9 h 46 minAudiobook11 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 9 h 46 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does the heart ask for when ambition and duty pull it in different directions?
In The Gay Cockade, Temple Bailey brings together short stories of youth, romance and the wish to make something of yourself. Young people face the pull between getting ahead and following the heart. Love, family and social duty give that question weight: what do you want, and what are you willing to choose?
A cockade is a knot of ribbon or a badge worn on a hat, a bright sign of loyalty, pride and youth. That image gives the collection its spirit. Bailey’s warm fiction offers a glimpse of early twentieth-century America through its manners, speech and hopes, with courtship and family close to the heart.
What you’ll discover
- Young hearts with ambitions Meet young people whose hopes for themselves sit alongside the claims of love.
- Duty beside desire Explore the tension between what the heart wants and what duty asks.
- Courtship and family ties Enter a world where romance belongs within a wider circle of family expectations.
- A glimpse of another time Discover the manners, speech and hopes that shape Bailey’s early twentieth-century American world.
- Warmth without a hurry Settle into old-fashioned storytelling that makes room for affection, ambition and quiet questions.
Who will love it
Readers who like romance with a wry smile, vivid clothes and candlelit rooms, and tales that end with a turn of the heart. Anyone who enjoys short stories in the old magazine style will feel at home.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Youth, ambition, and a wife's plan
- A play, a heroine, and a rival
- A Viking, a cloak, and a girl in gray
- The letter and the doubts of a modern girl
- The storm that brings Olaf back
- A dying wife, a soldier, and a husband
- Stage heroes and quiet gifts
- Love, money, and what people really need
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.
- Audiobook
- 9 h 46 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.
eBooks and audiobooks open right away. Download EPUB or PDF, or send the book to your Kindle. Every printed copy is made when you order it and shipped worldwide; shipping is shown at checkout.
How it works
- Start free. Nothing to pay today; the eBook of this book is yours to keep.
- Read, listen and print. 200,000+ classics as eBook, large-print eBook, audiobook 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, audiobook and printed book you buy without the plan carries our 30-day money-back guarantee.
25 languages, side by side
Read and hear The Gay Cockade 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.
The Gay Cockade
by Temple Bailey · 1921
A poet in a Virginia farmhouse writes for a wife who loves his talent more than his youth.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
Excellent
- Read or listen
- 25 languages, side by side
- Print and large print at cost
- 5 accounts for the price of one
Free for 3 months · starts right away, on any device
Read free3 months free · cancel anytimeFree for 3 months, then USD 0.14 a dayCancel anytimeHow it works
In short
The Gay Cockade is a collection of short stories by Temple Bailey, an American writer whose work appeared in magazines such as Harper's, Scribner's, Collier's and the Saturday Evening Post. The tales are set in the years around the First World War, in Washington, Virginia, Nantucket, California and the small towns between.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Youth, ambition, and a wife's plan
The first story, The Gay Cockade, is told by Miss Standish, a government clerk who has grown tired and gray. Into her office comes Jimmie Harding, young and swaggering, who wears his youth like a bright plume. The whole office borrows his color. When he falls in love with a girl named Elise, the clerks follow the romance as if it were a play.
Elise tells Jimmie he can write, and she tells him he must leave the Department. They marry in April and settle in his old two hundred year old house in Albemarle, Virginia. Elise scrubs it bare and fills it with candles, old books and mahogany. She will not even take a honeymoon, because Jimmie must first sit down at his desk in the little house that was once his grandfather's office.
Free for 3 months · Cancel anytime
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 audiobookIn 25 languages, any device
USD 120FREE - 15-minute summariesRead or listen, 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 The Gay Cockade
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 The Gay Cockade about?
It is a collection of short romantic stories by Temple Bailey. Each tale follows people in love, ambition or doubt, such as a poet and his driven wife, a woman drawn to a Viking-like yachtsman, and a dying wife choosing between two men.
What does the title The Gay Cockade mean?
A cockade is a bright knot of ribbon worn on a hat. In the title story, a young clerk named Jimmie Harding wears his youth like one, and the narrator suggests the name for his play.
Who is Sandwich Jane?
She is Jane, a red haired girl in the oil town of Tinkersfield, California, who sells homemade sandwiches to support her sick mother. She meets O-liver Lee, a bareheaded philosopher on fifteen dollars a week, and helps him in a town election.
The author
Temple Bailey
1880–1953 · American novelist
Temple Bailey was an American author of warmly romantic popular fiction, a fixture of the magazines and bestseller lists of her day. The Gay Cockade collects her short stories of love, ambition, and second chances.
More by Temple Bailey
All 2 booksMore 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, new audiobooks 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
