1PatrickMurtha
If this duplicates another topic, mods, please merge!
Just finished and highly recommended: Edna Ferber’s Come and Get It. Having greatly enjoyed the 1936 movie version, I took up the novel and was interested to discover that it is very different in many respects and covers a much longer time-span than even the two generations of the movie. A rich and wonderful reading experience, completely absorbing. One startling development that is not in the film knocked me right off my chair.
I especially relate to this novel because I have lived on its Northern Wisconsin turf. “Butte des Morts” is Neenah in the northeast, close to where I resided in Little Chute. “Iron Ridge” is Hurley in the northwest, the great northwoods area that I often visited. The timber and paper industries are at the core of the narrative.
Ferber is adept at what critics call “solidity of specification”, description of exterior elements as in Balzac. You always know how the rooms are furnished, how the characters are dressed. (I was surprised to have it pointed out that Trollope, even writing at the length he does, doesn’t much bother with this, and it is true.)
Just finished and highly recommended: Edna Ferber’s Come and Get It. Having greatly enjoyed the 1936 movie version, I took up the novel and was interested to discover that it is very different in many respects and covers a much longer time-span than even the two generations of the movie. A rich and wonderful reading experience, completely absorbing. One startling development that is not in the film knocked me right off my chair.
I especially relate to this novel because I have lived on its Northern Wisconsin turf. “Butte des Morts” is Neenah in the northeast, close to where I resided in Little Chute. “Iron Ridge” is Hurley in the northwest, the great northwoods area that I often visited. The timber and paper industries are at the core of the narrative.
Ferber is adept at what critics call “solidity of specification”, description of exterior elements as in Balzac. You always know how the rooms are furnished, how the characters are dressed. (I was surprised to have it pointed out that Trollope, even writing at the length he does, doesn’t much bother with this, and it is true.)
2PatrickMurtha
All 11 volumes of Upton Sinclair’s Lanny Budd series are doorstops individually, and the complete sequence, well! This is an entertaining way to take in the history of the first half of the 20th Century, because our Lanny is like the young Indiana Jones, he shows up everywhere that’s important. I’m currently 2/3 of the way through the first volume, World's End.
3gmathis
I recall that The Jungle was one of the few required high school freshman lit assignments that captured my interest, but never tackled any of Sinclair's other works.
Edna Ferber's short stories are absolutely delicious, if you've never sampled them.
Edna Ferber's short stories are absolutely delicious, if you've never sampled them.
4PatrickMurtha
Come and Get It was my first Ferber, but I’m looking forward to more.
Sinclair was pretty prolific. I need to read The Jungle, certainly his most famous work.
Sinclair was pretty prolific. I need to read The Jungle, certainly his most famous work.
5PatrickMurtha
Joseph C. Lincoln (1870-1944) was part of the explosion of “local color” writing at the tail end of the 19th Century, his turf being the otherwise unclaimed Cape Cod. I started in on his Cape Cod Stories (1907) this morning and was immediately struck by the affinity with Neil Munro’s contemporary Scottish stories about Para Handy, which started appearing in 1905. I doubt there was any direct influence, since I’m not sure if Munro’s very Scottish stories appeared in US editions then or ever. But the salty use of dialect, the nautical context, and the conception of the characters are quite similar. “Rollicking” is an appropriate adjective in both cases.
6PatrickMurtha
One retro-ish project I have going is Mazo de la Roche’s Jalna series in story-chron (not publication) order. I just started the third, Mary Wakefield.
Although the Jalnas are light romantic novels, a number of features of the stories ring realistically true. One, rich kids tend to be over-indulged brats, and that travels down the generations. Two, good-looking people who pair up get off on being good-looking together; Adeline and Philip both think about this all the time in The Building of Jalna.
The Whiteoaks through three volumes are an entertaining but rampantly egotistical family, who are apt to blow up their minor issues into major crises; I doubt this changes in the later books. 😏
Although the Jalnas are light romantic novels, a number of features of the stories ring realistically true. One, rich kids tend to be over-indulged brats, and that travels down the generations. Two, good-looking people who pair up get off on being good-looking together; Adeline and Philip both think about this all the time in The Building of Jalna.
The Whiteoaks through three volumes are an entertaining but rampantly egotistical family, who are apt to blow up their minor issues into major crises; I doubt this changes in the later books. 😏
7PatrickMurtha
What Sarah Orne Jewett did for Maine in The Country of the Pointed Firs, Alice Brown (1857-1948) does for New Hampshire in her stories of “Tiverton” (Hampton Falls). Local color writers like this should appeal greatly to cottagecore enthusiasts of today! I am reading Brown’s Meadow-Grass: Tales of New England Life, and a noteworthy characteristic of the writing is her great precision regarding plant life, every species specified, which should make her work a delight for botanists and gardeners.
8Sakerfalcon
I love Country of the pointed firs so I should check out Alice Brown! Thanks for mentioning her!
9historyhound7
>1 PatrickMurtha: went through an Edna Ferber stage when I was young but there are a few that I missed! Come and Get It sounds good. I am reading The Girls and loving it! The heroines are ‘old maids’ but they leap from the page. The younger ones are incredibly modern, considering that it is set in 1916.
I also like reading about the decor of the rooms, and the way in which the characters are dressed.
I also like reading about the decor of the rooms, and the way in which the characters are dressed.
10historyhound7
I read the Jalna series when I was young, and want to get around to doing it again. You describe them as ‘rampantly egotistical’, but I don’t remember thinking that!
