Scan barcode
faeden's review
4.0
Ellen I found this difficult to read, but was amazed at the emotional reactions I had to it. Not a book I will forget.
dreesreads's review
3.0
Life in the Iron Mills is considered to be the first American realist fiction, depicting iron workers' lives, presumably near Wheeling, VA/WV, where Davis lived until her marriage. Published in 1861, it looks at an uneducated Welsh immigrant, Wolfe, desperately poor, who spends his limited free time between shifts sculpting out of mill by-products. Though his potential is recognized by a potential investor, nothing will happen with his talent. His potential is wasted because of his inability to get schooling, a mentor, or any kind of job that will permit him more time and materials. This was Davis' first published work, in The Atlantic.
This is a theme in Davis' 3 stories: the other two both feature women who, because of marriage and family, are unable to realize their potential and dreams in the artistic world. She may well have felt this way about her own life. Single and an established writer when she did marry in her early 30s, she then spent years cranking out stories to help support her family. She was unable to take the time to write the serious novel she had planned. These three stories all felt quite choppy to me, and the endings unsatisfying--but the endings I would like would probably not have been publishable at the time she was writing.
In addition to writing the first realist American fiction, Davis also wrote the first story about special interests controlling government; and another about a family who commits a sane relative into an asylum. She was very well known during her time writing, appearing in Atlantic, Peterson's, and many other publications. After her death in 1910 she dropped off the map, and has been redsicovered in the last few decades. This volume is from Feminist Press.
This is a theme in Davis' 3 stories: the other two both feature women who, because of marriage and family, are unable to realize their potential and dreams in the artistic world. She may well have felt this way about her own life. Single and an established writer when she did marry in her early 30s, she then spent years cranking out stories to help support her family. She was unable to take the time to write the serious novel she had planned. These three stories all felt quite choppy to me, and the endings unsatisfying--but the endings I would like would probably not have been publishable at the time she was writing.
In addition to writing the first realist American fiction, Davis also wrote the first story about special interests controlling government; and another about a family who commits a sane relative into an asylum. She was very well known during her time writing, appearing in Atlantic, Peterson's, and many other publications. After her death in 1910 she dropped off the map, and has been redsicovered in the last few decades. This volume is from Feminist Press.
More...