The Wide, Wide World [Paperback]

Susan Warner (Author), Jane Tompkins (Afterword)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1993 | ISBN-10: 0935312668 | ISBN-13: 978-0935312669 | Edition: First Feminist Press Edition

   Exceeded in popularity in its time only by Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Wide, Wide World is a feminist Huckleberry Finn. First published in 1850, this domestic epic narrates the seven-year pilgrimage of a girl sent out into the world at age ten by a dying mother and a careless father. Moved from relative to relative, Ellen Montgomery astonishes by remaining faithful to her mother’s memory and to her Christian teachings. As Jane Tompkins notes in her afterword, Warner's (1819-1865) novel is "compulsively readable, absorbing, and provoking to an extraordinary degree... More than any other book of its time, it embodies, uncompromisingly, the values of the Victorian era."

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

American novelist SUSAN BOGERT WARNER (1819-1885) was born in New York City, and lived there all her life. Among her numerous other books for children and adults are Queechy (1852), The Hills of the Shatemuc (1856), Melbourne House (1864), and Mr. Rutherford's Children (1853-55), the last written in collaboration with her sister, Anna Bartlett Warner. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY; First Feminist Press Edition edition (January 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0935312668
• ISBN-13: 978-0935312669
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #380,049 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jane Tompkins calls WWW the Ur text of the 19th century., February 24, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Wide, Wide World (Hardcover)

Susan Warner's _The Wide, Wide World_ was first published in 1852 and is often acclaimed as America's first bestseller.
Its heroine, Ellen Montgomery, is her mother's sole companion, confidante, and spiritual prodigy. Ellen's father wisks the mother away under the pretense of taking her to a climate more favorable to her health. Her mother's last words to Ellen are "We must endure, but we must not rebel." Ellen is sent to her father's sister's house in the country. Miss Fortune is a pragmatic independent manager of a small farm. She takes Ellen in though she was not told of Ellen's coming. Ellen's
sensibilities are crushed by Miss Fortune's lack of sympathy
for Ellen's tastes. Ellen will find friends in the more genteel and conventionally religious neighbors, Alice and John Humphreys, who agree that Ellen would make a good wife for John when she grows up. Ellen's foil is the "wild girl" Nancy Vawse who roams the countryside and turns up to torment Ellen with her rough ways. When Ellen reaches her teens, she learns some very surprising news which precipitates a trip to Scotland. The intensly emotional and high-strung Ellen who "conquers her will" represents everything contemporary psychology and feminism denounce.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Wide Wide World, April 6, 2002

By 

Gabi "Living for His glory" (Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wide, Wide World, The (Library Binding)

This book is a completely inspiring journey through the life of a young girl, Ellen. I am 17 years old and this book captivated me and encouraged me to strive in my walk with God and to be a joy to those around me. It is a wonderful book full of delightful adventures as well as sorrow. If you read it, you will laugh, cry, and be touched.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Wide Wide World, February 19, 2001

By 

Connie Jackson (New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wide, Wide World, The (Library Binding)

My mother first read me this wonderful story thirty years ago ani I have been reading it at least once a year since then. I loved the dwlightful descriptions of Ellens expierances and adventures and her demination to be a credit to her parents.Even though Ive read it so many times it nevert fails to delight charm and inspire me. If you are a family oriented young woman from six to sixty im sure this story will delight you as it did me. If you are a fan of L.M. Montgomary or Laura Ingills Wilder you will enjoy this as well.I have two copys an original published one hundred and twelve years ago and a more modern abriged version. I would be interested in hearing from others who like the same sort of literature. Is there anybody who can tell me where I can get a copy of The Lamplighter by the same author.