Winesburg, Ohio

By: Sherwood Anderson

Narrated by: George Guidall

Winesburg, Ohio is a little-known masterpiece that forever changed the course of American storytelling. Bittersweet and richly insightful, it reveals Sherwood Anderson’s special talent for taking the small moments of life and transforming them into timeless folk tales - a talent that inspired a generation of writers including William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and John Steinbeck.

At the center of this collection of stories stands George Willard, an earnest young reporter for the Winesburg Eagle who sets out to gather the town’s daily news. He ends up discovering the town’s deepest secrets as one by one, the townsfolk confide their hopes, dreams, and fears to the reporter. In their recollections of first loves and last rites, of sprawling farms and winding country roads, the town rises vividly - and poignantly - to life.

With polished prose and fresh imagery, Winesburg, Ohio is an American classic that celebrates small-town life in the lost days of innocence and good will.

Public Domain (P)1995 Recorded Books, LLC

Winesburg, Ohio

This one is different but I liked it. We were told about many different peoples lives in a town through one of the occupants eyes.

Stories of LongingDisappointments, the Human Condition and Aspirations

This is an affecting book. It took me a short while to get used to the narrator, but I really enjoyed both the writer and the narrator.

Superb Tale of Early Twentieth Century America

I’ve wanted to read this novel for years.

I love stories of early 20th century town life in America. For instance, i could never get enough of Sinclair Lewis. Or even movies of this period in American history.

So, I finally did it!

The reading is superb. The character development is fine. And the style of the book is more one of following various characters rather than following a plot. One gets a sense of the course of life for the major figures. But it’s all in the little stories of pieces of life of specified characters.

I suspect that real life is a lot dryer and more common than this. But the writer wants to keep our interest, and does so by a fair dose of “above the line” fiction, and some hyperbole.

But that’s fine by me!

The beginning of the American short story cycle

A beautiful (though melancholic) journey through small-town middle America. While set in the early 1900s, George Willard's complex relationship with his hometown and ultimate path to adulthood still resonates.

Winesburg Ohio

I read this book several decades ago. It wasn’t quite what I recalled. I was glad to have it recorded so that I could easily listen on my free time.