paper-read, one-penny-wonder, published-1924, summer-2011, north-americas, bucolic, classic, women, books-with-a-passport
Recommended for: Posted to Wanda 13/06/2011
Read from June 11 to 12, 2011

** spoiler alert **

A girl in an orange-coloured shawl stood at the window of Pedlar's store and looked, through the falling snow, at the deserted road.

Hard-hearted Hannah really does knock the frills off Scarlett O'Hara. brilliant.

NB - There is a small amount of mild racism in this story that one could feel uncomfortable with but please bear in mind the vicinity and the times.

2 likes ( )

3997. Barren Ground, by Ellen Glasgow (read 15 March 2005) I own a book, 100 Great American Novels, published in 1966--and this is one of those 100 and with this reading I have now read 86 of the 100. This is a 1925 book, laid in rural Virginia. The first part of the book tells of a girl who falls in love with a boy, they plan to marry, and he marries another--the account is powerful and evocative of "place" and I was much impressed. The rest of the book was not as interest-holding. This is the third novel of Glasgow's I have read (The Romantic Comedians was read 25 Jan 1956 and when I finished I said to myself "This is the first book I have ever read of Ellen Glasgow, and assuredly it will be the last." But when I was 'doing' Pulitzer Prize winners I read (12 Aug 1958) her winner, In This Our Life, and now I have read this, her most famous book, so one never should say never, I guess. ( )

Galsgow, Ellen. Barren Ground.