Abner Daniel

by William N. Harben

Excerpt from Abner A NovelThe young man stood in the field road giving directions to a robust negro who was ploughing the corn, which, in parallel rows, stretched on to the main road a quarter of a mile distant. The negro placed the point of his ploughshare a few inches from the first stalk of corn, wound the line around his wrist, and clucked to his horse. With a jangling jerk of the trace-chains the animal lunged the polished ploughshare cut into the mellow soil and sped onward, curling the gray earth like shavings, and uprooting and burying the tenacious crab-grass and succulent purslane.It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining brightly, but the atmosphere had dropped a dim veil over the near-by mountain. Even the two-storied farm-house, with its veranda and white columns, to which the field road led up a gradual slope, showed only its outlines. However, Alan Bishop, as he steadled his gaze upon the house, saw the figure of an elderly woman come out of the gate and with a quick step hurry down to him. It was his mother; she was tall and angular, and had high cheek-bones and small blue eyes.

324 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2008

About the author

William Nathaniel Harben was one of the most popular American authors of the early 20th century.

Reviews

[Jana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I prefer to read contemporary books from the past to learn about what society used to be like rather than reading through a modern lens. It's always a bit of a challenge to read a story written in this time period (post-Civil War) because the language is also of the time. The author used phonetic spelling in all of the dialog to illustrate the characters' dialect, which only took a few minutes to glide into. As with many stories written in the late 19th-early 20th Century, the reader feels like they have stepped into a regular day in the life of the characters, where nothing much is happening. The title character, Abner Daniel, is the town philosopher, stepping in to impart wisdom whenever needed. I thoroughly enjoyed his two cents. Thankfully, the plot required no leaps of faith and ended on a happy note. The story was engaging enough to keep me reading with interest to the end.

I give three stars most novels I finish reading without regret.