11 h 45 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 11 h 45 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What is freedom worth when the open road offers no fixed home?
In The Landloper: The Romance of a Man on Foot, Holman Day places a wanderer at the center of an adventure. He moves through the countryside, meeting people as he goes. With no fixed home, his journey turns on the strangers and chances the road brings.
This is a romance in the older sense: a tale of adventure and feeling, with room for hope, danger and warmth. Day explores freedom, travel and work, and the pull between wandering and a settled life. Independence offers release from rules, bosses and routine—but the question of its cost remains.
What you’ll discover
- A man on foot Follow a wanderer whose way through the countryside brings him into contact with strangers.
- The road's uncertain welcome Food, work, warnings and trouble give encounters along the road their promise and uncertainty.
- The cost of freedom Consider what independence offers when a settled life pulls in the other direction.
- Adventure with a heart Find a tale where courage and decency matter alongside danger, hope and feeling.
- The pull of rural life Enter an American adventure shaped by travel on foot and life beyond a fixed home.
Who will love it
Readers who love lively Yankee dialogue, warm humor and wandering heroes with secrets will enjoy this novel. It also suits those who like ordinary people finding courage against money and power.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A cynical wanderer meets a girl on the road
- A blacksmith in armor tests the idea of pure goodness
- A borrowed suit of clothes wakes a sleeping soul
- A dead weaver leaves a child in a locked room
- Three friends raise a child while sickness spreads
- Grief carries Farr into City Hall and the colonel's office
- An iceman finds a lawyer and a girl in danger
- Service beats talk, and every character shows it
- Debts and bargains bind people against their will
- A tale told in contrasts, tokens and tall talk
Who’s who
- Walker FarrA cynical, sharp-witted wanderer in a discarded frock coat who says he cares for no one, then cannot stop helping people.
- Kate KilgourA frank young secretary who says please and thank you, wants honest love, and is pressed to marry for her mother's sake.
- Jared ChickA Quaker blacksmith in homemade armor who wants to spread peace and mercy, and learns to do good in small, practical ways.
- Etienne ProvancherA French Canadian rack-tender who saves his pennies for sick children and finds unexpected courage in a great hall.
- Zelie DionneA kind young mill inspector from Tadousac who becomes a play-mother to Rosemarie and a wise friend to Farr.
- Colonel Symonds DoddThe squat head of the Consolidated water company and the state machine, who loves his flowers and guards his power.
- Richard DoddThe colonel's nephew and a treasury clerk, deep in debt and desperate to marry Kate Kilgour.
- Archer ConverseA upright, rich lawyer and war governor's son, who avoids politics until a stranger awakens his conscience.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Audiobook
- Read by Lucas Linden, complete. It opens once the recording is online.
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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The Landloper: The Romance of a Man on Foot
by Holman Day · 1915
A cynical tramp with a dried rose in his pocket takes a dead weaver's child and starts a war on poisoned water.
Medium level10–20 hours to readEnglish
Excellent
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In short
A young man in a dusty frock coat walks into a New England mill city with a dried rose in his pocket. Weeks before, he was a tramp who claimed he would probably not go out of his way to do good.
The Landloper: The Romance of a Man on Foot at a glance
- Reading time
- About 6 h 40 min5 h 15 min fast, 7 h 55 min slow
- Length
- 94,700 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1915by Holman Day
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 cynical wanderer meets a girl on the road
The book opens on a June morning. A young man who calls himself Walker Farr walks a dusty country road, bareheaded under the elms. He dresses like a vagrant, and a farmer who is also the town constable tries to arrest him.
Farr answers with a smile that is polite and insolent at once. He has begged no food and broken no law, and he says so. Round the next bend he finds a gray car with a flat tire. The soft young driver orders him to help, and Farr does the whole job, lifting the car on his shoulder. He refuses money.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1915
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 7 h 40 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Day, Holman. The Landloper: The Romance of a Man on Foot. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-landloper-the-romance-of-a-man-on-foot.
Day, H. (2026). The landloper: The romance of a man on foot. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-landloper-the-romance-of-a-man-on-foot (Original work published 1915)
Day, Holman. The Landloper: The Romance of a Man on Foot. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-landloper-the-romance-of-a-man-on-foot.
@book{day2026landloper,
author = {Day, Holman},
title = {The Landloper: The Romance of a Man on Foot},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-landloper-the-romance-of-a-man-on-foot},
note = {First published 1915}
}
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What is The Landloper about?
It follows a wandering man who calls himself Walker Farr as he turns from cynic to crusader. After meeting a girl he cannot forget, he takes in a dead weaver's child and fights the water company that poisons a mill city.
Who is Walker Farr in The Landloper?
Farr is a tall, brown-eyed vagrant in a discarded frock coat who says he cares for no one. His real name and past are kept as a mystery, and the story slowly shows what drives him.
Why does Jared Chick wear armor?
Jared, a Quaker blacksmith, believes the world must be startled before it will listen to a message of peace and mercy. His homemade armor is meant to show unselfishness, and it becomes both comic and moving.
The author
Holman Day
1865–1935 · American writer and editor
Holman Day was an American writer and editor, born in Vassalboro, Maine, in 1865. He worked in journalism and wrote novels and poetry. His novels include King Spruce, published in 1908, and The Landloper, published in 1915. He later lived in California and died in Mill Valley in 1935.
More by Holman Day
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