6 h 25 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 6 h 25 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when love carries a city woman into a land where comfort gives way to weather, distance and work?
In Arthur Stringer's The Prairie Wife, a young woman leaves the comforts of city life for marriage on the open prairie of western Canada. Used to streets, friends and conversation, she enters the wide wheat country with habits that no longer fit. Love brings her west, but making a home asks more of her.
The story stays close to the heroine's thoughts, letting you meet this harder life through her doubts, humor and surprise. Weather, seasons and space press upon her marriage as surely as daily work. At its heart is a personal question: how do two people build a life together when their surroundings test them?
What you’ll discover
- Two worlds meet See familiar city comforts set against the demands of life on the open prairie.
- Love beyond the beginning Follow a marriage in which affection must meet the pressures of work and distance.
- A land that matters Discover how weather, seasons and wide spaces shape the people who live among them.
- A warm personal voice Stay close to a heroine whose doubts and humor bring an unfamiliar world nearer.
- A gentler reading pace Settle into a story that gives room to feelings, adjustment and the work of marriage.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy witty first-person voices, pioneer life on the Canadian prairie, warm marriage stories, and diary-style novels full of weather and work.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A beggar and a bride in one week
- The shack is smaller than the dream
- A murderer in the cellar
- A gentleman from Oxford wanders in
- One New Year's Eve breaks the peace
- Blizzards, moods and a Finnish Valkyrie
- Marriage, the land and a voice
Who’s who
- Chaddie McKailA quick-witted American who loses her fortune and marries a farmer. She wants freedom and love, and she tells everything to a friend named Matilda Anne.
- Duncan McKailAlso called Dinky-Dunk, a serious Scotch Canadian wheat grower who bets everything on his crop and wants to make a home worthy of his wife.
- OlieThe silent Swedish hired man with a frost-split nose, shy of women, loyal to the household, and quietly devoted to Chaddie.
- Percival Benson WoodhouseA thin, polite Oxford gentleman who buys a ranch from misleading photographs. He is lonely, impractical, and eager for good talk and kindness.
- Olga SarristoA tall Finnish farm worker who drives oxen, speaks little, and fascinates Chaddie with her calm strength and mystery.
- Terry DillonAn Irish hired man and former soldier, neat and warm-hearted, who loves detective novels and tells ghost stories with relish.
- Matilda AnneChaddie's distant friend and the person to whom all the entries are addressed, a calm listener who steadies her.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet or computer, once the book texts are online.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, once the book texts are online.
- Audiobook
- Read by Lucas Linden, complete. It opens once the recording is online.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 14 minutes, to read today.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
Every printed copy is made when you order it and shipped worldwide; shipping is shown at checkout. The eBook and the audiobook open when the book texts go online.
How it works
- Start free. Nothing to pay today; the eBook of this book is yours to keep.
- Read, listen and print. 200,000+ classics as eBook, large-print eBook, audiobook and 15-minute summary, and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print, 5 accounts for the price of one.
- We remind you first. Free for 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment. Then 0,14 USD a day in your first year on the yearly plan and 0,27 USD a day after, or 0,66 USD a day on the monthly plan. Cancel online in two clicks.
Bought on its own? Every eBook, audiobook and printed book you buy without the plan carries our 30-day money-back guarantee.
La esposa de la pradera
by Arthur Stringer · 1915
A New York heiress, newly broke, marries a wheat farmer and lands in a tin-patched shack on the Canadian prairie.
Medium level2–5 hours to readEspañol
Learn a language with medium classicsEspañolFrancésAlemánItalianoJaponésPortuguésInglésHow we measure levels
Excellent
Free for 3 months · starts right away, on any device
Read free3 months free · cancel anytimeFree for 3 months, then 0,14 USD a dayCancel anytimeHow it works
- Read or listen
- Print and large print at cost
- 5 accounts for the price of one
In short
What would you do if a single cable turned you from an heiress into a beggar? Chaddie McKail, a lively young American, reads that news at Monte Carlo.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A beggar and a bride in one week
The book opens in midair. Chaddie McKail has just married Duncan Argyll McKail, and she writes to Matilda Anne to explain how. She tumbled into marriage before she had time to fall in love.
The backstory comes fast. At Monte Carlo a cable says a revolution in Chile has wiped out the family's nitrate concessions. Her fiance, Count Theobald Gustav Von Guntner, has an aunt, the baroness, who speaks so pointedly about international marriages that Chaddie takes it as a dismissal.
Free for 3 months · Cancel anytime
You looked at
Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1915
- Language
- Español
- Reading time
- 4 h 10 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Stringer, Arthur. The Prairie Wife. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-prairie-wife.
Stringer, A. (2026). The prairie wife. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-prairie-wife (Original work published 1915)
Stringer, Arthur. The Prairie Wife. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-prairie-wife.
@book{stringer2026prairie,
author = {Stringer, Arthur},
title = {The Prairie Wife},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-prairie-wife},
note = {First published 1915}
}
Free gifts
580 USD in free gifts when you start
Every book in every format and in 25 languages, 5 accounts for the price of one. Nothing to pay today.
- 200,000+ classic eBooksIn 25 languages, side by side
170 USDFREE - Every audiobookIn 25 languages, any device
120 USDFREE - 15-minute summariesRead or listen, in 25 languages
60 USDFREE - Print at cost, no markupPaperback, hardcover, large print
60 USDFREE - 5 accounts for the price of oneA shelf for everyone at home
170 USDFREE - A part in rebuilding the libraryNew languages and books for all
FREE
Questions about La esposa de la pradera
Can I read it free?
Yes. The first key idea of the 15-minute summary is free with no sign-up. Start free and the whole book is yours for 3 months, with the eBook to keep, plus 200,000+ more classics and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print. Nothing to pay today: we email you 7 days before your first payment, and you can cancel online in two clicks.
Can I buy the printed book?
Soon. The paperback, hardcover and large print editions are being prepared. Choose Paperback or Hardcover above, leave your email, and we tell you the day you can order it, printed at cost.
How many accounts do I get?
Five, for the price of one: you and 4 more people, each with their own login, shelf and their own place in every book.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. Cancel online in two clicks at any time and nothing more is charged. Nothing is charged in your first 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment.
What is The Prairie Wife about?
It follows Chaddie McKail, a lively American who marries a wheat farmer named Duncan and moves to a tiny shack on the Canadian prairie. She records a year of work, weather, quarrels and growing love.
Who is Matilda Anne in The Prairie Wife?
Matilda Anne is Chaddie's faraway friend and the person she addresses in her entries. Chaddie says she may never send them, but writing to her keeps her steady in the lonely prairie.
Is The Prairie Wife a true story?
It is a novel by Arthur Stringer, not a memoir. Stringer was Canadian-born and drew on the farming world of western Canada, but Chaddie, Duncan and the others are invented characters.
The author
Arthur Stringer
1874–1950 · Canadian novelist and screenwriter
Arthur Stringer (1874–1950) was a Canadian novelist, poet, and screenwriter. He was born in London, Ontario, and later lived in the United States. He wrote The Prairie Wife, published in 1915, and other novels, as well as poetry and film scripts. He died in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey.
More like this
Our mission
The library burned once. We are building it back.
Every great book, in every language and every format, for every family. Every plan helps pay for new languages, new audiobooks and books for readers who have never had them. Join the movement.
Read our story- Every language25 languages today, side by side, and more every year
- No wastePrinted on demand: no warehouses, no unsold stock, no pulped copies
- For everyonePaperback, hardcover and large print at the cost of printing
