14 h 58 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 14 h 58 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does a town lose when the stone beneath it becomes a source of wealth?
In Flamsted Quarries, Mary E. Waller brings you into a New England community built around stone. Quarry work sets the rhythm of life: stone is cut, hauled and sold, and neighbors depend on the work it brings. Yet the wealth drawn from the ground carries a human cost, and profit is tied to risk.
Ambition pulls people toward more than their hometown can offer. Greed raises harder questions about what that hunger costs others. Against these pressures, Waller sets the hope of redemption—the possibility of choosing another course. This quiet, character-driven novel explores work, conscience and the choices that shape both a person and a community.
What you’ll discover
- A town shaped by stone Enter a community whose daily life follows the cutting, hauling and selling of stone.
- The pull of ambition Consider the choice facing someone who wants more than a small town can give.
- The cost of greed Look beyond wealth to the people who bear the risks behind quarry profits.
- Room to change course Find hope in a story that sets the possibility of redemption against greed.
- Questions close to home Explore how work and neighbors bring larger questions of conscience into everyday life.
Who will love it
Readers who love American small-town sagas, stories of immigrants and workers, and warm, talkative characters will enjoy this book. It suits anyone drawn to ambition, loyalty and second chances.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A child's hymn stirs three men in the audience
- Two orphans find a Marchioness across the street
- A quarry town divides into old and new
- Aileen arrives and charms a whole household
- Champney leaves to chase money abroad
- The current of New York pulls Champney downstream
- Money fails, men go unpaid, and a hunt begins
- Two proud women and a loyal friend face the cost
- The book asks what a new America is built from
- How the story is told: water, stone and song
Who’s who
- Aileen ArmaghAn Irish orphan and gifted singer, quick-tempered and loyal, she wants a home of her own and a love that is true.
- Champney GoogeA bright, self-centered young man from the Gore, he wants to get rich fast and learn to be somebody in New York.
- Father HonoréA French-born priest and stone mason who serves the quarrymen, he wants to help the lost and the lonely find their feet.
- Aurora GoogeChampney's proud, beautiful mother, she has sold her family land and wants her son to succeed beyond all others.
- Almeda ChampneyThe rich, hard widow of Champ-au-Haut, she guards her money and her old grudges more fiercely than her own heart.
- Octavius BuzzbyThe faithful handyman of the great house, he wants fair play and quietly defends those whom the family wrongs.
- Luigi PoggiA gifted Italian singer who becomes a fruit merchant, he wants to win Aileen and a respected place in town.
- Colonel Milton CaukinsA windy booster and deputy sheriff with a huge family, he wants Flamsted to prosper and his neighbors to prosper with it.
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Cave di Flamsted
by Mary E. Waller · 1910
A child's hymn on a New York stage pulls three strangers toward a granite town in Maine.
Medium level10–20 hours to readItaliano
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In short
What happens when a child's hymn reaches the wrong ears, or perhaps the right ones? In a crowded New York vaudeville house, a small girl billed as the Little Patti sings about a green hill far away, and the gallery goes silent.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A child's hymn stirs three men in the audience
In a New York vaudeville house, the Little Patti has sung for six weeks. She stands in a snow scene as a match girl in rags, and the gallery roars its approval. Then she changes the mood.
Backstage the girl, whose name is Aileen, refuses the usual comic number. Nonna Lisa, the old Italian woman who looks after her, scolds and dresses her at once. She runs back on in white and sings a quiet hymn about a green hill far away. A woman sobs, and a man high above who draws breath to jeer has a wool cap pushed between his lips. When the gentleman in the box drops roses into her lifted skirt, there is no applause at all.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 9 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1910
- Language
- Italiano
- Reading time
- 9 h 45 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Waller, Mary E. Flamsted Quarries. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/flamsted-quarries.
Waller, M. E. (2026). Flamsted quarries. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/flamsted-quarries (Original work published 1910)
Waller, Mary E. Flamsted Quarries. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/flamsted-quarries.
@book{waller2026flamsted,
author = {Waller, Mary E.},
title = {Flamsted Quarries},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/flamsted-quarries},
note = {First published 1910}
}
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What is Flamsted Quarries about?
It follows Aileen Armagh, an orphan singer from New York, as she grows up in a Maine granite town. There her life becomes entwined with Champney Googe, an ambitious young man, and Father Honoré, a priest who serves the immigrant quarrymen.
Who is Father Honoré in Flamsted Quarries?
He is a French-born priest who comes to Flamsted to serve the quarrymen. He is a mason, a violinist and a teacher, and he becomes friend and guide to Aileen, Champney and Aurora Googe.
Is Flamsted Quarries a true story?
No, it is a novel by Mary E. Waller, and Flamsted is an invented town. It draws on the real quarry boom of Maine and the immigration of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The author
Mary E. Waller
1855–1938 · American writer and educator
Mary E. Waller (1855–1938) was an American writer and educator born in Middlebury, Vermont. Her full name was Mary Ella Waller. She worked as a teacher and wrote novels. Her books include The Wood-Carver of ’Lympus, published in 1904, and Flamsted Quarries, published in 1910.
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