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    So Big: A Novel
    So Big: A Novel
    So Big: A Novel
    Audiobook10 hours

    So Big: A Novel

    Written by Edna Ferber

    Narrated by Cassandra Campbell

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

    ""A masterpiece."" — Literary Review • ""A novel to read and to remember."" —New York Times

    Widely regarded as the masterwork of celebrated author and Algonquin Round Table mainstay Edna Ferber—who also penned other classics including Show Boat, Giant, Ice Palace, Saratoga Trunk, and Cimarron—So Big is a powerful and stirring portrait of one of the most memorable women in American literature, and still resonates today with its unflinching views of poverty, sexism, and the drive for success.

    Set in Chicago at the turn of the twentieth century, So Big tells the story of Selina Peake, orphaned at nineteen after her father is shot and killed in a gambling house. Alone and resolved to make something of her life, Selina gets a job as a schoolteacher in a farming community outside Chicago and falls in love with a kind but struggling farmer. She soon leaves the schoolhouse for long grueling days in the fields and gives birth to a son, Dirk, nicknamed “So Big.” When she finds herself unexpectedly widowed, she takes the reins of the farm, defying convention and all those around her, determined to give Dirk every opportunity to follow his dreams.

    So Big is a must-read for fans of contemporary novelists such Willa Cather (O Pioneers!), Pearl S. Buck (The Good Earth), and Marjorie Rawlings (The Yearling).

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCaedmon
    Release dateApr 23, 2019
    ISBN9780062884848
    Author

    Edna Ferber

    Edna Ferber (1885-1968) was an American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan to Jewish parents, Ferber was raised in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Economic hardship and antisemitism made their family a tight knit one as they moved constantly throughout Edna’s youth. At 17, she gave up her dream of studying to be an actor to support her family, finding work at the Appleton Daily Crescent and the Milwaukee Journal as a reporter. In 1911, while recovering from anemia, Ferber published her debut novel, Dawn O’Hara: The Girl Who Laughed, earning a reputation as a rising star in American literature. In 1925, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her novel So Big, which follows a young woman from a suburb of Chicago who takes a job as a teacher in a rural town. She followed up her critically acclaimed bestseller with the novel Show Boat (1926), which was adapted into a popular musical by Oscar Hammerstein and P. G. Wodehouse the year after its release. Several of her books became successful film and theater productions—So Big served as source material for a 1932 movie starring Barbara Stanwick, George Brent, and Bette Davis, which was remade in 1953 with Jane Wyman in the lead role. Ferber spent most of her life in New York City, where she became a member of the influential Algonquin Round Table group. In the leadup to the Second World War, Ferber supported President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was a fierce critic of Hitler and antisemitism around the world.

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    Reviews for So Big

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    • 5/5
      So Big is the story of Selina Peake DeJong, a city girl who, after being orphaned, moves to the country south of Chicago to be a school teacher. Selina has a high sense of adventure and beauty in the world, and the running joke among the farmers for a good part of the books is how Selina pronounced, upon seeing their produce in the fields, the beauty of their cabbages. Selina teaches until she meets and marries Pervus DeJong and gives birth to their son, Dirk. The title of the book comes from a game that Selina and Dirk played when he was a baby where she would say, "How big is baby?" and he would reply "Soooooooooo Big!" That became his pet name - used only by his mother. Selina becomes fascinated with the process of farming and progress in farming, and, when Pervus dies several years into their marriage, she takes pulls herself up by her bootstraps and takes control of the farm herself. Along the way Selina determines that Dirk will not be stuck on the farm like the other sons of farmers. She pushes him to seek knowledge and beauty. She wants him to know things, but she also wants him to appreciate the beauty in the world. The story continues with Dirk getting an education, moving to the city, and becoming wildly successful, all the while forgetting his mother's encouragement to appreciate the beauty in life.I loved this book and read through it so quickly. I enjoyed the idea of a woman being stranded on a farm, forced to make her own way, and not sitting around feeling sorry for herself but making success and never losing her sense of adventure and beauty in the world. She is industrious, innovative, and wise. The story is also an interesting study in the way we raise children. How does one impart the ideas that one cherishes and loves into one's children without pushing them away from those exact things? In this Selina seems to fail, but the reader is left wondering if Dirk might have possibly caught on. Again, we find that the acclaimed writers of fiction in the 1920s seem to all have a fascination with the development of the Midwest in common. It seems like it might become monotonous, but it hasn't yet for me.
    • 3/5
      Not a bad novel. Kind of epic.
    • 3/5
      The title refers to a little boy named Dirk, and long known as "Sobig", after the ubiquitous game played with babies, but mostly this is the story of his mother, Selena Peake DeJong, whose life as a midwestern farmer's wife is not at all what she envisioned as a gay young thing. Selena had a rather bohemian upbringing with a gambling father who was always either flush or flat broke. Her outlook on life was persistently optimistic even when things were uncertain to the point of panic; her eye for beauty was keener than those that found it only in accepted presentations. While her unimaginative husband struggled to sustain a livelihood from their marginal farm, Selena envisioned improvements, innovations and expansions that would ease the future for their beloved son. Her positivity never wavered, even as "Sobig", failing to find a passion for any pursuit, settled into a successful but uninspiring career and an attachment to a married woman. I assume we are meant to see how a challenging life is more fulfilling than one in which all the seams are smoothed and gears well-oiled, but Dirk DeJong is so much less engaging than his mother that I nearly lost interest in the story when he became the center of it. Luckily, that did not happen until approximately the last third, and it's a relatively short novel. Definitely a worthwhile read, and deserving of its Pulitzer, but one that did not quite live up to its early promise, for me.
    • 4/5
      I'm trying to read more classics by authors I haven't read. I was not disappointed. So Big was just a great book. A good plot with descriptions that depicted how hard farming was but also made it seem fulfilling. The descriptions of Chicago were right on. The book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1925 and it holds up today.
    • 3/5
      An ok book, but i really didn’t understand why Mayor Emmanuel picked it as a One-Chicago-Book. This was the only thing i have ever read by Edna Ferber.
    • 4/5
      Full life of a girl in 1930s America - wealthy when young, father dies and leaves her nothing, she becomes a teacher in a poor farming community, turns her husband's failing farm into an asparagus supplier for hotels in Chicago, raises a son who becomes a prosperous architect. Statement of values in a real life
    • 5/5
      Not what I was expecting (not sure what I was expecting). Quite good. Will probably read more Ferber.
    • 4/5
      Fantastic book taking you back to ghe 1890's and an unforgettable character named Selina. Pulitzer prize winner of 1924. Against all odds and much fortuitous intervention Selina triumphs over adversity in her simple quest to find beauty in all life's adventures. Strongly recommended. Themes transcend time.
    • 5/5
      Very good story about a mother and her son. Easy read.
    • 2/5
      On Sept. 2, 1946 I said: "Finished 'So Big'. Very dumb book."
    • 5/5
      Orphaned at age 19 in the late 1800′s, Selina accepts a job as a school teacher in the community of New Holland. Even though New Holland is only a few hours drive by wagon to her former life in Chicago, Selina is not prepared for the shock of living in the tiny, conservative truck-farming community. The grinding work and poverty take a toll on even the hardiest of souls. Determined to continue finding beauty in life and learning, Selina throws herself into her teaching, and later into her family farm. When her son, Dirk, “SoBig” DeJong is born, Selina promises herself that he will not be bound to the farm, and that he will have every opportunity that she herself lost. This is a rich novel, with much to discuss and analyze. I was most struck by how Selina lost every privilege, and yet didn’t lose hope, either for herself or her child. Dirk’s response at being given every opportunity would also be worthy of discussing.
    • 3/5
      The story follows Selina DeJong whose father was a gambler and killed by mistake. Selina was only nineteen at the time and surprised her friends by not moving to Vermont to live with her aunts. Instead, she shows her independence and determination to succeed on her own. She gets a job as a teacher in the Dutch school in High Plains, ten miles outside of Chicago.At her first social event, she prepares a basket and places it in a box, tied by a ribbon. Most of the Dutch women make harty meals and the idea is the men bid on the item and get to eat it with the woman who prepared the food.The auctioneer ridicules Selina's small item but the men start bidding and one farmer wins with an exorbitant price. Pervus DeJong tells her that he felt badly when the others began laughing. He also admits that he has no schooling. Selina offers to teach him.During these lessons, Purvis receives book learning and Selina learns about the farm life. They develop feelings toward each other and these very different people marry the next May.The author details the hardships of farming before the turn of the century when there were no tractors or automobiles to get farm goods to markets or no telephones in emergencies.When Selina's son, Dirk, is born, she wants to make sure he will grow up in a world of books and literature and have more from his life.The author also describes the progress and improvements as the new century comes in. Dirk grows older and maintains a loving relationship with Selina and fits into the soceity in Chicago.This is a well written novel in the realistic literary style and deserving of the Pulitzer Prize it won in 1924.
    • 5/5
      This book tells the story of Selina Peake DeJong who was orphaned at age 19 when her father (a professional gambler) died in Chicago in 1888. He had taught her that all of life's experiences, even the bad ones, are part of a grand adventure, so she bravely faced her future by first heading off to become a teacher in a rural Illinois school, and was enchanted by the beauty she saw in the place. She became disillusioned by the adventure when, years later, she was still there, married to a Dutch truck farmer and living on a poor and unproductive farm. Her husband had refused to take any suggestions for improvements from her, so after he died she began implementing some of her ideas. She managed to support herself and her son, Dirk. The farm flourished and she was even able to send Dirk to college in Chicago and then to Cornell to study architecture - pleased that he seemed to be developing an appreciation for things of beauty. Construction projects dried up after WWI and Dirk got a job at an investment firm selling bonds, where he thrived and began to become modestly wealthy. Selina, however, wanted him to return to architecture - a profession with a soul. In the way of all young adults, Dirk believed that his mother didn't understand what was important in the modern world and ignored her. Not until later, when he met and fell in love with an artist, did he begin to reconsider his opinion on the subject. But was he too late?This book won the Pulitzer Prize when it was published in 1924. It deserves it. I read most of it in a singe day because I was unable to keep myself from picking it up just to read a few more lines. This would be a great book club book.
    • 3/5
      i enjoyed the first half of the book which is selina's story. dirk's story--he is such a predictable bore--was not engaging. i kept waiting for selina's rare appearances. roelf appeared much too late. perhaps he could have saved the second half of the book.
    • 4/5
      Selina DeJong spent her childhood traveling the US with her father, who made his living as a gambler in the late 1800s. He instilled in her a sense of independence so strong that after his death Selina decided to make her way as an independent woman, finding work as a teacher in a Dutch farming community on the Illinois prairie. She boarded with a family, and despite being a fish out of water she gradually drew closer to the family and especially their oldest son, Roelf. Eventually Selina married a local man, Purvis DeJong and had a son, Dirk (known by his nickname, "Sobig," taken from a game Selina often played with him as a baby). Over the years Selina transformed from city girl to farm wife, and exerted strong influence over the development of both the farm and her son. The pursuit of beauty is a prominent theme in this book:"It's beauty!" Selina said then, almost passionately ... "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." ... She threw out her hands in a futile gesture. "That's what I mean by beauty. I want Dirk to have it." (p. 146).On arrival in High Prairie, Selina is struck by the beauty of cabbages and other produce, much to the amusement of the hard-working local farmers. She finds beauty in most aspects of her life, and works hard to instill in Dirk that same appreciation of, and wonder for, beauty. Most of the time Dirk respectfully tolerates her chatter, seeing it as old-fashioned but endearing. But it's clear to the reader that Dirk is on his own journey to discover beauty through education, work, and relationships. So Big won the Pulitzer Prize in 1925 and it's easy to see why. On one level, Selina's story is a compelling portrait of farm life at the turn of the 20th century, and Selina is an unusually strong woman for that era. Then Ferber weaves in additional characters and subplots to create a beautiful tapestry. Add to that the search for beauty in its many forms, and So Big becomes infused with meaning not found in many books. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction for 1925.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 she's crazy--cabbages are just cabbages, after all. But Selina responds to beauty wherever she finds it, and both the newness of her experience and what she sees in it soon charms almost all of the practical people among whom she lives and teaches. She is especially fond of Roelf Poole, Klas's sullen son, who responds eagerly to Selina's encouragement of his dreams of something different and to her little library. It isn't long before Selina falls in love with a young farmer, Pervus De Joong, marries him, moves on to his poor farm, and has a son, Dirk, whom she nicknames So Big. It's a hardscrabble farm but Pervus stubbornly refuses to adapt any method of farming other than those he learned from his father. Pervus dies suddenly, and Selina is left with a young son and a farm to run.That's the plot of the first part of the book, which really is the back story, so to speak, for Selina's journey--her initial struggle to make the farm pay, her hopes for Sobig, and her continuing cheerful determination to take life as it comes and make the best out of it. The latter part of the book center around Dirk, who is not a bad sort, but who is caught up in both the pre-and post-WWI feverish pursuit of money and the social status it brings. Always in the background is Selina, who combines both practicality and the insistence that success is not defined in terms of money but rather in fulfillment of one's abilities.So Big echoes the major theme of another Pulitzer, winner, The Magnificent Ambersons, which follows the third generation of a wealthy family, and whose protagonist is caught up in the same period and with Dirk's same lack of understanding and shallow standards. The difference between the two is that Dirk really knows better, but makes the choice in favor of popularity and a woman he can not have but who lures him into a life that is basically meaningless.Ferber is not alone, therefore, in her choice of themes--the emptiness of a life devoted purely to the pursuit of money and status, but she treats it somewhat differently from Tarkington. Whereas George Amberson was "to the manor borne", Selina's story is always there in rich detail--her life as a truck farmer's wife and then her struggle as owner; Dirk, who genuinely loves his mothr, almost but never quite cuts his ties with the solid Dutch tradition, rooted in the earth, from which he came. George Amberson didn't know better, and had to learn the hard way; Dirk does know better, but still has to learn in his own way, and in reality, in a more devastating manner than does George.Ferber's prose is not sophisticated, consisting mainly of simple, declarative sentences but ones that are rich in detail from astute observation. Ferber writes convincingly of whole stratum of Illinois society--from shop girls and clerks, whose dialogue she captures convincingly, to Dutch farmers (again, with what certainly seems to be an accurate portrayal of speech patterns) to Haymarket traders to self-made millionaires to empty socialites to artists. The entire period of time--and her characters--come alive brillianttly; her finest prose, however, is reserved for Selina, who comes across as a cheerful but determined, strong woman, who, by her intelligence and willingness to meet all challenges head on, lives a fulfilled and satisfying life. A magnificent example of American literature. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      Edna Ferber's Pulitzer Prize winning novel - So Big - is a superbly crafted novel and one I could not put down for long.When Selina Peake's father is murdered, the teenager is faced with fleeing from the bustling streets of Chicago to Vermont to live with her stuffy aunts; or to strike out on her own to seek a life of adventure. She chooses a life of her own which takes her into the insulated farm country south of Chicago to live with Dutch farmer, his wife and three children. There she discovers the simplicity of farm life while teaching the young children of the community. Selina is brilliantly portrayed - a delicately boned, strong willed woman with sparkling eyes who sees beauty in everything - including the purple and green cabbages which provide sustenance for the hard-working farmers and their families. Even after marrying the solid and reliable Pervus DeLong and finding herself working long and difficult days as a farmer's wife, Selina never loses her vision of beauty.Ferber's novel is not just about Selina's voyage through life - her struggles and dreams, challenges and triumphs - but it encompasses a larger theme...namely that of living a life of beauty and joy vs. a life of material success. Selina's enduring spirit and vision of life never fails her throughout the story. One of the most memorable scenes for me was when Selina is widowed and facing the failure of her farm. She does what a woman of her community had never done - she drives a team of horses to market on the streets of Chicago.Selina's son, Dirk (aka: Sobig) represents the flip side to the life she has chosen. By all definitions, he becomes successful - holding down a high paying job and living among the wealthy. But, Ferber carefully and succinctly shows the reader why this kind of success does not necessarily lead to happiness.Ferber's novel has rich characterizations and a strong sense of place. Exquisitely crafted and lovingly plotted, it is story that is worthy of the Pulitzer. I will be reading more of this amazing author's work in the future.Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      This is one of those books that teaches you so much about life without being didactic. This is a book I will come back to again and again.
    • 4/5
      I have read several books by Edna Ferber this year and this is my favorite. Interesting relationship between mother and son. I also enjoy books about changing cultural values and the clashes that occur.
    • 4/5
      Historically vivid.
    • 2/5
      Typical rags to riches, Chicago late 1880's to post-war, unusual ending but slow going. Good if you're interested in Chicago & it's history. Interesting on how all the commentary focuses on her father's gambling when that is only a very small part of the story. What was more interesting to me was her success at market farming on her own as a woman during that time period.