11 h 33 minAudiobook6 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 11 h 33 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does a woman give up to become herself when family, marriage, and money all press their claims?
In One Woman's Life, Robert Herrick follows a woman from girlhood to maturity as she seeks more than the roles her society offers. Family and duty shape her choices. Marriage brings questions of obligation, while money and status bear on her search for a footing of her own.
Herrick gives this struggle room to unfold in a close, unhurried portrait. His American realism keeps the woman connected to the world around her: class, ambition, and a society shaped by growing business. The stakes are personal: how to grow into herself when the claims of others leave so little room.
What you’ll discover
- A life in full Follow the gradual passage from girlhood to maturity, with space to consider each stage.
- Marriage under scrutiny Explore what marriage asks of a woman whose wishes reach beyond her assigned role.
- The pressure of money See how wealth and status reach into private life and weigh on personal choices.
- A world that shapes her Look closely at the ties between one woman's ambitions and the society surrounding her.
- The cost of selfhood Consider the sacrifices behind personal growth, without expecting a neat or easy path.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy character studies, American social life, and stories about women, money, marriage and the need for work of one's own.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A girl who wants a better address
- Charm is her gift and her tool
- Society and marriage are the only careers
- Breaking an engagement and paying for it
- Falling for an artist
- Europe, a child and a crack in the marriage
- New York, bills and a marriage of compromise
- Work, friendship and a home of her own
- What the story says about women and money
Who’s who
- Milly RidgeA pretty, sociable Chicago girl who wants a fine home, a rich social circle and the right kind of love.
- Horatio RidgeMilly's small, hopeful father, a traveling salesman who dreams of success and cannot refuse his daughter.
- Grandmother RidgeA frail, stern Puritan widow who watches the family purse and warns of ruin.
- Eleanor KempA kind banker's wife who guides young Milly into society and stays her loyal friend.
- Jack BragdonA charming young newspaper artist who dreams of becoming a real painter.
- Marion ReddonA practical New England mother who has her own views on marriage and children.
- Ernestine GeyerA scarred, strong laundry manager who built her own success and longs for a family.
- Edgar DuncanA gentle California rancher who falls for Milly and keeps faith in her.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 11 h 33 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 6 minutes, to read or to hear.
- 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.
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Read and hear La vita di una donna in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
La vita di una donna
by Robert Herrick · 1913
Milly Ridge hates her new Chicago home at sixteen and spends the next two decades chasing a better one.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
A sixteen-year-old girl stands outside a cheap yellow brick house on the West Side of Chicago and nearly weeps with disappointment. Where, she wonders, are the nice people?
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A girl who wants a better address
Milly Ridge arrives in Chicago in 1886 with her small father Horatio and her stern grandmother. She sees the house on West Laurence Avenue and decides at once that it is common. Her father sells drugs for a living, and the family has moved from city to city all her life.
The first chapters show how quickly Milly learns the rules of rank. She rearranges the furniture, sends her grandmother's green velvet parlor set to the back room, and announces that she means to run the house. She is sure that nobody is above her, yet she wants to belong to the best.
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What is One Woman's Life about?
It follows Milly Ridge from her arrival in Chicago in 1886 into society, marriage to an artist and motherhood abroad. It asks what a charming woman can make of her life when society trains her to depend on others.
Who is Ernestine Geyer in One Woman's Life?
Ernestine is a successful laundry manager whose life offers a contrast to Milly's. Her work calls for order, thrift and steady attention. She values the ability to earn a living and longs for a home of her own.
What does the real, right thing mean in the book?
It is Milly's name for true romantic love, the feeling she believes will settle everything. She uses the phrase to justify breaking an engagement and marrying for love, and the story tests how well it holds up.
The author
Robert Herrick
1868–1938 · American novelist
Robert Herrick was an American novelist and longtime University of Chicago professor — not to be confused with the seventeenth-century English poet — whose realist fiction examined ambition, marriage, and money in turn-of-the-century American life.
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