So Big, Edna Ferber
So Big, Edna Ferber
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So Big
A Novel

Author: Edna Ferber

Narrator: Cassandra Campbell

Unabridged: 10 hr 14 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Caedmon

Published: 04/23/2019

Synopsis

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize""A masterpiece."" — Literary Review • ""A novel to read and to remember."" —New York TimesWidely regarded as the masterwork of celebrated author and Algonquin Round Table mainstay Edna Ferber—who also penned other classics including Show Boat, Giant, Ice Palace, Saratoga Trunk, and Cimarron—So Big is a powerful and stirring portrait of one of the most memorable women in American literature, and still resonates today with its unflinching views of poverty, sexism, and the drive for success.Set in Chicago at the turn of the twentieth century, So Big tells the story of Selina Peake, orphaned at nineteen after her father is shot and killed in a gambling house. Alone and resolved to make something of her life, Selina gets a job as a schoolteacher in a farming community outside Chicago and falls in love with a kind but struggling farmer. She soon leaves the schoolhouse for long grueling days in the fields and gives birth to a son, Dirk, nicknamed “So Big.” When she finds herself unexpectedly widowed, she takes the reins of the farm, defying convention and all those around her, determined to give Dirk every opportunity to follow his dreams.So Big is a must-read for fans of contemporary novelists such Willa Cather (O Pioneers!), Pearl S. Buck (The Good Earth), and Marjorie Rawlings (The Yearling).

About Edna Ferber

Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Edna Ferber (1885-1968) was a novelist, short-story writer, and playwright whose work served as the inspiration for numerous Broadway plays and Hollywood films, including Show Boat, Cimarron, Giant, Saratoga Trunk, and Ice Palace. She co-wrote the plays The Royal Family, Dinner at Eight, and Stage Door with George S. Kaufman and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her novel So Big.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Candi on January 26, 2018

"The more kinds of people you see, and the more things you do, and the more things that happen to you, the richer you are. Even if they’re not pleasant things. That’s living. Remember, no matter what happens, good or bad, it’s just so much — just so much velvet." Selina Peake’s father was a perceptiv......more

Goodreads review by Amber on January 16, 2012

In the three years I've worked in a bookstore, I've had ZERO customers ask for books by Edna Ferber. Dude. That is going to change. I am going to start by recommending it to everyone I know (Andrew's mom is reading it next, then Andrew) and then I am going to recommend it to customers. It's about Sel......more

Goodreads review by Steve on October 02, 2007

This was a very different, very enjoyable read for me. Thanks for nudging this now forgotten little gem my way, Susan. Your instincts for what I would like were, as always, unerring. So Big was Edna Ferber’s Pulitzer Prize winning book from 1924. Despite the accolades I didn’t know what to think goi......more

Goodreads review by JimZ on October 25, 2020

I really enjoyed the first half of this novel. I liked the character, Selina Peake De Jong, a lot. She went to a finishing school and was well-educated. She rather surprisingly married “beneath her” — she married a farmer whom she had initially met as his tutor. He had had a very limited education,......more

Goodreads review by Deyanne on January 06, 2017

Surprise. What a delightful experience to start a reading year with a "gem" if you will. Another formerly unread choice in our book group year of Pultizer Prize Winners, I truthfully did not hold high expectations. I have questioned whether or not the books we have already read have been dated and r......more

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