 1903. NOTE: The book is a product of its time and the descriptions of aboriginal people and their treatment reflect the attitudes […]

Whirligigs

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Published 1900 onward, Short Stories
Chapter: 26 | Listen: 3

A collection of short stories. – Summary by Richard Kilmer [chương_files]

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Published 1900 onward

Triumph of the Egg: A Book of Impressions from American Life In Tales and Poems

Fool There Was

Windy McPherson’s Son

Her Mother’s Secret

Secret Places of the Heart

Ambassadors

Souls for Sale

Emperor of Portugallia

We of the Never-Never

Whirligigs