15 minSummaryRead it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a glass, a hat, or a piece of meat could change the way you hear words?
In Tender Buttons, Gertrude Stein turns the household into a place of verbal surprise. These short prose poems explore ordinary things without describing them in ordinary ways. Sound, rhythm, and unexpected pairings of words take the place of familiar explanations, inviting you to listen rather than follow a plot.
The book moves through three sections: Objects, Food, and Rooms. Separate titled entries give way to one long stretch of prose. Stein’s experiments share an impulse with the painters around her in Paris, including Pablo Picasso: to break apart familiar ways of showing the world and discover what else words can do.
What you’ll discover
- Objects seen sideways Meet glasses, hats, and household things through language that refuses the usual descriptive path.
- Food on the tongue Explore roastbeef, celery, asparagus, and breakfast as subjects for strange, sound-filled prose poems.
- A room in prose Enter Rooms, where separate entries give way to one sustained exploration of space.
- Words in unexpected company Hear how repetition, small shifts, and unlikely pairings make familiar words feel strange.
- Permission to listen differently Let sound and rhythm guide your attention without asking for a steady storyline.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy poetry read aloud, modern art, word play, still lifes, kitchens and rooms, or sentences that sound like music before they mean anything.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Familiar things become word portraits
- Words work like touches of paint
- The carafe opens a widening difference
- Household objects hold feeling and pattern
- Short poems let sound carry meaning
- Food makes the meal a chant
- Rooms explores space without a center
- Different readings can live together
- Listening connects objects food and rooms
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 15 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 opens 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 and print. 200,000+ classics as eBook, large-print eBook 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 USD 0.14 a day in your first year on the yearly plan and USD 0.27 a day after, or USD 0.66 a day on the monthly plan. Cancel online in two clicks.
Bought on its own? Every eBook and printed book you buy without the plan carries our 30-day money-back guarantee.
25 languages, side by side
Tender Buttons in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Tender Buttons
by Gertrude Stein · 1914
A carafe becomes a blind glass, a cushion becomes a question, and a dinner table sheds its meaning.
Medium levelUnder 2 hours to read20 languages
Learn a language with medium classicsSpanishFrenchGermanItalianJapanesePortugueseEnglishHow we measure levels
Excellent
Free for 3 months · starts right away, on any device
Read free3 months free · cancel anytimeRenews every year · Cancel anytimeHow it works
- Read, large type too
- 25 languages, side by side
- Print and large print at cost
- 5 accounts for the price of one
“like whisky to me; her strange rhythms broke up the cliché formation of my thought”
In short
What happens when a writer looks at a carafe for so long that the word for it stops working? Gertrude Stein asks that question in Tender Buttons, a small book of prose poems from 1914.
Tender Buttons at a glance
- Reading time
- About 1 h50 min fast, 1 h 15 min slow
- Length
- 14,700 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1914by Gertrude Stein
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Stein treats words as a painter treats paint
Tender Buttons grows out of a friendship between writing and painting. In early twentieth century Paris, painters such as Picasso were breaking a guitar or a face into planes and angles. They asked viewers to look at the picture itself, not through it. Stein, who bought and hung their work, wanted a writing that did the same.
So she takes an everyday object, a glass or a hat or a plate, and writes about it without the usual route from word to meaning. A word in her hands is a thing with weight, color and sound. The sentence does not point at a carafe. It stands beside the carafe the way a painted apple stands beside the real one.
Renews every year · Cancel anytime
You looked at
Which edition is right for me
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet or computer. Your place follows you, and you can make the type as big as you like.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 15 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1914
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 1 h 5 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Stein, Gertrude. Tender Buttons. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/tender-buttons.
Stein, G. (2026). Tender buttons. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/tender-buttons (Original work published 1914)
Stein, Gertrude. Tender Buttons. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/tender-buttons.
@book{stein2026tender,
author = {Stein, Gertrude},
title = {Tender Buttons},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/tender-buttons},
note = {First published 1914}
}
Free gifts
USD 580 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
USD 170FREE - Every eBookIn 25 languages, any device
USD 120FREE - 15-minute summariesRead in 25 languages
USD 60FREE - Print at cost, no markupPaperback, hardcover, large print
USD 60FREE - 5 accounts for the price of oneA shelf for everyone at home
USD 170FREE - A part in rebuilding the libraryNew languages and books for all
FREE
Questions about Tender Buttons
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 Tender Buttons about?
It is a book of prose poems that look at everyday things, such as a glass, a cushion, a meal and a room. Stein uses sound, color and play to make the ordinary feel new instead of explaining what each thing is.
What does the title Tender Buttons mean?
Stein never explains it. The two words set something soft beside something small and firm, and they match the book's habit of pairing familiar words in fresh ways so that ordinary things feel strange and close.
What are the three sections of Tender Buttons?
The book has three parts. Objects covers household things such as a carafe, a hat and a chair. Food moves through dishes and meals. Rooms is one continuous piece that looks at space, furniture and time.
The author
Gertrude Stein
1874–1946 · American modernist writer
Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) was an American author born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. She grew up in Oakland, California, and moved to Paris in 1903. She wrote fiction, poetry, plays, and essays. Her books include Three Lives (1909), Tender Buttons (1914), and The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933). She died in France.
“The difference is spreading.”
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 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
