Chimes

by Robert Welch Herrick

Set in the Middle West in the prairie town of Eureka, this is a historical novel about the founding of the University of Chicago in the mud fields outside the city of the wealthy benefactor who just happens to be Rockefeller.

310 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1926

About the author

Robert Welch Herrick was a novelist who was part of a new generation of American realists. His novels deal with the turbulence of industrialized society and the turmoil it can create in sensitive, isolated people. He was also briefly acting-Governor of the United States Virgin Islands in 1935

Librarian Note: There is more than one Robert Herrick in the GoodReads database. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Mike Zickar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is viewed as a lesser novel by Herrick, himself a prolific novelist whose work seems to be nearly forgotten. And so it's a forgotten novel by a forgotten novelist.

This novel has its charms. It's a fictional view of University of Chicago (thinly veiled at University of Eureka), the institution where Herrick spent the bulk of his career teaching literature and composition. The book follows in the long tradition of satire of college life (think David Lodge), poking easy fun at the stuffiness of professors and academic traditions. But there are some real insights and historical observations in this novel, which I think merit its study. Herrick notes the rise of business schools and the challenge that they provide, the importance of fundraising, discusses abortion, the indifference of college students to their professors' scholarly achievements, and documents the tensions that US involvement in WWI caused on campus. There were many laugh-out loud moments.

The book gets fairly knocked in that the plot is meandering, and characters come in and out throughout the book. I feel like the main character is really the University of Chicago, all its warts and charms.