5 h 42 minAudiobook11 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when quick wit and careful argument begin to give way to love?
The Jessica Letters, by Paul Elmer More and Corra Harris, is a short romance told entirely through letters. Feeling grows through what the correspondents write—and what they choose to hide. With no narrator to guide you, each voice offers only part of the truth.
More brings a critic’s interest in literature and philosophy; Harris brings her experience as a Southern novelist and journalist. Their voices meet in a love story where ideas matter as much as sentiment. The pleasure lies in conversation, careful argument, and the quiet shifts of feeling from one letter to the next.
What you’ll discover
- Two minds in conversation Follow voices that speak in turn, each revealing a different piece of the story.
- Wit beside the heart Enjoy quick wit and careful argument as feeling slowly grows between the correspondents.
- More than sentiment Find literature and philosophy woven into a romance that makes room for thought.
- What letters leave unsaid Look beyond what each writer shares to consider what remains hidden on the page.
- A quieter reading pleasure Take one letter at a time, noticing its mood, its purpose, and its voice.
Who will love it
Readers who love letters and diaries, clever banter, and love stories where ideas matter as much as feelings. It suits anyone drawn to books about faith, books themselves, and Southern country life set against New York.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A warning turns into a friendship
- Books, banter and a borrowed scholar
- Philip's confession and Jessica's heaven
- The quarrel over humanitarianism
- A visit, a refusal and the child Jack
- Engagement and the father's decision
- The father's prayer closet and a growing worry
- Diaries, stories and what Philip believes
- What the letters are really about
Who’s who
- Philip TowersA scholarly newspaper editor in New York, steeped in Plato and Indian thought, who distrusts his age and finds himself falling in love.
- Jessica DoaneA witty Georgia minister's daughter and book reviewer who loves her forest, teases the philosopher and wants love without losing her will.
- Ezra DoaneJessica's father, a travelling Methodist preacher who vowed her to God and fears Philip's views will ruin her soul.
- Jack O'MearaA small street boy, son of a ruined reviewer, who grows quietly attached to Jessica and writes blunt letters about what he sees.
- O'MearaA fallen Irish scholar who loves Virgil, reviews books for Philip and lives in poverty in a courtyard near Park Row.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
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- Audiobook
- 5 h 42 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 11 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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The Jessica Letters
by Paul Elmer More; Corra Harris · 1904
A New York editor warns a Georgia preacher's daughter off literature, and their letters become love.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Jessica Letters is a novel told in letters, written by Paul Elmer More with Corra Harris, who supplied the voice of the young woman. It follows a New York newspaper editor named Philip Towers and a minister's daughter from Georgia named Jessica Doane.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A warning turns into a friendship
The book opens in New York, where Philip Towers, literary editor of a newspaper called The Gazette, writes to Miss Jessica Doane. She has just left his office after asking whether she should give her life to literature. He likes her review of a novel by Howells and offers her more books to review. Yet he answers her big question with gloom.
Philip says he has known only four people who truly gave themselves to literature, and each lives alone and unrecognised. He thinks the city has no real sense of letters, only a trade in books. He tells her to write for applause but not to take the art too seriously. He even asks pardon for the outburst, which he calls very uneditorial.
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What is The Jessica Letters about?
It is a love story told in letters between Philip Towers, a New York editor, and Jessica Doane, a Georgia preacher's daughter. They argue about books, faith and kindness to the poor while falling in love.
Who wrote The Jessica Letters?
Paul Elmer More, a critic and essayist, wrote Philip's letters, and the novelist Corra Harris wrote Jessica's. Together they created a two-sided exchange in which each voice is distinct.
Who is Jack in The Jessica Letters?
Jack is the small son of O'Meara, a ruined scholar who reviews books for Philip. After his father dies, Jack lives first with Philip and then with Jessica, and later writes his own short letters.
The author
Paul Elmer More
1864–1937 · American literary critic and essayist
American journalist, critic, essayist and Christian apologist.
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