These short stories by Sherwood Anderson revolve around the life and events experienced by George Willard from childhood to adulthood.
The story is to an extent based off Anderson's childhood - the author himself grew up in the town of Clyde, Ohio. Many years later, residents of his hometown would recognise themselves in these stories, appreciating the memory of the man who was to become their town's most famous son.
Within the tales, Anderson does not shy away from the hardships of youth and adolescence; shyness; loneliness; and a desire to shut oneself off from the world. More positively, Anderson depicts the optimistic breakout of George Willard into a world much larger than small time life. For its depiction of a character entering into the modernity then engulfing the USA, most literary scholars place Winesburg, Ohio at the crossroads between old style American romanticism, and the modern leanings of the so-called Lost Generation.
Conceived by Anderson as a new means of tackling the coming-of-age tale, Winesburg, Ohio may also be treated as a collection of vignettes which faithfully portray small town life in the midwestern United States before the time of heavy industry. Although the short stories in this book fell out of favour in the interwar years, in the modern day, in the modern day they have been rediscovered and appreciated anew.
This edition includes the complete and unabridged text, faithfully reproduced for the reader to enjoy.
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