The Hoosier School-Master (Library of Indiana Classics) - Softcover

Eggleston, Edward

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0253203244 ISBN 13: 9780253203243

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 1984

Synopsis

This cherished classic of rural American life was a popular success when it first appeared in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. By the early twentieth century, it was nationally acclaimed by critics for its realistic portrayal of a vanishing phase of American life. Today it is considered a milestone in American literature, a monument to regional writing. Edward Eggleston's account of the adventures of a young schoolmaster in a nineteenth-century school system presents a vivid and readable chapter in the history of America and American education.

First and foremost, however, The Hoosier School-Master is a charming yet realistic novel in the manner of Tom Sawyer. Set in Flat Creek, Indiana, in the 1850s, the story relates the encounters of the new schoolteacher, Ralph Hartsook, with such lovable characters as Bud, Hannah, and Shocky. This marvelous tale contains all the elements of a good, old-fashioned melodrama―the bully, star-crossed lovers, the poorhouse, and the one-room schoolhouse. Written with Hoosier humor and candor, Eggleston's delightful portraits of heroes and villains are a bit sentimental, but they are also perceptive―full of life and truth.

About this title

Review:

Regional novel by Edward Eggleston, first serialized in Hearth and Home in 1871 and published in book form the same year. The novel is primarily of interest for its naturalism, its setting in rural Indiana, and its extensive use of Hoosier dialect. Based partially on the experiences of the author's brother, the novel relates episodes in the lives of inhabitants of a backwoods Indiana town as well as the experiences of the young man who is hired to be the only teacher in the town's school. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

About this edition

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 1984
• ISBN 10: 0253203244
• ISBN 13: 9780253203243
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 232