The Wide House: A Novel

Taylor Caldwell

Sep 2018 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

An “intimately limned” saga of passion and greed in the decade before the Civil War—from the New York Times–bestselling author of Captains and the Kings (Kirkus Reviews).

The Wide House is the story of two cousins from Ireland: Stuart Coleman, a shopkeeper who dreams of building a big white house and raising a family, and Janie Cauder, a young widow with four children, only one of whom she truly adores. When Janie arrives in Grandeville, New York, the two begin a surprising romance—but happiness is not to be their fate.
 
Driven by ambition and haunted by self-doubt, Stuart spurns Janie for the beautiful daughter of a business rival. Janie, meanwhile, takes her disappointment out on her children and pursues new romantic opportunities—to diminishing returns. As the national mood turns increasingly antagonistic to outsiders, Stuart and Janie’s inability to love will leave a bitter mark on their lives, and on generations to come.
 
A richly detailed portrait of a fascinating time in American history, The Wide House is a masterwork from an author whose “sheer power” has captivated millions of readers all over the world (The New York Times).
 

Ratings and reviews

This book is about two cousins and their friends and family. Janie who is truly wicked. She is so abusive to her young children that it is uncomfortable to read those parts of the book where she is being abusive. She is self centered and selfish. Bad mother. The other cousin is Stuart. He is a reckless man but has a good heart and is kind and forgiving. There is a lot to this book. It covers hatred, love, forgiveness, vengeance, patriotism as well as racism against every nationality and religion. It was too drawn out for me in some spots but I gave it 4 stars because it had a good story line and was a meaningful book.

About the author

Taylor Caldwell was one of the most prolific and widely read authors of the twentieth century. Born Janet Miriam Holland Taylor Caldwell in 1900 in Manchester, England, she moved with her family to Buffalo, New York, in 1907. She started writing stories when she was eight years old and completed her first novel when she was twelve. Married at age eighteen, Caldwell worked as a stenographer and court reporter to help support her family and took college courses at night, earning a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Buffalo in 1931. She adopted the pen name Taylor Caldwell because legendary editor Maxwell Perkins thought her debut novel, Dynasty of Death (1938), would be better received if readers assumed it were written by a man. In a career that spanned five decades, Caldwell published forty novels, many of which were New York Times bestsellers. Her best-known works include the historical sagas The Sound of Thunder (1957), Testimony of Two Men (1968), Captains and the Kings (1972), and Ceremony of the Innocent (1976), and the spiritually themed novels The Listener (1960) and No One Hears But Him (1966). Dear and Glorious Physician (1958), a portrayal of the life of St. Luke, and Great Lion of God (1970), about the life of St. Paul, are among the bestselling religious novels of all time. Caldwell’s last novel, Answer as a Man (1981), hit the New York Times bestseller list before its official publication date. She died at her home in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1985.