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Audiobook edition · 13 h 14 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
On a cold New England coast, a stubborn soldier helps a small colony face danger, hardship, and uncertain days.
In Standish of Standish, Jane G. Austin brings the early years of Plymouth Colony into homes, friendships, and daily work. Myles Standish, the Pilgrims’ military captain, stands at its center. Firm in will and loyal to the settlement, he helps guide people whose hopes depend on courage and survival.
Around him, private lives give the colony its human shape. Rose Standish shares the settlement’s hardships, while John Alden and Priscilla Mullins bring courtship into view. William Bradford offers patient leadership, and William Brewster tends the community’s faith and order. Austin blends recorded history with imagined scenes, making room for affection as well as fear.
What you’ll discover
- A captain with resolve Meet Myles Standish through his public duty and the private ties that shape his life.
- Homes behind the history Step into households where marriages, friendships, and daily labor give Plymouth a warmer, closer presence.
- Courtship amid hardship Follow John Alden and Priscilla Mullins into the novel’s world of affection and uncertain hopes.
- Faith and steady duty Discover how Bradford and Brewster guide a community through the demands of its early years.
- History touched by imagination Experience Austin’s warm historical romance, where recorded events share space with invented scenes of everyday life.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like historical fiction with humor and warmth, or if you are curious about the Pilgrims as living people.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A colony begins with ordinary households
- Strength includes care for the weak
- Shared sorrow becomes shared work
- Courtesy opens a path to peace
- Government must make room for mercy
- Love cannot speak through a messenger
- Danger and folly share the settlement
- Protection carries a moral cost
- Public history keeps its human faces
Who’s who
- Myles StandishA short, stern soldier who guards the Pilgrims without joining their church, and who finds courting harder than war.
- Priscilla MolinesA quick-witted, brown-eyed cook of French Protestant family, orphaned in the first winter, who wants a suitor brave enough to speak for himself.
- John AldenA tall young cooper and Standish's loyal follower, who loves Priscilla and is sent to plead for another man.
- William BradfordA thoughtful, patient friend of Standish who becomes governor after Carver and carries his own grief quietly.
- Rose StandishThe captain's frail young wife, who dreams of home on the Isle of Man and hopes to spare her husband from sorrow.
- Elder William BrewsterThe gentle spiritual leader of the colony, who shelters the orphan girls and prays through the famine.
- HobomokA Wampanoag guide and interpreter, loyal to Standish and feared by his own people as a powerful pniese.
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Standish of Standish
by Jane G. Austin · 1889
A soldier with a sword named Gideon guards a starving colony while a young cooper pleads another man's cause.
Challenging5–10 hours to read2 languages
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In short
Picture a Monday morning in November 1620. Twenty-two women prepare to go ashore with tubs and kettles, while the men object.
Standish of Standish at a glance
- Reading time
- About 7 h 40 min6 h 5 min fast, 9 h 10 min slow
- Length
- 110,000 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1889by Jane G. Austin
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
A washing day on a cold beach
The story opens on Monday, November 23, 1620, with the Mayflower anchored off Cape Cod. Twenty-two women want to go ashore and wash clothes that have waited weeks for soap. The men object that the pinnace must be unloaded first. The women answer that Monday is Monday.
Captain Jones growls that no boat can be spared. Governor Carver and William Bradford overrule him with quiet courtesy. On shore the boys build fires beside a pool of fresh water, and the women scrub in tubs that John Alden, a cooper, has mended. Austin plays it for comedy, and it shows how the book will work: great history seen through small household quarrels.
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1889
- Language
- English
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Austin, Jane G. Standish of Standish. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/standish-of-standish.
Austin, J. G. (2026). Standish of Standish. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/standish-of-standish (Original work published 1889)
Austin, Jane G. Standish of Standish. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/standish-of-standish.
@book{austin2026standish,
author = {Austin, Jane G.},
title = {Standish of Standish},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/standish-of-standish},
note = {First published 1889}
}
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What is Standish of Standish about?
It follows the Pilgrims of Plymouth from the first washing day on the beach through plague, treaties, famine, and rescue. Its hero is Myles Standish, the soldier who defends them, while a love story grows around Priscilla and John Alden.
Who is Myles Standish in the book?
He is the military leader of the colony, a short, red-bearded English officer who served in Flanders. He does not belong to the Separatist church, carries a Damascus sword named Gideon, and nurses the sick as readily as he drills the militia.
Is Standish of Standish a true story?
Austin built it on real people and events, including the voyage of the Mayflower, the plague winter, the treaty with Massasoit, and the first Thanksgiving. Its conversations and romances are her own invention. It was published in 1889.
The author
Jane G. Austin
1831–1894 · American novelist
Jane G. Austin (1831–1894) was an American writer born in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her full name was Jane Goodwin Austin. She wrote novels and stories, including historical fiction about the Plymouth colonists. Her books included Fairy Dreams, published in 1859, and Standish of Standish, published in 1889. She died in Boston.
More by Jane G. Austin
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