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Edition:	Signet Classics (Paperback)
Author:	Sherwood Anderson
Published:	November 2005
Pages:	288
ISBN 10:	0451529952
New:	$2.75 (53)
Used:	$1.91 (54)
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Winesburg, Ohio is a 1919 short story cycle by the American author Sherwood Anderson.

Plot introduction

A critically acclaimed work of fiction by the American author Sherwood Anderson, the book, published in 1919, is a collection of related short stories, which could be loosely defined as a novel. The stories are centered on the protagonist George Willard and the fictional inhabitants of the town of Winesburg, Ohio.

Plot summary

The work explores the theme of loneliness and frustration in small-town America. Anderson conveys the half-conscious thoughts and raw emotions of Winesburg's residents and their inability to express their deep hopes and fears. The townspeople are repressed and inarticulate. They seem to gravitate toward George, telling him their strange, often sad stories in the hope that, in writing the stories of their lives, he will be able to impart dignity and meaning to their personal struggles and experiences. The chapter "Paper Pills" recounts how the misshapen apples — the grotesques of the orchard — are ignored, left on the tree, where they slowly ripen until they fall. Those that bother to taste these discarded grotesques discover they are the sweetest of apples.

The stories

The collection consists of twenty-two short stories, one of which is in four parts:

• The Book of the Grotesque
• Hands, concerning Wing Biddlebaum
• Paper Pills, concerning Doctor Reefy
• Mother, concerning Elizabeth Willard
• The Philosopher, concerning Doctor Parcival
• Nobody Knows, concerning Louise Trunnion
• Godliness, a Tale in Four Parts
  • I, concerning Jesse Bentley
  • II, also concerning Jesse Bentley
  • III Surrender, concerning Louise Bentley
  • IV Terror, concerning David Hardy
• A Man of Ideas, concerning Joe Welling
• Adventure, concerning Alice Hindman
• Respectability, concerning Wash Williams
• The Thinker, concerning Seth Richmond
• Tandy, concerning Tandy Hard
• The Strength of God, concerning the Reverend Curtis Hartman
• The Teacher, concerning Kate Swift
• Loneliness, concerning Enoch Robinson
• An Awakening, concerning Belle Carpenter
• "Queer," concerning Elmer Cowley
• The Untold Lie, concerning Ray Pearson
• Drink, concerning Tom Foster
• Death, concerning Doctor Reefy and Elizabeth Willard
• Sophistication, concerning Helen White
• Departure, concerning George Willard.

References

Wikipedia