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    Winesburg, Ohio (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading)
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    Winesburg, Ohio (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading)
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    Winesburg, Ohio (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading)
    Ebook252 pages4 hours

    Winesburg, Ohio (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading)

    By Sherwood Anderson and Ted Olson

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Winesburg, Ohio is one of the most influential twentieth-century works of fiction by an American author. Most of the major American fiction writers who emerged in the 1920s and 1930s—including Nobel Prize for Literature recipients William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and John Steinbeck—confessed publicly that Sherwood Anderson and Winesburg, Ohio had inspired their own work. Published in 1919 on the vanguard of the Modernist movement in American literature, Anderson’s book is an innovative cycle of interconnected short stories that together form a complex larger work; hence, Winesburg, Ohio is generally referred to as a novel rather than as a short-story collection.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBarnes & Noble
    Release dateApr 19, 2011
    ISBN9781411438262
    Unavailable
    Winesburg, Ohio (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading)
    Author

    Sherwood Anderson

    Sherwood Anderson was born in Camden, Ohio. Following a brief stint in the Spanish American War, he started a family and founded a business -- both of which he abruptly abandoned at the age of 36 to pursue his life-long dream of writing. His simple and direct writing style, with which he portrayed important moments in the lives of his characters, influenced both Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner. His other notable works include Triumph of the Egg; Horses and Men; and A Story Teller's Story.

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    Reviews for Winesburg, Ohio (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading)

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      Short stories wrapped around a town in Ohio.
    • 3/5
      I can see why this would have been scandalous back in 1919. There's an awful lot of earthy sexuality in Winesburg.

      Men and women are instantly struck by each other's attractiveness and they fall in and out of lust at the drop of a hat. There a depth to such human shallowness that even reminded me of War and Peace and the way Tolstoy was so sharp on the tiny things that trigger feelings of love.

      It's a great companion piece to the Spoon River Anthology which I read last year delving into overlapping lives with overlapping vignettes.

      The short story "The Untold Lie" is worth the price of admission all by itself.
    • 4/5
      An excellent model for shnovel or collage, written with a delicate touch. I like the way the focus on the main character grows over time, as the child grows and differentiates himself and his personality from his community. I also appreciate the willingness to show the protagonist's folly and foibles. From a modern perspective, the clumsy attempts at female characterization are rather cringeworthy, and I also found the 'grotesque' angle somewhat overplayed.
    • 4/5
      Considered to be the first American "modern" novel and a masterpiece of 20th century American literature, the book consists of a collection of loosely related short stories of inhabitants of a rural town in the Midwest in the 1900s. Here, Anderson breaks away from two traditions: the use of plot as the focal point and themes about the gentility and romantic and ideal views of rural life. The stories are told to George Willard, a young newspaperman aspiring to be a writer, who seem to draw others into him perhaps because of his sensitivity or being a writer, simply somebody who could understand. From their stories, we see a depiction of alienation, of loneliness, of inner struggles, of unexpressed desires, of unfulfilled sex lives, of frustrated ambitions. We see that each strives for happiness but never quite reaches it, and immediately we sense even from the first stories that their being inarticulate is a common trait that prevents this from happening. Beneath a seeming quiet life is a passionate, tormented soul. The failure to connect is a recurring theme. In attempting to relate their narratives to George, we feel that the characters are trying to inject some meaning into their empty lives. Among others, there is a tale of the old writer who wants to write "a book of grotesques", and a four-part narrative of religious fervor that parodies the biblical tales of Abraham's sacrificing of Isaac, and David and Goliath. The variations of stories of inner fervor but repressed wills are bleak and can be depressing at times. And it almost seems improbable that a town could be peopled at once with so many odd characters, bizarre and angst-ridden individuals. But the book does leave much for thought, and even if we perhaps don't care to admit it, the themes of alienation and frustration are something we recognize, to varying degrees, in our own individual, modern lives.
    • 4/5
      Lovely. Find a copy of this book and read it immediately.
    • 4/5
      This book has much of Elyria, Ohio in it. At least that seems to be the case. I was raised in Elyria and Anderson writes of a typical turn-of-the-century (last century, that is) American Midwest city with its prejudices and glories. If one wishes to understand the evolution of the American being, read this book.
    • 5/5
      What an unbelievably beautiful book! It's the kind of book that makes you want to be a writer.
    • 5/5
      Reviewed April 1999 Difficult to begin as I had no idea other than it has something to do with a small town in Ohio, what it would be about. Anderson’s portraits of the secret lives of regular people is extremely interesting. Are most people’s secret wishes as gloomy as he portrays? Each chapter introduces a new person and their secrets, only the main character, George Willard is repeated throughout the book. I wanted to know more, to find out if these people finally found peace in their lives. But alas, like life, peace is an evolving thing. Only reason I heard of this book was it appeared in the top 100 of English language Novels of the 29th century. According to the editorial board of the Modern Library. It is listed as number 24
    • 4/5
      I thought that many of these stories were very powerful, and true in a stark way that I am not sure I have ever encountered.I sometimes found the stiff writing style a little difficult to plow through, but I'm not sure it would have been the same book if it had been written more smoothly.
    • 3/5
      It's hard to find those kind of books where the action slowly meanders through the streets and fields, and doesn't come blasting out of weapons, or splash through in a rapid pace, firing wit at a whiplash pace. Winesburg, Ohio shapes the character of a small town through its characters, told slowly and gently through short story glimpses. I love a quiet paced book, with good writing, and even though this was really vignettes/short stories, it still had the gentle quality I long for in today's action packed world.Almost embarrassed to admit, I might not have picked this up were it not for the Stanford Book Salon. I read in someone's review that the author died from peritonitis after his intestine was perforated by a piece of a toothpick left in a martini olive. I just want to reassure everyone that knows about the czuk "Martini Night" ritual on (most) Fridays, that we do not toothpick our Castlevietro olives.
    • 5/5
      WINESBURG, OHIO-by Sherwood Anderson 479 -12706019I was skeptical of this book because I thought the title sounded dull and the generic title even more dull-dom. However, I decided to read it only because I am from a small town in Ohio. It turns out, I am happy I live in Ohio. The stories are detailed with realistic, well-rounded characters. Typically I steer away from short stories as many times it seems the endings are simple cutoff. This author delivers. His stories, though short, are well formed and entertaining. I was taken back to a different time of life, perhaps better in some ways as I read through.
    • 4/5
      Anderson shows a deep understanding of people and what drives them. Each character is unique and filled out so completely that I feel as though I understand every one on a level much deeper than the length of their presence in the book would suggest. Their is also an attention to language in the prose that is lovely to read. It's not always poetic, but it is always beautiful, and it cuts through to the heart of whatever is being said in that moment.

      My favorite quote from the books comes from the chapter titled "Death, concerning Doctor Reefy and Elizabeth Willard":
      "Their bodies were different, as were also the color of their eyes, the length of their noses, and the circumstances of their existence, but something inside them meant the same thing, wanted the same release, would have left the same impression on the memory of an onlooker.

      I would suggest this to anyone looking to feel less alone in the world, anyone who is confused and feels lost, or anyone who just needs something they can't explain.
    • 4/5
      Much better than I expected. This book of short stories both showed its age and defied it. It was packed with more sex, more honestly confused people, and more ambiguous moments than I expected. At the same time, that sex, confusion, and ambiguity was more obviously privileged, white, and male than I was comfortable with.In the penultimate story, the narrator observes of a young woman, "it seemed to her that the world was full of meaningless people saying words." Perhaps this applies to all the characters in the novel, or perhaps we're encouraged to believe that young newspaper reporter who is nearly the main character and seems to be the chronicler of the town's adventures is a different sort of man.Such moments of keen insight were too often surrounded by passages that feel more subtly sinister in the winter of 2017: "The young man took Mary Hardy into his arms and kissed her. When she struggled and laughed, he but held her the more tightly. For an hour the contest between them went on..." Over and over, women are waiting for men to deliver them from their lives. Maybe that is merely an accurate reflection of a time when women couldn't vote, unmarried women could rarely own property or conduct business, and rarely attended college. But at several moments in the story, it all felt more sinister to me.I wish I'd read these stories a decade ago. I suspect I would have loved them without the complicated mixed emotions I have now.
    • 5/5
      Some favorite quotes:"All men lead their lives behind a wall of misunderstanding they have themselves built, and most men die in silence and unnoticed behind the walls." "...the moment one of the people took one of the truths to himself, he called it his truth, and tried to live by it, he became a grotesque and the truth he embraced became a falsehood.""Only the few knew the sweetness of the twisted apples.""Be Tandy, little one," he pleaded. "Dare to be strong and courageous. That is the road. Venture anything. Be brave enough to dare to be loved. Be something more than man or woman. Be Tandy.""I was furious. I couldn't stand it. I wanted her to understand but, don't you see, I couldn't let her understand. I felt that then she would know everything, that I would be submerged, drowned out, you see. That's how it is. I don't know why.""Things went to smash," he said quietly and sadly. "Out she went through the door and all the life there had been in the room followed her out.""...and Hall had suddently become alive when they stood in the corn field stating into each other's eyes.""Love is like a wind stirring the grass beneath trees on a black night," he had said. "You must not try to make love definite. It is the divine accident of life. If you try to be definite and sure about it and to live beneath the trees, where soft night winds blow, the long hot day of disappointment comes swiftly...""I have come to this lonely place and here is this other," was the substance of the thing felt."...the town of Winesburg had disappeared and his there had become but a background on which to paint the dreams of his manhood."
    • 4/5
      Anderson's influence on both Faulkner and Hemingway is very clear. He's got a deft hand with characterization, but he's not quite the craftsman that Faulkner would prove to be...his jumps in time feel like boo-boos, not choices. And he's not quite the storyteller Hemingway would prove to be, miring himself in the quotidian and missing the many opportunities to universalize his characters' angst the way ol' Ernie did.I long to see an "American Masterpiece Theatre" created, and the stories here dramatized for it. Would win Golden Globes and Peabodys and such-like prestige awards, done well.
    • 4/5
      Interesting psychological analysis of why people behave the way they do.
    • 4/5
      Winesburg, Ohio is truly a landmark in American literature as well as in the short story genre. Anderson mercilessly scrutinizes his characters, laying their fears, lusts, and shameful passions out on the page for all to see. Anderson's modern approach to storytelling must have seemed wildly out of place in 1919, but it heralded in a new era, bridging the gap between 19th-century realism and 20th-century modernism.
    • 4/5
      A very enjoyable story on the first level, a masterful piece of literature on many others. My favorite story by far is "Godliness." The Biblical symbolism is rife with meaning in this story, as is the theme of running away (like many of the stories. It is especially interesting to examine the stories for the author's own story.
    • 3/5
      This book was not at all what I was expecting, but was still interesting and entertaining. Its almost a collection of short stories with a small link in each one centered around a small town in Ohio.
    • 4/5
      The first chain of linked short stories I ever read. Seminal American literature about living and leaving small town life in the early years of the last century. Keen and knowing observations on life spent and the promise of life.
    • 4/5
      I often judge books by their covers, and well too I should: so much effort goes into their fabrication that it would be a shame not to at least factor their effect into a buying decision. I loved the cover of the Penguin edition immediately.The book itself I found surprisingly refreshing. A short collection of stories, the main character is really Winesburg itself, little town America personified. The book looks at each of the principal actors in the town's life in one particular generation, producing a story for each. They are tied neatly together into a beautiful little package; it's no wonder that this is such a popular piece of American fiction.
    • 4/5
      Every town has its secrets. This one is better than "Paytan Place". A series of stories told by a young newspaper reporter, who observes the towns peaple, and gains more knowage than he wants to know about his friends and neighbors.
    • 2/5
      I trudged through this. I'm sure it was quite realistic and risque in 1919, but the repeated hand imagery annoyed me, as did the whole premise of trying to describe the inner emotional lives of interconnected people in vignettes. Give me PLOT, please! And don't tell me it was a coming of age story, George was an idiot.
    • 4/5
      Anderson tells it the way it is for the ordinary folks of a small provincial town: life is bland and bleak, marked by boredom and sexual repression. Intermittent joys are all one has to hope for inside the dull pain of existence. The only way out is by leaving town, and, as Anderson suggests, life in New York and Cleveland isn't much different. As a picture of Anderson's memory of the Midwest at the turn of the 20th century, and as an attempt at dealing with taboo subject matters, 'Winesberg, Ohio' succeeds.The problem is that that's as far as Anderson gets. By the middle of the collection, he has said what he has to say and from then on he keeps repeating himself. The characters' incoherent blabbering ("You'll know what I mean! You see, what I mean is, you know what I mean!") becomes unbearable towards the end. The characters become indistinguishable. They are all grotesque, surrendered, pathetic. They accept suffering, without ever rebelling or even just asking why they have to suffer. There is no disgust or anger at life in Winesberg, there is no humor as a coping tool, there is almost no dignity to be preserved. Rather than a complete, coherent book, the collection is a single overdrawn and overstretched good scene.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this collection of short stories about the fictional town of Winesburg, Ohio. The way the story lines interconnected fascinated me. The descriptions of the townspeople's actions emotions were so intriguing that sometimes I felt like a voyeur.
    • 3/5
      Oddly compelling set of very short stories set in rural America at the dawn of agricultural industrialization. Themes center on love, family religion, values and lack thereof. Also a kind of one hit wonder for Anderson.
    • 4/5
      This has been on my mental list of "to-reads" for a very long time. As a native of Ohio, I have a familiarity with the area and and with Sherwood Anderson, so I was excited to finally read this fantastic piece of literature.
    • 4/5
      I did not know what to think when I began reading Winesburg, Ohio. Hemingway's satire of the novel in The Torrents of Spring had somewhat tainted my first impression of the book. However, on completion I found the book thoughtful, interesting, and, aside from being somewhat vanilla in its description of life in a small American town, insightful. There is a coherence to the various stories that I found in Calvino's Marcolvaldo, despite the work appearing as a collection of short stories based around a protagonist and their relationship to the people, places and happenings in one particular town. I would not be surprised if Calvino was inspired by Anderson. But for the life of me I cannot understand Hemingway's criticism. Yet Anderson had a similar response from Faulkner. I think what makes this work so important is the background story, yet the work speaks to the reader in its own right.
    • 5/5
      I first read this book when I was in high school and have read it again since. From the beginning it struck me as a serious work of literature but only upon rereading it and reading more extensively authors who were influenced by Anderson have I come to some appreciation for his true greatness. Winesburg, Ohio depicts the strange, secret lives of the inhabitants of a small town. In "Hands," Wing Biddlebaum tries to hide the tale of his banishment from a Pennsylvania town, a tale represented by his hands. In "Adventure," lonely Alice Hindman impulsively walks naked into the night rain. Threaded through the stories is the viewpoint of George Willard, the young newspaper reporter who, like his creator, stands witness to the dark and despairing dealings of a community of isolated people. Each of the tales shines a clear light on the character of an inhabitant and you come to know Winesburg almost as well as your own home town. Growing up in a small midwestern town I never forgot the feeling this book gave me.
    • 5/5
      The other reviews here are much better written, and give a better analysis of this work's place in the canon of American Literature. On a purely personal level, I really enjoyed the way Anderson dovetailed the chapters together into a tight piece of character work. By focusing on the characters, one is able to get at a larger truth that escapes many of the individual "grotesques."A very well written book, that I will revisit in the future. The only draw back on it was the frank bleakness of the lives and loves. I believe this is why it took me three tries to actually get started and finish the book. It has sat on the shelf for almost 17 years begging to be read, but each time I started I had a bad taste I didn't feel comfortable swallowing, so .... patooie... it was spit out. This time I kept going with determination and came away much more satisfied than I thought I would.