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39th out of 85 books
—
914 voters
So Big
by
Edna Ferber
1924. Ferber, American novelist and short-story writer, won the Pulitzer Prize for So Big, a tale of the struggles of the widowed Selina De Jong to support herself and her son Dick. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.
Paperback, 376 pages
Published
April 30th 2005
by Kessinger Publishing
(first published 1924)
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Jan 16, 2012
Amber Anderson
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
everybody!
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...more
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...more
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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, to...more
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, to...more
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...more
"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...more
4 likes · like · see review
This book is remarkably readable and current for being the Pulitzer Prize winner of 1924. Wonderful writing, full of beauty and insight, with a heroine who faces life with a tremendous amount of strength, integrity, and wisdom. Truly a gem of a book, definitely worth seeking out.
Highly recommended.
Note: I read this book in 2011 and again in 2012. The first time it was a resounding 5 stars for me. The second time I'd give it 4. It was still a great book but I saw more of the flaws in the writing...more
Highly recommended.
Note: I read this book in 2011 and again in 2012. The first time it was a resounding 5 stars for me. The second time I'd give it 4. It was still a great book but I saw more of the flaws in the writing...more
Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction for 1925.[return][return]In 1889, Selina Peake, orphaned daughter of a sophisticated gambler who loves books, the theater, art, and life, takes up a teaching post in the Dutch farming country town of High Prairie, Illinois, 10 miles outside of Chicago. As the farmer with whose family she is to stay drives her out to the farm, Selina looks at the rows and rows of vegetables and exclaims "How beautiful the cabbages are!" Klas Poole, the stolid Dutch farmer, thinks...more
Great story-telling from a heckuva story-teller, Edna Ferber. The first two-thirds of So Big are five-star material: teenage girl has a setback in life, has to give up fantasies of being the next princess and take a job as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse, living in a freezing attic and getting up at 4:30 to start each day. Ferber is terrific, and her protagonist Selina Peake (to become deJong) is easy to sympathize with in her good moments and her bad. I would recommend this novel, from a gr...more
"So Big" follows Selina Peake DeJong whose father was a gambler and was killed by mistake.
Selina was only nineteen at the time in 1888 and she surprises her friends when she decides not to go to Vermont and live with her two aunts. Instead, she shows her independence and determination to succeed on her own. She gets a job as a teacher at the Dutch school in High Plains, ten miles outside of Chicago.
At her first social event, she makes a picnic lunch that will be auctioned off. Men bid on the bas...more
Selina was only nineteen at the time in 1888 and she surprises her friends when she decides not to go to Vermont and live with her two aunts. Instead, she shows her independence and determination to succeed on her own. She gets a job as a teacher at the Dutch school in High Plains, ten miles outside of Chicago.
At her first social event, she makes a picnic lunch that will be auctioned off. Men bid on the bas...more
I came across this book by chance in a rare trip to the bookstore meant entirely to "browse" for something to read on our road trip from San Diego to San Francisco. I found this book buried in the fiction section of Barnes & Noble--don't know why I picked it up or why I really decided to buy it; just dumb luck. How very fortunate because it really was a fantastic read.
The book essentially details the life of a woman, Selina DeJong, who by fate and life circumstances, happens to live in a Du...more
The book essentially details the life of a woman, Selina DeJong, who by fate and life circumstances, happens to live in a Du...more
I'm going to say right off that I wasn't in the mood for this book. It deserves more than 2* because it's very well-written, and the theme is great - but I expected it to be something different than it was, and couldn't get past my disappointment. My bad. Anyway, the theme is compelling, and I didn't have any difficulty reading through the whole book, so I'd say that is a result of clearly excellent writing. If you're interested in a story about an American woman looking for beauty and worth in...more
I was hospitalized when I read. Fine. Although not in a powerful context for all I know, this is something I like best in this novel: "Good Lord, no! Some day I'll probably marry a horny-handed son of toil, and if I do it'll be the horny hands that will win me. If you want to know, I like 'em with their scars on them. There's something about a man who has fought for it - I don't know what it is - a look in his eye - the feel of his hand. He needn't have been successful - though he probably would...more
Wow! Who knew Edna Ferber was such a great writer? I certainly didn't. Back in 8th grade Oklahoma history class, when we had to watch Cimarron, I didn't appreciate her at all.
But now that I'm a little older, I find Edna amazing. I totally loved this story, or at least most of it.
It begins with a young Chicago girl going 10 miles west, which back then is quite a ways, to teach school in a Dutch farming town. Our heroine, Selina, is so inquisitive, intelligent, and ready and able to buck conventio...more
But now that I'm a little older, I find Edna amazing. I totally loved this story, or at least most of it.
It begins with a young Chicago girl going 10 miles west, which back then is quite a ways, to teach school in a Dutch farming town. Our heroine, Selina, is so inquisitive, intelligent, and ready and able to buck conventio...more
Pulitzer 1925 - This was a great book! It's really a book in 2 parts. The first half tells the story of Selina Peake the daughter of a gambler in Chicago. After her father passes away she move to Dutch farm land to be a school teacher and meets Pervus De Jong and has Dirk who as a child when asked how big he was would respond "So Big" and the nickname stuck for him mom. Pervus passes and Selina fighting the female conventions of the day, improves and runs the farm.
The second half focuses more on...more
The second half focuses more on...more
"How big is baby?" "So big!" Hence this books title, and how I rated it.
The heroine, Selina, had so much depth and personality. She really was cutting edge for her time, even though being a farmer is not the most prestigious job now or back then. Selina first became independent at a young age when her father was accidentally shot at, and killed in a poker game. However, Selina decides to stay in Chicago and make a life for herself. She went to college (not very common for a woman in the 1800s) b...more
The heroine, Selina, had so much depth and personality. She really was cutting edge for her time, even though being a farmer is not the most prestigious job now or back then. Selina first became independent at a young age when her father was accidentally shot at, and killed in a poker game. However, Selina decides to stay in Chicago and make a life for herself. She went to college (not very common for a woman in the 1800s) b...more
I thought I wasn't going to like this book, but I ended up enjoying it a lot. Selina is a really engaging character--the kind of girl I always wanted to be when I was growing up, but that I was decidedly not, and the kind of woman I would love to be, except I know that I am far too lazy and judgmental. And of course my reading of the Little House books as a small child gave me a perverse love of farms, even farms that try to break your soul. I liked seeing a new perspective on the old relationsh...more
Reading "classics" always seemed like such a chore in school (and that's speaking as an English major), but now that I can read on my own terms, I'm rediscovering the magic of early 20th century literature. I've always been fascinated by this period of history (turn of the century to about the 1940s). I love Dorothy Parker, so when I read that Edna Ferber was a member of the Algonquin Round Table, I knew I'd find something to love in this book.
It's a simple story, but it captures so many bits o...more
It's a simple story, but it captures so many bits o...more
This book was written almost 100 years ago, and yet I feel like I can really relate to Selina, the mother of the title character. The struggles of being a mom and wanting the best for your child have not changed. I loved when Selina was discussing this with her friend and the father of her friend. She goes on about "Beauty" and how she wants her son to have it. "Yes. All the worth-while things in life. All mixed up. Rooms in candle-light. Leisure. Colour. Travel. Books. Music. Pictures. People-a...more
I had recently seen the movie SOBIG wuth Jane Wyman as Selina and found it delightful. Then, while visiting my aunt, she saud I should read the book since she'd spent 60+years living on the southern edge of Chicago as a child of German immigrants. So, I foynd it used online.
The story is a littke different than the movue, abd doesn't resolve as the film did, but it's basically the story of "you can't akways get what you want...but if you try sometimes you get what you need.." maybe.
My aunt and he...more
The story is a littke different than the movue, abd doesn't resolve as the film did, but it's basically the story of "you can't akways get what you want...but if you try sometimes you get what you need.." maybe.
My aunt and he...more
Reading this, I was reminded of three books. The beginning is somewhat Main Street, with bits and pieces of The Grapes of Wrath thrown in, though So Big came 10 years earlier. The middle and end have a An American Tragedy vibe, though the plots aren't similar. The first half is fine, but when Pervus dies, it starts going downhill. Selina's fortunes change that quickly and that much? The coincidence that gives you that is equally unbelievable. Characters at this point lose all of whatever little...more
So wonderful, so honest, so enduring. A classic that brought Edna Ferber the Pulitzer Prize in 1924, each sentence is filled with truth and insight, all cheerfully wrapped up in beautifully descriptive prose. Yet another great story that I just happened to pick up off the shelf.
I enjoyed reading this book for two reasons: 1. I enjoyed following the life story of Selina DeJong, a hard-working woman who believes being successful means creating something beautiful. I love that making money has nothing to do with her definition of success. 2. I liked learning about Chicago of the early 1900s. I've never actually visited Chicago, but the author effectively took me to a completely different place and time. This is not a page-turner of a book, yet I enjoyed it. I'll admit tha...more
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finally, a book club book that i liked! this won the pulitzer in 1924, and i really liked reading about the turn of the century in chicago and its outlying farmland (which, even though it took hours to travel from the farm to the city via horse-drawn wagon, i still think that the area is closer to downtown than where my house is). kinda sentimental but also with some really great descriptions of people of that era (the flappers especially, how they dressed and spoke) and of chicago during its tr...more
This was the next of the Pulitzer Prize winners that my husband and I are reading. It is going more slowly now that we are not traveling and busy with a myriad of activities here at Sun n Fun, but finally finished it yesterday in a drive out to Anna Maria Island. INteresting story of the struggles and determination of Selina DeJong who has two main passions in her life - her son, Dirk (AKA SoBig) and the vegetable farm she took over when her husband died very young. Set in 1890's through WWI, it...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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I'd seen the movie with Jane Wyman but had never read the book. It's main character Selina is a strong woman who makes her own way after her gambler- father dies and leaves her with little. What she does have is a real zest for whatever life hands her, which she later tries to pass onto her son, So Big. He has his own lessons to learn in the hurly-burly of 1920s Chicago. There are differences between the book and the movie but both are good. I also learned more about the author Edna Ferber, and...more
I enjoyed the message of this book that beauty is something to be sought and treasured. An idealistic teen father dies leaving her at 18 or 19? to become a school teacher in a small farming community. She marries after a year and becomes a farm wife, after her husband dies she free to run the farms in her own way - based on "foolish" book learning instead of the traditions passed down father to son. She sacrifices too much so her son can go to school and experience beauty - but he becomes obsess...more
What a wonderful read! I have started this novel several times but for some reason never got into it until now. I loved the hero's mother, Selina Peake. She's strong, adventurous, independent and full of life. The novel is named for her son, Dirk, because she called him SoBig. a nickname of endearment that demonstrated her strength and love for this handsome young man. As you read the novel, you wonder why it is named after Dirk rather than for Selina. She is beautiful, charming and interesting...more
I love the heroine in this book. So Big is one of my fiction favorites.
So Big was so good. Almost unexpectedly good, despite the Pulitzer. Dated a shade in some places, but mostly spot on, even after nine decades. Add Miss Ferber to the list of single women who can plumb write: Jane, Charlotte, Emily, Willa, Eudora, Edna! Go girls!
It reminded me of two other books about strong farm women written around roughly the same time - My Antonia by Willa Cather and Vein of Iron by Ellen Glasgow. Both excellent. They could make the core of a college lit class, or a reading...more
It reminded me of two other books about strong farm women written around roughly the same time - My Antonia by Willa Cather and Vein of Iron by Ellen Glasgow. Both excellent. They could make the core of a college lit class, or a reading...more
Jul 06, 2012
Kimberly
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
award-winners,
library-book-discussion-group
I've never read anything by Edna Ferber before so I didn't quite know what to expect when this book came up for our discussion group at the library. To be honest, if this book hadn't been on the list for our group, I probably would never have picked it up. Yeah, sure, it won the Pulitzer Prize, but it won way back in 1924. I don't know what I was expecting, probably something archaic and difficult to read, but that is not what I got with So Big. I really liked this book. I love the way Ferber wr...more
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| So Big | 4 | 38 | Jul 14, 2012 08:37am |
Edna Ferber was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels were popular in her lifetime and included the Pulitzer Prize-winning So Big (1924), Show Boat (1926; made into the celebrated 1927 musical), Cimarron (1929; made into the 1931 film which won the Academy Award for Best Picture), and Giant (1952; made into the 1956 Hollywood movie).
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“Any piece of furniture, I don't care how beautiful it is, has got to be lived with, and kicked about, and rubbed down, and mistreated..., and repolished, and knocked around and dusted and sat on or slept in or eaten off of before it develops its real character," Selina said.”
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3 people liked it
“Some day I'll probably marry a horny-handed son of a toil, and if I do it'll be the horny hands that will win me. If you want to know, I like 'em with their scars on them. There's something about a man who has fought for it - I don't know what it is - a look in his eye - the feel of his hand. He needn't have been successful - thought he probably would be. I don't know. I'm not very good at this analysis stuff. I know he - well, you haven't a mark on you. Not a mark. You quit being an architect, or whatever it was, because architecture was an uphill disheartening job at the time. I don't say that you should have kept on. For all I know you were a bum architect. But if you had kept on - if you had loved it enough to keep on - fighting, and struggling, and sitcking it out - why, that fight would show in your face to-day - in your eyes and your jaw and your hands and in your way of standing and walking and sitting and talking. Listen. I'm not critcizing you. But you're all smooth. I like 'em bumpy.”
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2 people liked it
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