Cheerful—By Request
Tags
Summary
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Literary readers interested in early twentieth-century American short stories
- General readers who enjoy light narrative and lively dialogue
- Literature enthusiasts studying women's writing and urban life
- English-language readers who want to read in short installments during spare moments
Not a good fit for
- Readers who prefer long continuous plots and complex world-building
- Readers expecting intense dramatic conflict or suspenseful twists
- Readers with little interest in the social context of early America
- Readers seeking direct responses to contemporary issues
Reading tips
- Read each piece independently, noting the characters' situations and turning points after each.
- Notice how dialogue advances the plot; use it as a sample for observing short-story craft.
- Understand characters' choices in light of early twentieth-century American urbanization and changes in women's careers.
- There is no need to finish in one sitting; it suits reading in installments on commutes or before bed.
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.
Contents
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FAQ
Is this a novel or a short-story collection?
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Comments
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About the author
Edna Ferber (1885–1968) was an American writer. Public information about her life and education is limited, but the eleven works held in this collection show the main outlines of her writing. Her work combines a light, humorous tone of urban life with close observation of ordinary people's circumstances. Representative titles such as One Basket, Cheerful—By Request, Half Portions and Buttered Side Down: Stories are mostly short stories and sketches that present warmth and irony in everyday life. Her Emma McChesney series, including Roast Beef, Medium, Emma McChesney and Co. and Personality Plus, follows a woman making her way in business and her family, and was notably fresh for its time. Overall, her writing is brisk and her characters vivid, leaving a lively record of early twentieth-century American popular literature.
