Audiobook · read by volunteers
Stepping Heavenward
Elizabeth Prentiss (1818–1878)
Read by Cagirlwithasoutherndrawl, Missie, Lucy Burgoyne (1950-2014), Alan Chant, Heather Lawrence, Yazpistachio, E. Tavano, Anna Christensen, TinyPines, Sarah Jennings · 27 chapters · 9 h 34
About the book
Katherine Mortimer is a young girl with a quick temper and a good heart, and her journal records her struggles to become a better person. As she grows up, she meets a young man she loves and wants to marry, but her mother opposes their plans. Katy's life moves on through marriage, motherhood and many sorrows, and the journal follows each change with honesty and humor. Elizabeth Prentiss wrote a novel of religious feeling in the form of a diary, and it was widely read in its day. Twenty-seven chapters of nearly ten hours, read by LibriVox volunteers, will appeal to readers who like long, reflective domestic fiction. Its sincerity and its attention to the details of ordinary life give it a lasting appeal, and it will suit anyone who enjoys a long, reflective story told in the first person.
Introduction
Elizabeth Prentiss (1818 to 1878) was an American author who wrote children's books and devotional works. Stepping Heavenward is the book for which she became best known. It takes the form of a journal kept by Katherine Mortimer, known as Katy, from her adolescence through her adult life, and it records, entry by entry, her growth in faith and in self-knowledge.
The form allows the author to build a character gradually. Katy is not a perfect heroine: she is impatient, proud and sometimes unfair, and she often fails to live up to her ideals. The novel follows her through love, marriage, the care of children and times of loss. Religion is central, and the book belongs to a tradition of Christian fiction in which moral development is the main subject. Yet there is humor and keen observation in the daily life that Prentiss describes.
The recording has twenty-seven chapters and runs for just under ten hours. It is read by volunteers of LibriVox. For listeners who are curious about the inner life of nineteenth-century American women, or who are interested in the Christian fiction of the period, it offers a vivid account. It is a book to be listened to slowly, in short sittings, with time to reflect on the questions it raises about patience, duty and happiness. The diary form means that the listener hears Katy's voice directly, with all her doubts and her small victories. Readers interested in the religious culture of nineteenth-century America will find it a rich source, and those who simply like a long story about the growth of a character will find it satisfying.
Public domain
Elizabeth Prentiss died in 1878: 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