Customer Reviews

The Harvester (Library of Indiana Classics)

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
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This romance novel in my mother's girlhood collection was the first novel I ever read. The Harvester, a hermit who lives alone and supports himself by growing, harvesting and drying medicinal herbs, has vision of a wonderful woman. He sets out in search of her among the city streets by knocking on doors and selling flowers. He finds his girl, but she is traumatized and ill. The Harvester builds a home for her and establishes a relationship only to have her become so ill she almost dies. How he wins both her life and love make this story one you will never forget! If only Hollywood knew, we could have an academy award if this were ever made into a movie - it's a treasure!

If there is a more beautiful story anywhere than The Harvester, I have yet to find it. This early 20th century classic is as fresh and meaningful today as it was close to a century ago. It speaks of life lived purely and respectfully, of the truest form of love any mortal ever knew, and describes our beautiful America before greed and carelessness trashed her splendor.

David Langston is the Harvester, the Medicine Man. At age 26 he lives a solitary life with only his dog and horse to keep him company. He cultivates and harvests medicinal herbs and flowers on an acreage he has carefully developed. Here, in nature's pristine beauty and a world of thriving birds and wildlife, David dreams of someday finding a woman who will love him truly and passionately. He sees his Dream Girl in a vision and sets out with his typical persistence to find her. So certain is he that this lovely vision will become reality, he adds onto his small home and creates furniture lovingly by hand to meet her every comfort.

Ruth Jameson is ill in body, mind and spirit, a thin pale wraith of a girl. But to David Langston she is beauty personified. Her past has all but killed her, but David has no doubts. He loves her and will sacrifice anything and everything to win her. But first she must be made whole through pure food and nature's medicine, both laced generously with a decent man's devotion. He marries the girl to save her from cruelty and squallor, and promises to put male desire on hold until she can come to him freely. In his heart of hearts, he knows there is a chance she will never love him but he's willing to face that heartbreak if only she can be well again.

I've been reading The Harvester at intervals since I was 12 years old. But this is not a story for children. It has adult themes and dialog. The purity of prose and wonderful descriptions of America, the information about natural healing, and a love story that is unsurpassed make this book an amazing read today - as it was when first written. I give this book my most entusiastic recommendation.

This is an old-fashioned tale of true love, purity, hard work and regeneration through oneness with nature. It's a beautiful story which I read every time I get stuck in bed sick. I give it to friends who get sick. Just reading it is healing. I hope you enjoy it.

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How is the Harvester different from most other men?

Because he is a MAN. He is a gentleman from head to toe, despite the fact that he lives in a log cabin and makes his living by collecting herbs from the wild, drying them, and selling them to pharmaceutical companies. When he has a vision of a girl he is fated to marry, he is horrified, because he is so happy in his life as it is that he doesn't want it to change, and he's certain that his married life would be like just about everyone else's: miserable.

But he sets forth to find the girl, and has no luck with anything he tries, until he goes to harvest some wild ginseng and finds the girl crying because she had intended to harvest it to try to get enough money to leave her uncle's house, where she has been stuck since her mother's death from starvation in Chicago. Now her aunt has died, and she is alone with a brutal man.

The Harvester impulsively proposes to her but promises her that he is marrying her to free her, not to enslave her, and he will ask for no marital rights. If she finds someone else she wants to marry, he will free her on grounds that the marriage was never consummated. (Stratton Porter is more delicate in her wording, but that is what she means.)

The rest of the book has its great ups and its agonizing downs, and I don't want to write a spoiler. All I will add is that I have read this book cover to cover a minimum of once a year since I first read it when I was twelve, and I am now 67 and I still cry at the end of it. If you don't wipe tears from your eyes at least one time as you're reading this book, either you are hopelessly and heartlessly sophisticated, or else you had better call an ambulance at once, because there is considerable possibility that you are dead.

I love this book. Although it is probably written for women, I would love to see every young man about fourteen years old read it, and maybe some of them would learn that being a man doesn't mean being foul-mouthed and open-zippered. Being a real man, the kind of man the Harvester is in this book, takes more cojones than most men ever think of having.

This is one you will read over and over. Yes, it is old-fashioned, but that is part of its charm. My sister loves this book so much she planned her vacation trip around visiting Gene Stratton Porter's home. For anyone who loves romance!

So beautifully written! What a love story! You'll want to share this one with all your friends. I read it at least once a year and I can still hardly wait to turn the page. It so sweet and bittersweet and tender and lovely and on and on and on. All men should live and love like the Harvester!

I can't count the number of times I've read and re-read this book. Pretty sentimental by today's standards, but the basic story tells of a country man of character who falls deeply in love with a city girl who has issues. That description doesn't do justice to Gene Stratton-Porter's touching romance, but if I had to pare my library down to just 20 books, this one would be in the "keepers."

I first read this book at age 12 and reread it many times throughout my teenage years. It shaped my idea of what I wanted in a husband...love, patience, kindness, and intelligence. I highly recommend this book.

This was my grandmother's favorite book of all time,and she had read thousands of books. Because of that, I used this book for my book club before I had even read it. All of the 12 people that read it really liked it. It does take a while to get into, but it is well worth it! I noticed the plants around me more and it gave me the desire to raise my boys to be like the Harvester. The Harvester is a charector that we could all try to be more like, and the world would definetly be a better place!

I first read this book 37 years ago. It was the original book published in 1911 and belonged to my 1st husbands grandmother. It was written of a quieter time, the slower paced, clean living and was very inspirational. I loved all the information about the nature and plants. I started out trying to recreate the "Yellow Garden" several years ago. I now have a gorgeous garden with many of the same perennials and herbs listed in the book. The garden has certainly evolved from just yellow to every color in nature. I have passed down the love of gardening to my daughters by sharing the flowers and herbs from my own garden. I have thoroughly enjoyed this book.