Audiobook · read by volunteers
Harvester
Gene Stratton-Porter (1863–1924)
Read by Cindy Steib · 24 chapters · 14 h 54
About the book
A young man lives alone in the woods with his dog and his animals, growing herbs to sell to medicine suppliers. Known as the Harvester, he spends his days among plants and birds and is content with his quiet life. Then one evening he has a vision of a woman, his dream girl, and the story that follows is about whether such a vision can come to life. Gene Stratton-Porter wrote this novel to combine her great loves: the outdoors, high moral ideals and a good plot. It is a romance with a strong feeling for the seasons and for the lives of the creatures that share the forest. Cindy Steib reads the twenty-four chapters in just under fifteen hours.
Introduction
Gene Stratton-Porter (1863-1924) was an American author and nature photographer from Indiana, where she spent many years exploring the swamp and woodland known as the Limberlost. Her novels combined romance with detailed observation of birds, moths and plants, and they were hugely popular in the first decades of the twentieth century. She also ran her own film company and wrote nature books illustrated with her own photographs.
The Harvester, published in 1911, was among her best-selling books. Its hero is a man who makes his living by gathering and growing medicinal herbs, and the book gives a lively picture of life close to nature. Like her other fiction, it is built around a clear moral outlook: honesty, patience and respect for the natural world are rewarded. Readers who enjoy a leisurely and sentimental romance will find much to like, while others may be interested in it as a typical product of its time and place.
The recording has twenty-four chapters and lasts almost fifteen hours. It is read by LibriVox volunteer Cindy Steib. The story proceeds at an unhurried pace, with generous passages describing the setting and the hero's work. It is a pleasant choice for slow, easygoing listening, and a good example of the kind of popular fiction that kept early twentieth-century readers turning pages. The pace is unhurried and the setting is lovingly described, so the book suits a quiet evening, a long drive or any moment when you want to be taken gently out of the city.
Public domain
Gene Stratton-Porter died in 1924: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text