The Chimney Corner


Read by LibriVox Volunteers

(3.8 stars; 3 reviews)

Stowe wrote over 30 books. This one is a fascinating collection of her post Civil War musings on a variety of cultural topics, staged mostly as conversations between Christopher Crowfield (Stowe's masculine nome de plume), and his wife, their son Ben, daughter Jenny, their friends, and various neighbors who drop in to chat around the fireside. Lively topics include women's suffrage & their education, entertainment, fashion, the economy during reconstruction, youth entertainment, and how society and its institutions should prepare young women for useful, meaningful lives besides getting married or simply depending on other family members to support them while they do little or nothing, or worse, fall into a street life. She reflects on the economic after-effects of the Civil War, and the struggle to create a more civilized nation. ( ~ Michele Fry) (7 hr 51 min)

Chapters

Ch.1 What will you do with her? or The Woman Question 37:55 Read by Michele Fry
Ch.2.1 Woman's Sphere 24:59 Read by Michele Fry
Ch. 2.2 Woman's Sphere 26:31 Read by Michele Fry
Ch. 3.1 A Family-Talk on Reconstruction 25:02 Read by Michele Fry
Ch 3.2 A family-Talk on Reconstruction 30:54 Read by Michele Fry
Ch.4 Is Woman a Worker? 34:25 Read by susanjhudson
Ch.5 The Transition 26:53 Read by Michele Fry
Ch. 6 Boily Religion: A Sermon on Good Health 34:21 Read by weezer
Ch. 7 How Shall we Entertain our Company? 31:01 Read by Michele Fry
Ch.8 How Shall we be Amused? 27:40 Read by William Allan Jones
Ch.9 Dress, or who makes the Fashions 46:47 Read by Kathleen Moore
Ch.10 What are the sources of Beauty in Dress 39:36 Read by Kathleen Moore
Ch.11 The Cathedral 32:29 Read by William Allan Jones
Ch.12 The New Year 32:09 Read by William Allan Jones
Ch.13 The Noble Army of Martyrs 21:13 Read by KevinS

Reviews

women’s Occupations


(4 stars)

As one of the readers on this book, I can say it was quite interesting a discussion of women’s occupations. We’ve come a long way, but the problems remain largely the same. Stowe did a marvelous job writing about all the psychological snafus between the classes.