Library Journal praised this edition of Sherwood Anderson's famed short stories as "the finest edition of this seminal work available." Reconstructed to be as close to the original text as possible, Winesburg, Ohio depicts the strange, secret lives of the inhabitants of a small town. In "Hands," Wing Biddlebaum tries to hide the tale of his banishment from a Pennsylvania town, a tale represented by his hands. In "Adventure," lonely Alice Hindman impulsively walks naked into the night rain. Threaded through the stories is the viewpoint of George Willard, the young newspaper reporter who, like his creator, stands witness to the dark and despairing dealings of a community of isolated people.


From School Library Journal
Grade 7 Up-Life in a small western town, by Sherwood Anderson. Narrated by Flo Gibson. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Editor White referred back to Anderson's original manuscript, typescript, letters, diaries, and early versions to reconstruct the most accurate edition of this 1919 staple available. (Classic Returns, LJ 1/97)Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
In 1919, Sherwood Anderson published a timeless book of connected short stories about the brave, cowardly, and altogether realistic inhabitants of an imaginary American town. In 2002, Caedmon gathered 25 respected American writers to read the stories. It's a concept production that works. A few quibbles, yes. The writers read empathetically but can swallow words or rush a sentence. And at first, it's startling to adapt to one reader only to change for the next story. That said, the different voices encourage one to focus on the uniqueness of each story. And the match between reader and story often illuminates a theme. Thus, Richard Ford, chronicler of men who sabotage their lives, renders the tale of Wing Littlebaum in "Hands" particularly heartbreaking. This production is full of such wonderful pieces--do listen. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


Midwest Book Review
This classic collection of stories set in Ohio is now available in a brilliant unabridged production read by much-praised narrator Terry Bregy. Published in 1919 and now considered to be one of the forerunners of modern fiction, Sherwood Anderson's ground-breaking masterpiece runs 6 1/2 hours, four cassettes.


Review
"When he calls himself a 'poor scribbler' don't believe him. He is not a poor scribbler . . . he is a very great writer."--Ernest Hemingway

"Winesburg, Ohio, when it first appeared, kept me up a whole night in a steady crescendo of emotion."--Hart Crane

"As a rule, first books show more bravado than anything else, unless it be tediousness. But there is neither of these qualities in Winesburg, Ohio. . . . These people live and breathe: they are beautiful."--E. M. Forster

"Winesburg, Ohio is an extraordinarily good book. But it is not fiction. It is poetry."--Rebecca West


From the Trade Paperback edition.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Widely considered Anderson's masterwork, this book is a series of intertwined vignettes that reveals the secret life of a seemingly placid Midwestern town and the inner desires and dreams of its residents in the early years of the twentieth century.

ANNOTATION

In the perfectly imagined world of an archetypal small American town, Anderson reveals the hidden passions that turn ordinary lives into fonts of unforgettable emotions. Played out against the deceptively placid backdrop of Winesburg, Anderson's loosely connected stories coalesce, like chapters, into a powerful novel of love and loss.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Winesburg, Ohio (1919) is Sherwood Anderson's masterpiece, a cycle of short stories concerning life in a small Ohio town at the end of the nineteenth century.

At the centre is George Willard, a young reporter who becomes the confidant of the town's 'grotesques' -- solitary figures unable to communicate with others. George is their conduit for expression and solace from loneliness, but he has his own longings which eventually draw him away from home to seek a career in the city. He carries with him the dreams and unuttered words of remarkable characters such as Wing Biddlebaum, the disgraced former teacher, and the story-telling Doctor Parcival.

SYNOPSIS

'Here [is] a new order of short story,' said H. L. Mencken when Winesburg, Ohio was published in 1919. 'It is so vivid, so full of insight, so shiningly life-like and glowing, that the book is lifted into a category all its own.

FROM THE CRITICS

Book Magazine - Rochelle O'Gorman

Anderson's 1919 story collection about the secretive inhabitants of a small town was an instant classic. This production probably looked like a great idea on paper: Gather twenty-five well-known authors, including Richard Ford, Elizabeth Berg, Paul Auster, Richard Russo, Russell Banks and Michael Cunningham, to each read one of the stories. Too bad the end result is uneven and sloppy. While some of the narrators sound natural and convincing, others seem preoccupied and ill prepared. Anderson's characters deserve better.

AudioFile

Sherwood Anderson provides a voyeuristic look into the lives of small-town folks in 1919. Each of the 23 stories in this classic can stand alone, but all come together, as well, demonstrating how one life affects so many others. Townspeople are seen through the eyes of writer-reporter George Willard, either directly through his observations, or indirectly. The variation in narrators can be distracting, although all but one are exceptional. Also, the dialogue portions of each vignette are handled by a performer different from the narrator for the non-dialogue portions of the vignette, and this continual shifting of voices also detracts from the flow of the story. The performance is nicely packaged, though, with appropriate theme music between each of the 23 chapters. All told, a touching collection. H.L.S. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

AudioFile - Susan G. Baird

Sherwood Anderson has been considered the inspiration for American storytelling. Narrator George Guidall perfectly presents the multitude of sketches that make up the town and novel. Diverse generations, class and educational levels, as well as male and female voices, are all realistically handled. It seems likely that the author would have read his work in much the same way that Guidall does. Because this is from a time of different reading and writing styles, the audio version enhances what may be dull reading for a contemporary audience. S.G.B. ￯﾿ﾽAudioFile, Portland, Maine

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

"The only story teller of his generation who left his mark on the style and vision of the generation that followed....Henningway, Faulkner, Wolfe, Steinbeck, Coldwell, Saroyan, Henry Miller...each of these owes an unmistakable debth to Anderson." — Malcolm Cowley

"Like Dubliners, Winesburg can be read naturalistically, as the account of individuals trapped by social confinement and paralysis, narrow human experience and puritanical burdens and guilt of American small town life....It's characters are depositories of the untold, trapped in ... pain; a direct utters cannot reveal the truth, the truth being too many." — Malcolm Bradberry