8 h 20 minAudiobook6 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when a plainspoken farm wife brings household common sense to a church debate about women’s rights?
Samantha Allen knows what it takes to run a household. Now the farm wife from Jonesville turns her sharp eye toward the church, where men debate how much say women should have in governing their own congregations. In Marietta Holley’s comic novel, Samantha answers learned arguments with experience, plain speech, and a firm sense of fairness.
Known as Josiah Allen’s Wife, Samantha tells her own tale in a chatty country voice. Long asides and odd comparisons carry her bold arguments, with Josiah serving as her comic foil. Holley’s satire supports women’s rights without sparing reformers themselves: fashions, fads, and loud speakers on every side come in for teasing. The laughter keeps a serious question close.
What you’ll discover
- A question of fairness Explore the dispute over women’s voice in the churches they help sustain.
- Experience against learned arguments Meet a mother and church member who trusts the knowledge of daily life.
- A voice with company Follow Samantha’s friendly, talkative narration through bold opinions, country speech, and comic detours.
- Josiah as comic foil Enjoy the humor of Samantha’s outlook with Josiah as her comic counterpart.
- Reformers under the lens Find satire that questions fads and loud claims, even among supporters of reform.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you love village comedy, strong-minded heroines, church-supper gossip, and stories where homely talk at the kitchen table takes on big questions of fairness between women and men.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Samantha takes up her pen for justice
- The deacons dream of buzz saws
- Marriage lessons from Serena Fogg and Lodema
- Samantha questions the cost of a showy funeral
- Heaven's call and Conference duties
- Women scrape, scrub and raise the money
- Submit gives her labor and Samantha speaks up
- Samantha confronts the cider deacon's double standard
- What the book is really about, and how it speaks
Who’s who
- Samantha AllenThe narrator, a Jonesville farm wife and Methodist, who wants women allowed to sit on the Conference and says so with humor.
- Josiah AllenSamantha's husband, a deacon and farmer, who defends men's authority and is busy with the buzz saw mill.
- Submit TewksburyA poor, faithful Methodist who gave up a missionary sweetheart and works hard for the meetinghouse.
- Lodema TrumbleJosiah's fault-finding cousin, an old maiden whose long visit tests the household.
- Casper KeelerA college-educated young man who writes against women on the Conference and boasts about New York.
- Deacon GarvenA stern Baptist deacon who holds to the ringing of the Sabbath bells.
- Sister Arvilly LanfearA sharp-tongued unmarried sister who sells books and sees through the men's talk.
- Cephas BodleySamantha's enthusiastic relative who spends heavily on a showy funeral.
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- The same book in bigger, clearer type, once the book texts are online.
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- Read by Lucas Linden, complete. It opens once the recording is online.
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- The key ideas in about 6 minutes, to read today.
- Paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Samantha unter den Brüdern
by Marietta Holley · 1890
Josiah shells corn while Samantha takes up her pen to argue for women in the church.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
What happens when a farm wife decides to take on the Methodist Conference, with her husband Josiah Allen shelling corn beside her? Marietta Holley's Samantha Among the Brethren is a comic novel set in the village of Jonesville.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Samantha takes up her pen for justice
The book opens with Samantha, who calls herself Josiah Allen's wife, setting down her inkstand to tackle the Meeting House. She says the church treats women wrongly, though women fill the pews five to one.
Josiah, shelling corn for the hens, insists the Meeting House must be a he, and says women are not strong enough to sit on the Conference. Samantha answers that sitting takes less strength than standing. She speaks of the Founder's birth from a woman and of women waiting at the tomb.
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What is Samantha Among the Brethren about?
It follows Samantha Allen, a farm wife in Jonesville, as she works to raise money for her Methodist meetinghouse and argues that women should sit as delegates on the Conference, while her husband and the deacons object.
Who is Josiah Allen in the book?
Josiah is Samantha's husband, a farmer and deacon. He defends men's authority with confident, muddled arguments, plans a buzz saw mill and often leaves just when a question gets difficult.
What does the title mean by the brethren?
The brethren are the male members and leaders of the Methodist church. Samantha goes among them, scolding, joking and arguing for women's right to sit and vote as delegates on the Conference.
The author
Marietta Holley
1836–1926 · American humorist
Marietta Holley was a bestselling American humorist, often compared to Mark Twain in her day, who wrote as "Josiah Allen's Wife"; through her plainspoken heroine Samantha she argued for temperance and women's rights, as in Samantha Among the Brethren.
More by Marietta Holley
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