this book was written in 1919. some of the the characters mentioned in the story fought in the civil war. given the early american venue i expected stories rife in fortitude and chastity and good besting evil. instead, the first story dealt with pedophilia. the second story, date rape. the third story, dementia. the unexpected topics continued: un-wed pregnancy, adultery, theft, voyeurism (by a priest no less). this book would have given a modern day 90210 a run for it's money dysfunction for dysfunction. and the pre WW1 happenings in winesberg, ohio surely weren't about the lives of the sorts of folks my grandparents and parents would have had me believe were running around in those days. listening to the stories of my elder relatives, i am dealt visions of virginal, do gooders helping old and feeble people across the street while walking from their first job to their second in the pouring rain.

one curiosity about this book can be seen in its simplicity. when i read books, i mark the words i don't know in the margins of the pages to get a sense for how many words i had trouble with. this book was one deep, rich, detailed description of an equally deep and rich group of characters, yet in the whole work there were only two words that sent me to the dictionary. in college, i remember professors telling me it is possible to write using only the most basic of terms. i always thought they were deceiving me in some manner. works like this show me perhaps they were not.