7 h 29 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 29 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Love is a game of pursuit and surprise—and good manners do not keep rivalry out.
In A Young Man in a Hurry, and Other Short Stories, Robert W. Chambers brings you into a world of educated, well-dressed Americans. Mostly city people, they fall in love, quarrel, and try to get ahead. Courtship brings misjudgments and small traps; ambition gives friends and rivals reasons to compete.
This collection explores romance, money, and social standing around the turn of the century. Chambers keeps the tone bright and teasing, with clear language and crisp sentences. His eye for dress, rooms, and faces gives these tales their period flavor. The pleasure lies in watching love and rivalry unfold with a smile.
What you’ll discover
- Courtship with small traps Meet young men and women who discover how easily attraction and misunderstanding go together.
- Rivals with something at stake Follow competition in love, work, and social standing as ambition drives the comedy.
- A well-dressed world Notice the clothes, rooms, and faces that reveal Chambers's keen eye for detail.
- Wit without solemnity Enjoy a bright, teasing approach to quarrels, manners, and the business of falling in love.
- An evening's light entertainment Settle into short tales whose clear language and crisp sentences keep the reading light.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like romantic comedy, fishing and woodland scenes, quick courtships, and old New York manners, along with a few tales of poverty and pride.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A wrong cab can start a love story
- A widow's pilgrimage meets an unwelcome suitor
- A stolen title and a lost girl threaten the club
- A promise made at ten shapes a marriage
- A new landowner must win over his hungry neighbors
- An old family quarrel shadows Thanksgiving
- A girl with a dog faces a town gone sour
- Kindness can reach a lonely heart
- A hurricane brings a husband face to face with the past
Who’s who
- Hilda CastleA ward bound by a childhood promise, she goes to a fishing club expecting a grim marriage and meets a surprise.
- BurlesonA patient new landowner who wants peace with his poor neighbors and gets a lesson in fire and kindness from a deputy warden.
- Constance ElliottA teacher and deputy fire warden who knows the forest and her people, and who does not take Burleson seriously at first.
- Jess JocelynA poor hunter's daughter who loads shells in the cold and feels fierce shame at the gifts her father accepts from Gordon.
- Dan McCloudA college man gone wrong, who shoots game for hotels and drinks, and who meets a girl asking for his road tax.
- HaltrenA hunter living alone in the Florida wilds, who must pilot a stranded launch and then face his wife.
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- Large print hardcover
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A Young Man in a Hurry, and Other Short Stories
by Robert W. Chambers · 1904
A stranger jumps into the wrong cab in a snowstorm, and a train ride south tangles two families.
Medium level5–10 hours to readEnglish
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In short
Can one wrong turn in a cab change two lives? In A Young Man in a Hurry and Other Short Stories, Robert W.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A wrong cab can start a love story
The title story shows how fast feeling can move. A young man rushes out of a railway office and leaps into a cab in a snowstorm, sure it is his own. He is racing to catch the Eden Limited. Inside sits a young woman who expects her brother, not a stranger.
Neither can stop the cab, because both need the same train. She has no ticket and no purse, so he lends her his sister's ticket. Ferry hands and passengers decide the two are a bride and groom, and her grandmother's gold ring, stuck on her finger, seems to prove it. Over dinner they learn that his brother and her sister plan to marry after knowing each other for one day in St. Augustine.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 7 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1904
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 4 h 50 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Chambers, Robert W. A Young Man in a Hurry, and Other Short Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-young-man-in-a-hurry-and-other-short-stories.
Chambers, R. W. (2026). A young man in a hurry, and other short stories. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-young-man-in-a-hurry-and-other-short-stories (Original work published 1904)
Chambers, Robert W. A Young Man in a Hurry, and Other Short Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-young-man-in-a-hurry-and-other-short-stories.
@book{chambers2026young,
author = {Chambers, Robert W.},
title = {A Young Man in a Hurry, and Other Short Stories},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-young-man-in-a-hurry-and-other-short-stories},
note = {First published 1904}
}
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What is A Young Man in a Hurry and Other Short Stories about?
It is a collection of ten stories by Robert W. Chambers about courtship, rivalry, and class around 1900. Many are set at fishing clubs, in village stores, on trains, or in the Florida wilds, and most turn on a chance meeting.
Which stories are in the collection?
The book holds A Young Man in a Hurry, A Pilgrim, The Shining Band, One Man in a Million, The Fire Warden, The Market Hunter, The Pathmaster, In Nauvoo, Marlitt's Shoes, and Pasque Florida.
What is the Sagamore Club?
It appears in several tales as a place where outsiders, widows, doctors, and locals collide over land, trout, and old grudges.
The author
Robert W. Chambers
1865–1933 · American novelist and illustrator
Robert W. Chambers was an American writer whose 1895 collection The King in Yellow became a cornerstone of weird fiction, casting its influence over H.P. Lovecraft and generations of horror writers since. He was a successful popular novelist in his day, but this early work is what endures.
More by Robert W. Chambers
All 11 booksMore like this
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