Book Description
Word count: 2056. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good book
This book starts out with 65-year-old judge Gaileil Honeywell feeling lonely.He has had a comfortable marriage for 30-some odd years, however he is now a widower.An obvious choice for his next wife is his oldfiancee, who is still waiting for him, however he has no interest inher.

What strikes his eye, though, is a striking 23-year old.Annabelhas been recently dumped and is "through with love and youngmen".She is not attracted to the judge but finds him to besophisticated and successful.She has been poor and desires a morecomfortable life.

After a brief romance, they marry.However, theirgeneration gap quickly proves troublesome.About a year into theirmarriage, the judge has worn himself out trying to keep up with Annabel andbecomes ill.Annabel, meanwhile, seems to enjoy going to dances and thejudge's money has made her quite a catch.It isn't too long before shefinds a young man who sweeps her off her feet.

Glasgow, a feminist writerleaves some questions at the end of this book.Is she against marriage? Is this story merely a look at the changing morals after WWI?Shouldpeople dump Victorian standards in search of pleasure seeking?Does sheapprove of Annabel dumping her kindly husband for a younger man?Perhaps,Glasgow wrote this book as a warning for older men wanting younger woman(and vica versa) as Glasgow seems to have a keen understanding of theinterrelationships between men and women. ... Read more

Book Description

In Ellen Glasgow: A Biography, Susan Goodman vividly brings the famously secretive writer to life, penetrating the myths, half-truths, and lies that have swirled around Glasgow since the publication of her first novel, The Descendent, in 1896. Drawing on previously unpublished papers and personal interviews, Goodman uncovers the engrossing details of Glasgow's family history, social milieu, personal tragedies, and literary career. Glasgow emerges from these pages as a woman of great courage, self-discipline, and indomitable will who survived tragedy after tragedy. Throughout her life, literature remained her driving passion. In the novels which were her life's work, Glasgow sought a commitment to truth beyond human weakness, to what she called the "living pulse" of experience. Goodman explores the genesis of each novel, detailing Glasgow's process of writing and offering incisive critical appraisals of her early successes and failures as well as the triumphs of her later years. In Ellen Glasgow: A Biography, Susan Goodman has emulated her subject perfectly, uncovering Glasgow's rich and complicated inner life and reasserting Glasgow's important position in America's literary history.

Book Description
A novel that takes place in the Valley of Virginia, tracing the experience of a family with four generations of strong women. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Rereading Vein of Iron
Ellen Glasgow (1873-1945) was a successful writer during her lifetime, but, alas, her work is too little known today. It is due for a revival. Glasgow lived most of her life in Richmond, Virginia, and was critically praised as an early naturalist writer. She attempted to describe the South without the romantic accretions of "Lost Cause" mythology that arose following the Civil War.

Glasgow wrote Vein of Iron in 1935, and the book placed second on the best-seller lists that year. It is typical for her work which bridged the gap between serious and popular literature. I first read this novel three years ago and was pleased to have the opportunity to reread it as part of a book group. I was surprised at how much I had missed -- and probably got wrong -- on my first reading. If serious literature can be characterized as a book that bears reading slowly and more than once, then Vein of Iron has met this standard for me.

The book is set primarily in rural Virginia from about 1901 through 1935 (running into the first term of President Roosevelt). The story centers on the Fincastle family of Scotch-Irish descent which has lived in what has become a rundown manse in the small fictional village of Ironside since before the Revolutionary War.

Several family members get a great deal of attention in the novel. Ada Fincastle is a young woman in love with a young man named Ralph McBride. She loses Ralph, as a result of a forced marriage to a rich, selfish girl, Janet Rowan, who claims Ralph got her pregnant. She ultimately marries Ralph, but only after a two-day torrid affair in the woods before the divorce between Ralph and Janet is concluded. Ralph returns from WW I cynical and disillusioned and the couple struggle to retain their love for one another.

Ada's father, John Fincastle, is the other major character in the story. Fincastle is a Presbryterian minister who has been defrocked "after he had told the Presbytery he rejected the God of Abraham but accepted the God of Spinoza." (p.45) Fincastle has spent his life writing a multi-volume work of philosophy, heavily influenced by a combination of philosophical naturalism, German idealism, Spinoza, Schopenhauer, and, I think especially, Buddhism and Eastern thought. Glasgow herself was a religous seeker of an unorthodox cast who had been fascinated with Buddhism when young. I found her portrait of John Fincastle compelling.

The main characters also include Ada's grandmother as well as Fincastle's wife, who dies early in the book, and a character named Aunt Meggie all of whom retain traditional Presbryterian religious convictions and all of whom are sympathetically portrayed.

Much of the theme of the book is stated in the title, as the characters, regardless of their differences in religious outlook maintain their fortitude and strength in the face of difficulty, adversity, and change. Besides fortitude and interior toughness, the second large theme of the book, I think, is human compassion. As the family suffers and observes the suffering of others during the Great Depression, John and ada, in particular, come to realizew and to put into practice the value of limiting one's own egocentrism and trying to work to alleviate the sufferings of others. There is a Buddhist mantra that is repeated at several important places in this novel: "May all beings be delivered from suffering" -- known as the lovingkindness (or metta) meditation that seemed to me initially and still seems to me upon rereading to be at the heart of this book.

The book has excellent descriptions of life in rural Virginia and of the growth of the urban South in a larger fictious city called Queenborough. Industrialization and the suffering resulting from the Depression are portrayed well. There are also sympathetic, non-stereotyped portrayals of African-Americans, uncommon in a work of this era.

For all the descriptions of place and the intensity of the love story, I still concluded on my reading that the main focus of this book was spiritual. Glasgow writes knowingly both of the loss of faith in traditional Western religions and also of the need for the spiritual values of wisdom, self-understanding, and compassion. Her book has a serious tone throughout and her quest remains distinctly modern.

I found, as I did when I first read Vein of Iron that much of the book is overwritten and that its tone is melodramatic in places. In spite of that, Vein of Iron works on many levels. I found it primarily a picture of a timeless spiritual quest. It encourages the reader away from the materialism of the everyday, whether found in rural Virginia or anywhere else, to search for meaning, wisdom, and compassion, regardless of whether the reader finds these values within or without the boundaries of a traditional religous faith.

A vein of iron through life's struggles and disappointments
(...)Vein of Iron, written in 1935, is the saga of a Virginia family who live through changing times. It starts in 1901 when the central character Ada is 10 years old, and she is deeply disappointed when, even though she has saved up her money for a doll with real hair, she has to settle for a cheaper doll that she doesn't want. This sets the tone of the book, which is filled with the realities of life's struggles and disappointments. It also deeply explores religion and faith as Ada's father is a former Presbyterian minister who has lost his faith and there is constant conflict between right and wrong as well as tradition and change.

The title refers to the vein of iron within the characters, especially the women, which keeps them going throughout adversity as they struggle through their personal challenges as well as the social changes creating upheaval around them. The love of Ada's life, Ralph McBride, is stolen by the trickery of a supposed best friend. He eventually does come back to her as a soldier off to fight in the World War and their two-day illicit romance results in a pregnancy, which alienates her from her beloved Grandmother. Later, after her lover comes back from war, disillusioned by his experiences on the battlefield, their marriage is marked with more disappointment and struggle as they leave their beloved mountain home and move to a large town. When the Depression hits, and her husband loses his job, she finds work selling gloves in a shop where her wages keep getting reduced and the family struggles to put food on the table. There's always compassion though for those even less fortunate and we get to know their small community of neighbors.

There were a lot of themes going on at once in spite of the simplicity of the words. Yet the story itself was so engaging that I was reading it on the bus one day and went two stops past my usual stop. The sense of place is dominant throughout and I was transported into the author's world. It was not always a pleasant place to be, especially during those Depression years, but I totally related to it all, and admire the "vein of iron" in the author, as well as in her characters. Recommended.

Thoughtful Portrayal of Early 20th Century Rural Virginia
Ellen Glasgow is definitely an underrated American female writer; how many have heard of her? She writes elegantly and truthfully. The setting for Vein of Iron is an area of rural Virginia where I spent much of mychildhood. I don't think it has changed much! In this novel, there arewonderful passages about the impact of Christian beliefs on the life of thepeople who settled in the region (which can surely be generalized to manyrural settlements throughout the U.S.). Glasgow creates a fascinatingcharacter in Ada's father, who struggles with his spirituality. Ada isstrong, faithful, optimistic- just as I imagined our female predecessors tobe at that time. This is a character-driven, setting-driven novel, and Iloved it. My daughter surprised me with it for mother's day. Thanks,daughter!

Solid Glasgow
The story of Ada Fincastle begins at the turn of the century in the small village of Ironside, Virginia.She is a good-natured child living modestly with her family.Her father is an "ex-communicated" ministerturned farmer; who writes philosophical books in his spare time.Hermother, aunt, and grandmother take care of the house.

As the storycommences, Ada's boyfriend, Ralph, and her have a fairly seriousrelationship.However, Ada's best friend, Janet, who is rich and spoiledlikes Ralph and wants him.Ada and Ralph have a fight at a party and Ralphgoes home with Janet.Ralph was caught in Janet's room (looking for aphotograph) and was forced to marry her because of this moraltransgression.Janet had schemed this from the beginning.

Ralph'smarriage doesn't work and divorces Janet before the start of World War I. Before Ralph leaves for France, he and Ada have a weekend in the woods andAda eventually winds up pregnant.However, Ada is willing to accept thescorn because they were 2 days of bliss.When Ralph returns from the warthey marry.

During the roaring 20's they move to a big city and beginacquiring possessions and money.However, Ralph is injured in a caraccident and they are forced to spend their savings.Just after hisrecovery, the Great Depression hits and they find themselves in direstraits.

The purpose of Glasgow's epic tale is happiness.Ada and Ralphare reminded often that they experience the deepest happiness when they aretogether. Happiness in possessions is shallow and when examined for their"true happiness" it is often revealed to be not even present. Happiness can also be a double-edged sword; often when life takes awayhappiness one remembers with regret other times when one was happy.Adawonders throughout the book why God allows happiness to be fleeting.

Thebook was very slow to start.About 40 pages into it I was debating onputting it away.However, I gave it another 50 pages and it was gettingbetter. I am glad I made my way through it.The descriptions and scenes ofthe desperation, especially those of the Great Depression, rival those ofSteinbeck's.Glasgow's characters are typical and are similar to thosefound in her other books.Her examples of the moral changes that cameafter the first world war are also priceless (I loved it when Ada wasshocked when her boy came home and said the world "Lousy".) Also, one can see many similarities between the roaring 20's (and itsdeclining morals) with those of the 90's.The characters worried and saidalmost the same things that newspaper pundits are saying today. ... Read more

Book Description
The haunting and carefully crafted autobiography by the major novelist Ellen Glasgow, Pulitzer-Prizewinning author of The Sheltered Life, Barren Ground, and Vein of Iron. ... Read more

Book Description
1902. Glasgow's realistic fiction novels often showed the female characters as stronger than the male characters. It was this new type of Southern fiction that made Ellen Glasgow one of the major writers of her time. The vantage point from which most of her nineteen novels were written was her native home of Richmond, Virginia. She received the Pulitzer prize in 1942. The Battle Ground is the earliest of a series of novels which Glasgow hoped might become in time a complete social history of Virginia since the Civil War. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.Download Description
Draw up to the hearth, my boy, said the Major, when the fire burned. "Even if you aren't cold, it looks cheerful, you know--draw up, draw up," and he at once began to question his grandson about the London streets, evoking as he talked dim memories of his own early days in England. He asked after St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey half as if they were personal friends of whose death he feared to hear; and upon being answered that they still stood unchanged, he pressed eagerly for the gossip of the Strand and Fleet Street. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A very pleasant historical novel in Virginia
One of the major assets of the novel is that the author is a female writer who gives a specific view of the Southern gentleman before and during the Civil War. It relates the education of a young boy, brought up as an aristocrat in the best Virginian tradition who grows up and becomes a real man through the ordeal of the war, the friendship of a poor white and the love of a woman. It's beautifully written, especially when dealing with nature in Virginia. Of course, the point of view is sympathetic with the Southern cause but critical of slavery.
Ellen Glasgow is a major Southern writer of the beginning of the 20th century. ... Read more

Book Description
The novels of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ellen Glasgow ushered the South into the modern era, rejecting the typically romanticized approach for a cunningly observed realism. Glasgow's originality of mind and abiding fascination with her native South are in abundant display in this new selection of her correspondence with women.

Covering more than sixty years, Perfect Companionship collects some 250 letters to and from Glasgow, many published here for the first time. The correspondents include Glasgow's family members, as well as prominent Richmonders. Also included are letters to and from authors such as Radclyffe Hall, Margaret Mitchell, and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, artists Malvina Hoffman and Clare Leighton, publishing figures Blanche Knopf and Irita Van Doren, and spouses of literary and academic figures such as Eleanor Brooks, wife of Van Wyck Brooks, and Bessie Zaban Jones, wife of Howard Mumford Jones.

The letters are set in their proper context by a wealth of useful features, including a substantial introduction, a complete chronology of Glasgow's life, a comprehensive calendar listing all of her known correspondence with women, and a biographical register identifying all correspondents and persons mentioned in the letters.

The result is a collection valuable not only to Glasgow scholars but also to any reader drawn to the South and the great contribution made by women to its literature and culture. ... Read more

Book Description
The moving tale of two small-town Virginia families and the crumbling of their shelters-religion, convention, and social prejudice- by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book.
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Customer Reviews (1)

Long-winded Glasgow book
A fairly dry story which takes place in the early 1900's to the brink of WWI in Virginia.It is about women, and their relationships ( or lack thereof ) with men.However, the focus is on the youngest, who is8-years-old at the start of the story.

The 8-year-old becomes acquaintedwith her mother's best-friend's husband.Through the years they are closeand share a close bond. Eventually, she falls in love with him despiteknowing she shouldn't.Not until the daughter comes of age, and the wifefinds out, tragedy strikes.

The title, I believe, comes from the lack ofthe exposure and isolation that the girl received.She knows little aboutexcept her small environment.I think this parallels the current attitudesthat was prevalant in those days about not wanting to talk about troublingthings, especially by women.

Overall, the first half of the book wasexceedingly dull and a bit confusing.There was a time when I almostconsidered putting it down, but I am glad I stuck with it.There are manynuggets of wisdom about life and man/woman relationships that can be foundin the book. ... Read more

Product Description
On the day after Ellen Glasgow died an editorial tribute in the Richmond Times-Dispatch opened by stating, "The greatest woman Virginia has produced is dead." In the five decades since her death Ellen Glasgow's fictional chronical of Virginia life between 1860 and 1940 continues to attract academic and general readers alike. Glasgow, woman and author, has proved--and continues to prove--remarkably durable.
Regarding Ellen Glasgow: Essays for Contemporary Readers demonstrates that this durability derives not from a single strength but from many elements forged into a sturdy alloy. The eclecticism of the volume's fourteen essays and seven oral-history interviews reflects the braod scope of Glasgow's appeal. Among the contributors are scholars who have made Ellen Glasgow's name and reputation a vital presence in American literature over the past twenty-five years. This volume also introduces the work of a number of young scholars, several of whom are new to Glasgow studies. Each and every essay contains new insights. They reflect the spirit with which, by personal as well artistic example, Glasgow herself resisted the strictures of parochialism and conformity.

Scattered throughout Regarding Ellen Glasgow are numerous images that illustrate Glasgow's two Virginia's--the one in which she resided and the one she re-created in her fiction. They underscore the fact that Glasgow is not a relic from an inaccessible past but rather an artist worthy of the attention of contemporary readers. ... Read more

Book Description
This book reprints contemporaneous reviews of Ellen Glasgow's books as they were published between 1897 and 1943. Book reviews, originally printed in newspapers and other periodicals in this country and in England, tell the story of Glasgow's critical reception during her long and productive career. Nineteen novels as well as a volume of poetry, one of her short stories, and one of criticism, were published during her lifetime. Her first book, published anonymously in 1897, elicited much attention when it was revealed that the author was a young Richmond woman. By the time of the 1943 publication of her volume of literary criticism, A Certain Measure, she was a much-respected and much-honored author, winner of a Pulitzer Prize and other awards. ... Read more