Audiobook · read by volunteers
Just David
Eleanor H. Porter (1868–1920)
Read by Mary Anderson · 25 chapters · 6 h 49
About the book
David and his father live high on a mountain, far from other people, sharing music, books and a deep love of the world around them. When his father falls ill and dies on the way to meet relatives, the boy is left alone in a small farming town with a violin and no knowledge of his own last name. Nobody can read the writing his father left behind. A stern farmer and his wife take him in, though they do not know what to make of a child who greets everyone with open gladness and talks about sunrises and songs. Little by little, the cheerful stranger begins to change the people around him. Eleanor H. Porter, the author of Pollyanna, tells this warm and sentimental story in twenty-five chapters. A single reader brings it to life in nearly seven hours, ideal for anyone who enjoys a classic tale of kindness.
Introduction
Eleanor H. Porter, who lived from 1868 to 1920, was an American novelist best remembered for Pollyanna, first published in 1913. Just David appeared in 1915 and belongs to the same family of stories, in which an openhearted young person changes the outlook of a community. Both books were popular in their day and have remained in circulation ever since.
The novel is set in a small rural community and follows a boy who has grown up in isolation with a father who taught him to love music and nature. Chapter titles such as The Mountain Home, The Trail and The Valley give a sense of the journey from one world to another. Porter's style is plain and affectionate, and her fiction reflects the early twentieth century taste for uplifting stories about the power of cheerfulness and goodwill.
This LibriVox version contains twenty-five chapters and runs for around six hours and fifty minutes, read by one volunteer. The long, steady narration suits a book that unfolds at an easy pace. Today, Just David can be enjoyed as a window on a vanished style of storytelling and as a gentle, comforting listen for those who like their classics warm and sincere. The story also gives a picture of rural American life in the early twentieth century, with its small towns, its neighbours and its habits. Listeners who enjoyed Pollyanna will find the same warmth here, while those new to Porter can treat it as a pleasant, undemanding companion for walks, chores or an evening by the fire.
Public domain
Eleanor H. Porter died in 1920: 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