9780062884848
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So Big audiobook

  • By: Edna Ferber
  • Narrator: Cassandra Campbell
  • Category: Classics, Fiction
  • Length: 10 hours 14 minutes
  • Publisher: Caedmon
  • Publish date: April 23, 2019
  • Language: English
  • (7888 ratings)
(7888 ratings)
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So Big Audiobook Summary

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and widely considered to be Edna Ferber’s greatest achievement, So Big is a classic novel of turn-of-the-century Chicago.

Hailed as a novel “to read and remember” (New York Times), So Big is the unforgettable story of the indomitable Selina Peake DeJong and her struggles to stay afloat and maintain her dignity in the face of a challenging marriage, widowhood, and single parenthood. First published in 1924, So Big is a brilliant literary masterwork from one of the twentieth century’s most accomplished and admired writers, and still resonates today with its unflinching views of poverty, sexism, and the drive for success.

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So Big Audiobook Narrator

Cassandra Campbell is the narrator of So Big audiobook that was written by Edna Ferber

Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Edna Ferber (1885-1968) was a novelist, short-story writer, and playwright whose work served as the inspiration for numerous Broadway plays and Hollywood films, including Show Boat, Cimarron, Giant, Saratoga Trunk, and Ice Palace. She co-wrote the plays The Royal Family, Dinner at Eight, and Stage Door with George S. Kaufman and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her novel So Big.

About the Author(s) of So Big

Edna Ferber is the author of So Big

So Big Full Details

Narrator Cassandra Campbell
Length 10 hours 14 minutes
Author Edna Ferber
Category
Publisher Caedmon
Release date April 23, 2019
ISBN 9780062884848

Subjects

The publisher of the So Big is Caedmon. includes the following subjects: The BISAC Subject Code is Classics, Fiction

Additional info

The publisher of the So Big is Caedmon. The imprint is Caedmon. It is supplied by Caedmon. The ISBN-13 is 9780062884848.

Global Availability

This book is only available in the United States.

Goodreads Reviews

Elyse

February 10, 2017

At first I was curious about the title "So Big"....which we soon learn is the nickname for a boy named Dirk DeJong. The nickname becomes symbolic for a theme running throughout this story pointing to what's important in life. Another way this theme is expressed is that there are two types of people in life: "Emeralds and Wheat" The biggest treasure in this story, yet there are others, is Dirk's mother, Selena De Jong, who moves to a Dutch-farming community near Chicago. She becomes a widow after her husband dies. She demonstrates inspiring work ethics making do with what she has. Setbacks don't set her back. She values education, justice, integrity, beauty, literature, and art. She's not afraid of hard work and rolls up her sleeves. She's strong, independent, optimistic, spunky, and courageous.....a feminist before her time. Selena encourages her son to follow his heart - be true to his deepest self- but kids are going to make their own choices....which her son does. As much as we wish our children to take the most inspiring roads in life, it doesn't always look as if they do. As parents we just might have less influence than we think. Some people seem to need to make mistakes themselves in order to learn a life lesson- others are inspired by observing others and avoid a few more. What motivates one person - and not another? How much influence do we as parents really have on our children? Maybe there is still a bigger lesson yet. How much does it really matter if our children take 'the-wrong-road' .....and make big mistakes? Who hurts more, the parent? Or the child? And is that the question to ask? Or is it possible that the challenge is to embrace the big mistakes in life head on- accept them - learn from them - forgive - and through differences love full heartedly during the hardest times? "So Big" is a timeless novel giving us BIG THINGS to think about! Parts of the story is heartbreaking….But it's always a powerful look at humanity! This book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1924.....WELL DESERVED! The writing is lyrical.....characters come alive in the context of detail descriptive writing. "He knew cabbage from seed to sauerkraut; he knew and grew varieties from the sturdy Flat Dutch to the early Wakefield. But they were beautiful; that they looked like jewels; that they lay like Persian patches, had never entered his head, and righty. What has the head of a cabbage, or, for that matter, of a robust, soil-stained, toiling Dutch truck farmer to do with nonsense like chrysoprase, with Jade, with Burgundy, with Persian patterns!"

Candi

January 26, 2018

"The more kinds of people you see, and the more things you do, and the more things that happen to you, the richer you are. Even if they’re not pleasant things. That’s living. Remember, no matter what happens, good or bad, it’s just so much — just so much velvet."Selina Peake’s father was a perceptive man indeed to impart these words of wisdom to his only daughter, words that would stay with her through life and ones that she would practice to the fullest extent possible. This extraordinary novel by Edna Ferber, winner of the 1925 Pulitzer Prize, is as relevant now as it would have been back in its day. It is a highly accessible classic and a pure joy to read. I began 2018 with this book, and with any luck it’s a sign of a glorious reading year to come! Selina’s father introduced her to a way of life that likely not many young girls would have had the opportunity to experience. In 1885, at the age of sixteen, Selina moved with her father to the bustling city of Chicago, where she learned to appreciate art, literature, theater and a diversity of people. When tragedy strikes, Selina is forced to make an important choice on her own. "… the choice of earning her own living or of returning to the Vermont village and becoming a withered and sapless dried apple, with black fuzz and mould at her heart, like her aunts, the Misses Sarah and Abbie Peake. She did not hesitate." Life in High Prairie, a farming community to the south of Chicago, would be completely opposite to what she was accustomed, but she was determined to make the best of it. A vegetable farm may not seem the setting for the grand adventure after which Selina yearned, but the unwavering spirit of this young woman was a rare quality. Selina ranks right up there in my book of literary heroines! Her capacity to recognize the beauty even in what others would consider the most mundane of objects and people made me stop and consider whether or not I take enough time to appreciate the everyday things in my own life. "But always, to her, red and green cabbages were to be jade and burgundy, chrysoprase and porphyry. Life has no weapons against a woman like that." I may never quite look at a cabbage the same again! Like her father before her, Selina also wishes to instill the appreciation for the beauty in all things to her own child. Dirk Dejong, fondly called Sobig by his mother, may be a farmer’s son, but he will be exposed to books and art just the same, despite what little use his own father rates these small luxuries. Selina has plans for Dirk, a wish for him to lead life to the fullest and experience all those things she feels she has missed out on herself. She will toil away at the land in order to provide a future away from the farm for Dirk. "All the worth-while things in life. All mixed up. Rooms in candle-light. Leisure. Colour. Travel. Books. Music. Pictures. People—all kinds of people. Work that you love. And growth—growth and watching people grow. Feeling very strongly about things and then developing that feeling to—to make something fine come of it." But can we shape the life of another, even one of our own flesh and blood? What sacrifices should we make, what do we give up, in order to ensure the happiness of our children or another loved one? Can you really stop a person from making mistakes, mistakes that you recognize from your personal trials and errors? Or do these things need to be experienced first-hand for us to truly learn from them ourselves? I am at a point in my own life where I ask myself these exact questions that Edna Ferber so astutely challenges us to consider through her thoughtful writing. As a mother of two teens, one starting to make decisions about college and career, I ask myself everyday if I am doing my best for them. And what exactly is ‘my best’? How much autonomy should they be allowed, and how often should I yet take the reins and exert my own influence? It’s a balance I am certain, and one that needs to be constantly checked! There is so much more I could say about this pearl of a novel. Better yet, you could just trust me, grab a copy, and learn for yourself that this truly was deserving of the esteemed literary award bestowed upon it. I haven’t delved much into the characters other than Selina, but there are several others that Ferber brilliantly imbues with life through her skillful pen. So Big is simply a lovely novel towards which my review cannot do justice. This book will adorn my favorites shelf for sure."About mistakes it’s funny. You got to make your own; and not only that, if you try to keep people from making theirs they get mad."

Amber

January 16, 2012

In the three years I've worked in a bookstore, I've had ZERO customers ask for books by Edna Ferber. Dude. That is going to change.I am going to start by recommending it to everyone I know (Andrew's mom is reading it next, then Andrew) and then I am going to recommend it to customers. It's about Selina DeJong, a gambler's daughter-turned schoolteacher in a dutch village just outside of Chicago. It is definetely interesting to think that there was so much farmland in Selina's day, where now it's all steel and traffic. Selina is an intriguing character, she's smart, young (well...the novel spans a few decades), idealistic and determined. She falls in love and becomes someone she never thought she's be. She has a son who she works very, VERY hard for. Their lives happen and I couldn't pull myself away. A page turner indeed, this book wasn't thought to be very literary when it was published in 1924 (although it won the Pulitzer Prize)but the language is rich and the story is wholly interesting. Do read it.

Steve

October 02, 2007

This was a very different, very enjoyable read for me. Thanks for nudging this now forgotten little gem my way, Susan. Your instincts for what I would like were, as always, unerring. So Big was Edna Ferber’s Pulitzer Prize winning book from 1924. Despite the accolades I didn’t know what to think going into it. For one, I imagined the language would seem a little dainty and old-fashioned. For another, it was mostly set on a vegetable farm – not exactly promising. The first few pages scared me, too, with talk of bustles and complex, compound feminine emotions like exhilarated wariness. Once I let it unfold, though, I discovered what a talented writer Ferber was. The prose was neither flowery nor spare. In fact, if a single word could describe it, I’d probably just call it beautiful. A great author can also make you care about things you never thought you would, farm life in Illinois in the late 19th century being the relevant case in point. You really get a sense of one remarkable woman’s life with this book. Selina had a spark that the humdrum of her situation couldn’t squelch. Here’s what she told a friend she wanted for her young son: “Beauty. Yes. All the worth-while things in life. All mixed up. Rooms in candle-light. Leisure. Colour. Travel. Books. Music. Pictures. People – all kinds of people. Work that you love. And growth – growth and watching people grow. Feeling very strongly about things and then developing that feeling to—to make something fine come of it.” There are ironies in the way things play out, and in who may appreciate what, but those are thematic pleasures granted only to those who read this exceptional book.

Deyanne

January 06, 2017

Surprise. What a delightful experience to start a reading year with a "gem" if you will. Another formerly unread choice in our book group year of Pultizer Prize Winners, I truthfully did not hold high expectations. I have questioned whether or not the books we have already read have been dated and relevant at their times but truthfully antiquated in language and more historical in importance. While I did find numerous words I didn't know in this novel like the clothing: panniers, plastrons, reveres, etc. I found the writing style to be strong and one of the greatest strengths to be the characterizations. These people: Selina, Dirk, Roelf Pool and Dallas all lived and breathed for me.There were two philosophies that Selina had been taught to measure and evaluate living. First, she needed to embrace life - all of life: " Living. All mixed up. The more kinds of people you see, and the more things you do, and the more things that happen to you, the richer you are. Even if they're not pleasant things. That's living." Secondly, you had to be true to your passion and center life on beauty and self-expression. Both philosophies are explored in the book with Selina being able to live both, but yet she cannot teach these concepts to her only son.The characters, their experiences and the timeless relevancy of this novel led to some rich and engaging discussion. There was no need for organization. We just jumped into the discussion asking our own driving questions. "What is the significance and meaning of the title?" "How does a parent balance insights and desires for a child while yet allowing that child freedom?" "What is beauty?" "What would have happened to Selina if she hadn't been required to run the farm?" "Would Dirk find happiness and a rich life?""Let's examine the importance of reading in this novel." "Hands were certainly a strong image. How many times were they referenced?"What was surprising for me and personally enriching were the humble and honest connections people made to this book. Though we have been together for close to forty years, I learned some things about some of these friend's lives that I didn't know. I love them even more. This book and other's insights provided the basis for a memorable and delightful afternoon.

Liza

April 18, 2020

This was my second Edna Ferber novel (the first being "Giant"), and it feels like I've discovered a well-kept secret of the literary world."So Big" is a great story about a young woman who grows up in various American cities, only to be disillusioned with what life "should be" after getting married to a poor Dutch farmer and toiling in the fields. But it's not just that: It's about believing that life is a grand adventure, "so much velvet." And then going out to find that, to be that person you envisioned yourself as, only to discover years later that you are not at all where you thought you'd be, who you thought you'd be. And how do you reconcile that? But Ferber cunningly shows us that the adventure is within us, that the turns and surprises are what we make of them, and that in the end, it is our spirit that dictates our love -- and interest -- in life. It is our character, Ferber seems to be saying, that makes life an adventure. What I like best about Ferber is how she writes and the women she writes about. Her female heroines are quietly independent, fiercely strong without being bitchy or nagging. These characters suggest feminism without the blunt edges. They are, simply, women you'd want to meet. And that, along with her sweeping way of painting a portrait of a landscape on which lives thrive and turn, is what will keep you turning the pages.

JanB

November 21, 2017

Winner of the Pulitzer prize, this book was a surprise to me. Written in 1924, the themes are timeless and the wisdom and insight as appropriate now as they were then. It is beautifully written and I found myself highlighting many passages.Highly recommended!

Celia

December 30, 2019

The titular character is Dirk DeJong, a farm boy of Dutch ancestry. His mother calls him So Big after the common childhood question, 'How big is baby?'But before there is the story of So Big, there is the story of Selina Peake, his mother. Her mother died young and her maiden aunts brought her up. She loved to read. She became a teacher and moved to High Prairie Illinois, southwest of Chicago. The area was farm country. A local farmer, Pervus DeJong, fell for her. The rest is the story of their marriage and the coming of age and life of Dirk.I read this on Wikipedia:So Big is a 1924 novel written by Edna Ferber. The book was inspired by the life of Antje Paarlberg in the Dutch community of South Holland, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. It won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1925. I find a lot of Pulitzer Prize winners hard to read. Not so this book. I fell in love with the characters, even though I sometimes did not like them!! The characters were very real for the time period and the culture.5 stars

Jessica

May 06, 2019

After the Annotated podcast schooled me on under-read Edna Ferber, the hugely successful author from 100 years or so ago, I put this book on my TBR and I'm glad I did. Sometimes I do not have the endurance to get through older novels and classics, I read so many books now, I have lost some of the dedication from my younger days. But SO BIG was very very readable, I breezed through it in just a couple of days.An awful lot happens in this book, but it doesn't have a traditional plot. It just follows Selina Peake, who begins her life as the spunky daughter of a flighty gambler left suddenly on her own. Selina is very much on her own, but she's one of those people who is powered by optimism. At first this made me wary, did I want to read a book about a turn-of-the-century manic pixie dream girl? But life has plenty in store for Selina and it is not at all what you expect. Ferber likes to tip her hand every so often and let you know how the plot is about to turn and every time it's like, "Oh nooooooo." This book has a lot to say about parenting, about the way people can sacrifice for their children and then find themselves in a very different place than they expected. I like that it doesn't quite canonize Selina, it lets her make real mistakes, even while it finds her passion to be vital and important. As we are told, there are two kinds of people: wheat and emeralds, and it's quite a surprise that Selina ends up being the former. In 9 books out of 10 she would have been the latter, and that zig instead of zag is what makes the book.

Brian

June 22, 2022

Edna Ferber’s novel So Big is the captivating story of an independent woman and her son in the Chicago area in the late 19th and early 20th century. The book contrasts urban and rural life, celebrates the value of determination and hard work, and calls into question the increasing materialism of American life. Ferber explores these themes and more through the story of Selina Peake DeJong and her son Dirk, whom she fondly nicknamed “So Big.” Selina grew up primarily in Chicago, living with her gambler father and—when his luck was good—enjoying the finer things in life. Her father encouraged her to think of life as a great adventure, filled with beauty. Unfortunately, Selina’s father died when she was 19, and she was left with a choice of living with two unmarried aunts in Vermont or earning her own living.Vermont was not really an option. Selina had lived with those aunts for three years when her father’s luck was not so good. She thought the two women “smelled of apples—of withered apples that have rotted at the core.” So Selina didn’t hesitate. She chose independence and took a teaching job in High Prairie, a farming community of Dutch immigrants southwest of Chicago. The first half of the book describes Selina’s life in this community whose ways were so strange to her at first. Soon she marries. Her husband, Pervus DeJong, is a well-meaning but unsuccessful farmer. It’s not the life she had imagined for herself. “There were days when the feeling of unreality possessed her. She, a truck farmer’s wife, living in High Prairie the rest of her days! Why, no! No! Was this the great adventure that her father had always spoken of? She, who was going to be a happy wayfarer down the path of life—any one of a dozen things. This High Prairie winter was to have been only an episode. Not her life!”When Dirk is about ten years old, Pervus dies. Flouting the traditional gender roles of the community, Selina takes charge of the farm herself and works hard to make it successful. She is determined that Dirk will go to a good college and live the kind of life that she hasn’t had. When she runs into her childhood friend Julie in Chicago, Selina says matter-of-factly, “‘My life doesn’t count, except as something for Dirk to use. I’m done with anything else.’”In the second half of the book, the focus switches to Dirk. As he strikes out on his own in Chicago, Selina hopes that his life will be filled with adventures, experiences, and beauty. Will she be able to live that kind of life vicariously through her son? Is that even something she should wish for? Or, in the end, is the life she has ended up with just as happy as the life she thought she wanted? Ferber doesn’t answer these questions, at least explicitly, leaving them for the reader to ponder.I can see why this book was both a popular success (1924’s best-selling novel in the United States) and a literary success (the winner of the 1925 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel). Ferber is an excellent writer, and So Big features strong, memorable characters, a palpable sense of place, and an engaging story.On a personal note, as a fourth-generation Dutch-American with some memories of earlier generations, I enjoyed reading Ferber’s descriptions of the immigrants and their community. Although my own ancestors immigrated to the industrial urban areas of New Jersey rather than the farmlands of the Midwest, most had been farmers in the Netherlands. For the first couple of generations in America, they tried to preserve much of their Dutch culture. Consequently, the folks of High Prairie were quite recognizable to me.

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