The Whole Family

The Whole Family
A Novel by Twelve Authors

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(1 Review)
Authors: William Dean Howells, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Mary Heaton Vorse, Mary Stewart Cutting, Elizabeth Jordan, John Kendrick Bangs, Henry James, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Edith Wyatt, Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews, Alice Brown, Henry Van Dyke

Book Excerpt

aged in ruling to have much force left for snubbing. The child carries herself with a vague loftiness, which has apparently not awaited the moment of long skirts for keeping pretenders to her favor at a distance. In the default of other impertinents to keep in abeyance we fancy that she exercises her gift upon her younger brother, who, so far as we have been able to note, is of a disposition which would be entirely sweet if it were not for the exasperations he suffers from her. I like to put myself in his place, and to hold that he believes himself a better judge than she of the sort of companions he chooses, she being disabled by the mental constitution of her sex, and the defects of a girl's training, from knowing the rare quality of boys who present themselves even to my friendly eyes as dirty, and, when not patched, ragged. I please myself in my guesses at her character with the conjecture that she is not satisfied with her sister's engagement to a fellow-student in a co-educational college, who is lookin

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Enjoyable novel about a daughter's engagement, and all the drama and complications that come from it. This is a novel written by twelve different authors, who each take one member of the family and tell what's going on in the plot through their perspective. The only place I thought it dragged a bit was in the chapter written by Henry James. The mood and writing style didn't seem to mesh as well with the other authors. ( You can skim it without missing anything important to the plot.) Overall, a very interesting experiment in writing that you'll enjoy.