Main Travelled Roads cover art

Main Travelled Roads

 Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for £5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Main Travelled Roads

By: Hamlin Garland
Narrated by: Walter Zimmerman, Donald Wight
Try Standard free

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £13.12

Buy Now for £13.12

About this listen

Hamlin Garland is mostly remembered today for his innovative collections of short stories; Main Travelled Roads is his most famous collection. It contains six stories and is an undisputed American classic.

"Under the Lion's Paw" shows an honest, hardworking farmer victimized by a greedy landlord.

Another powerful story is the semiautobiographical "Up the Coulee", about a successful son who returns from the East to find his mother and brother trapped on a poor farm, defeated in spite of their best efforts.

"Mrs. Ripley's Trip" is a tender story of an elderly couple settled in their frugal country ways, with the wife determined to realize her dream of revisiting childhood scenes.

Rounding out the collection are "The Return of a Private", "The Branch Road", and "Among the Corn Rows". Garland did not write "pretty" stories, but he describes exhilarating moments in the lives of these farm people and often highlights the strength of extraordinary characters.

Public Domain (P)1986 Jimcin Recordings Anthologies Anthologies & Short Stories Classics Short Story
All stars
Most relevant
Loved the detailed description of tough realities facing farming society trying to settle the US West of the 19th century.

The narration was unfortunately too "chiselled" for the material - almost like Niles Crane reading a frontier story.

An insiders view of the American West

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.