Winesburg, Ohio (Norton Critical Editions) (Paperback)

by Sherwood Anderson (Author), Charles E. Modlin (Editor), Ray Lewis White (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
A collection of short stories dealing with a small town in Ohio.

About the Author
Charles E. Modlin is Professor of English at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where he has taught since 1968. He is the editor of Certain Things Last: The Selected Short Stories of Sherwood Anderson, Sherwood Anderson’s Love Letters to Eleanor Copenhaver Anderson, Sherwood Anderson: Selected Letters, and co-editor of Sherwood Anderson: Centennial Studies. He is co-editor of The Winesburg Eagle (the newsletter of the Sherwood Anderson Society) and author of many articles related to Sherwood Anderson.

Ray Lewis White is Distinguished Professor of English at Illinois State University, where he has taught since 1968. He is the author of Gore Vidal and "Winesburg, Ohio": An Exploration. He has edited many books, including The Achievement of Sherwood Anderson, Sherwood Anderson’s Memoirs, Sherwood Anderson/Gertrude Stein, and Sherwood Anderson’s Secret Love Letters. His articles on various aspects of American literature have been widely published.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.; New edition edition (November 17, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393967956
• ISBN-13: 978-0393967951
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #141,348 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stories that interrelate in surprising, often brilliant ways, January 16, 2003

By	Duane Simolke "author, The Acorn Stories, Deg... (Lubbock, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

When I discovered this book, I was already writing a story cycle of my own, The Acorn Stories. Winesburg, Ohio became a strong influence on that book, and also led me to write New Readings of Winesburg, Ohio. In Sherwood Anderson's acclaimed story cycle, a small town finds itself entering the twentieth century with loneliness and confusion. The same industrialism that Anderson would explore so well in his novel Poor White also asserts itself constantly here, turning a beautiful landscape into a sometimes desecrated one.

The young reporter George Willard appears in most of the stories, providing a connection for people who feel they lack connection and a voice for people who feel they lack a voice. Though many readers consider this book a bleak and disjointed novel, I consider it a collection of stories that interrelate in surprising, often brilliant ways. As for the bleak part, please also look at the many moments of comfort, the many sparks of inspiration.

I eventually lost track of how many times I read Winesburg, Ohio. I just know I'll read it again.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Landmark of American Literature, December 23, 2006

By	Maxwell Reif "[e-mail]" (Walnut Creek, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

WINESBURG, OHIO is a book I'd heard of since I became aware of literature. I wondered whether it was passe' or dated, or might somehow hold my interest. Rather than turn its pages, I heard it 'performed', this past week, on audiocassette in my car as I drove to and form work and other places.

I found it to be strangely 'relevant'. Anderson wrote intimately of the people in a small midwesten town, as the industrial/railroad age was in full swing in America and the age of the automobile had not really arrived yet. But the people he writes of shared, for me, much of the modern sensibility of isolation and alienation that became the basis for much later writing. The gallery of mostly 'grotesques', as Anderson calls them in his introductory piece, bears resemblance in many ways to the denizens of a rooming house in a large city. Each has his/her scars that have caused the bloom of the person's youth to congeal in an isolated, armored middle or old age. There are, fortunately, a few exceptions to this model, a few souls who yet have a chance, and indeed, the protagonist figure, who is most likely a stand-in for the author, leaves town at book's end for a new life in an unspecified city.

Most of the interesting characters, though, whether farmers or inhabitants of the town, are stuck, living on a thin gruel of memory or delusion, as a result of some earlier circumstance or trauma.

The most memorable tale, entitled 'Godliness', follows the life of a young man who went off to Cleveland to study for the ministry, and is called back to run the family farm when all his brothers are killed in the Civil War (whose ghosts haunt this book) . He sees himself as a biblical Abraham, and the rest of the farmers in the valley appear to him as the Phillistines, whose land he feels destined to own. The man, named Jesse, like the father of King David, is a fascinating admixture of strong character and dangerous delusion. Of course he feels positively destined to have a male heir, whom he will name David, and when his only child is a girl, he feels cheated, and denies her love. She finally has a son, whom of course they name David, but the story STILL eludes Jesse's control in powerful, ironic ways.

I'm glad I've finally experienced WINESBURG, OHIO. There's too much literature in the world, it seems to me, for any one person to be well-versed. But I like it when I can fill in some of the obvious potholes in my background.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not a Flat Character, April 21, 2006

By	Katie Tufts (MI) - See all my reviews

In Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, the main character of the book is George Willard. George Willard is a reporter for the local newspaper, the Winesburg Eagle. When first looking at the book, one would think that George is a flat character, but after looking back through, one may discover that George Willard is as round as a character can get.
George Willard has the ability to make friends with people in Winesburg that other people don't associate with, and ends up bringing out the best in them. For example, when George befriends Wing Biddlebaum, he is able to draw Wing out of his shell and understand partially why he is always keeping to himself. "There's something wrong, but I don't want to know what it is. His hands have something to do with his fear of me and of everyone" (11). Another that George is able to communicate with is Doctor Parcival, a crazy old man that showed up in Winesburg about five years ago. He would talk all day to George about his travels and life (22).
George Willard grows in the book by some of his experiences with women, such as Louise Trunnion and Kate Swift. When George was seeing Louise, it was because he had received a letter saying, `"I'm yours if you want me."' When George had arrived at Louise's house, he was greeted by, `"How do you know I want to go out with you,' she said sulkily. `What makes you so sure?"' He was upset and confused by the situation, but Louise still went out with him (28). When it came to Kate Swift though, George was somewhat better off due to the fact that she also had feelings for George. "He took a pillow into his arms and embraced it thinking first of the school teacher, who by her words had stirred something within him . . ." (86). After spending time with Kate, he realized that she is a woman, and he is a man.
" She was a teacher but she was also a woman. As she looked at George Willard,
the passionate desire to be loved by a man, that had a thousand times before swept like a storm over her body, took possession of her. In the lamplight George Willard looked no longer a boy, but a man ready to play the part of a man."
Something snaps inside Kate Swift and she erupts into a violent fit striking George, and leaving him alone and confused (90-91).
At first glance, George doesn't make any moral choices, but when you look back, you realize that he does by standing up for someone. When George Willard is talking to Seth Richmond, he asks Seth to go talk to Helen White for him. `"I've been trying to write a love story, . . . I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to fall in love. I've been sitting here and thinking it over and I'm going to do it"' (73). Seth is irritated with this rash statement, but nothing else happens. Later on when George meets Tom Foster, Tom is drunk, and saying things about Helen that George knows is not true. "The drunken boy talked of Helen White and said he had been with her on the shore of a sea and had made love to her. George had seen Helen White walking in the street with her father during the evening." Hearing Tom Foster talk about Helen like that infuriated George and told him, "I won't let Helen White's name be dragged into this. I won't let that happen" (121).
George Willard is an emotionally deep person; he just doesn't always show it.
When Aunt Elizabeth Swift comes to watch over the body of Elizabeth Willard, George breaks down and lets the realization that his mother has passed, sink in. "He put his hand into hers and began to sob, shaking his head from side to side, half blind with grief. `My mother is dead,' he said,"' (129).
George Willard is a round main character and should be recognized as such.