His Family

by Ernest Poole and Ernest 1880-1950 Poole

Book Overview

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 089968100X
• ISBN13: 9780899681009
• Release Date: June 1976
• Publisher: Buccaneer Books
• Weight: 1.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Changes in New York City life in the Early 20th Centure

One of my favorite Pulitzer winning pieces of fiction. The story of a late, middle-aged man who lives in NYC and maintains the family farm in New Hampshire. He learns about "modern" life from his 3 very different daughters, a liberal-minded teacher, a shallow socialite and a prudish housewife/widow.

The Dawning of the 20th Century

This is the very first of the Pulitzer Prize winners for literature. It is a portrait of life as it looked to those at the dawn of the new century. Roger is a widower with three adult daughters, each representing a different cultural norm of the time. First there is Edith, the eldest. She lives apart from Roger with her husband and five children. She represents the traditional values of family living of the time. Next, is Deborah a woman dedicated to the poor and unfortunates of the time, a social crusader pretty much in the mold of Jane Addams, more interested in making the world a better place than getting married to her doctor suitor. Last, is Laura his youngest daughter who is to become a woman of the world in the style that those looking back would recognize as the flapper girls of the 1920s. The characters are richly portrayed which is the strength of this novel.

Lovely glimpse of the past

Poole's book tells the story of aging patriarch Roger Gale and the lives of his three daughters - Laura, with her reckless abandon and zest for life; Deborah, with her fierce devotion to the tenement schoolchildren she assists; and Edith, the mother of five whose entire world revolves around her children. Roger sees their lives change - some for the better, some worse - and how it affects his own life.This is a wonderful story which reminds me at times of E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime, in that it encompasses the scope of life in early twentieth century New York, and the lives of the people who inhabit it. The descriptions are vivid but never too cumbersome; the characters are all very real, and the plot flies by. By the end, I came to care about what happens to these people, and found I was sorry when it was over.