Indian Summer

by William Dean Howells Narrated by Francis Reed

Overview

Indian Summer is an 1886 novel by William Dean Howells. Theodore Colville is a respected newspaperman in Des Vaches, Indiana. However, after a bad political move, his fans criticize him and his pride cannot withstand that. A concurrence is set up, and Colville decides to just give up the newspaper business. He sells his company to the new one. He feels he needs to take a long vacation, so he travels to Florence. Colville hasn't been in Florence in almost 20 years. At that time he was a young architect, and Jenny Wheelwright broke his heart. In Florence he runs into a person he wasn't eager to ever see again: Mrs. Bowen, whom he once knew as Lina Ridgely. She was best friends with Jenny. She is a widow and has a young daughter, Effie Bowen. They have a surprisingly pleasant chat and she invites him to a gathering at her home, Palazzo Pinti, that evening. He accepts the invitation...

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"…[a] delicious novel of romance in late 19th—century Italy."
— Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

"Again and again in Indian Summer, the felicity of the writing makes us pause in admiration….A midlife crisis has rarely been sketched in fiction with better humor, with gentler comedy and more gracious acceptance of life’s irrevocability."
— John Updike

"A lesser—known entry in the Americans—in—Europe genre, the school of novels ruled by Edith Wharton and Henry James, William Dean Howells’ comedy of manners, Indian Summer, is as sublime as they come…Indian Summer is not, however, a tragic novel. Ultimately, it’s one of those rare works…about the deep, unexpected satisfactions to be found in compromise…Indian Summer is what we mean when we invoke irony that does not mean hollow attitude, when we say something is civilized without meaning rarefied, when subtlety does not preclude accessibility, when optimism is earned. It’s exquisite."
— Newsday

Product Details

BN ID:	2940160227511
Publisher:	Audioliterature
Publication date:	03/17/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged

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