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Fanny Herself
"A work of Edna Ferber. This ebook contains the original content.
Fanny Herself is the story of Fanny Brandeis, a sensitive, young Jewish girl coming of age in the Midwest at the turn of the 20th century. It is generally considered to have been based on Ferber’s own experiences growing up in Appleton, Wisconsin. Fanny’s inner struggle between her compassionate, artistic side and her desire for financial independence as a successful young businesswoman is the recurring theme of the novel. Ferber’s engaging style of writing will quickly draw you into her story. Regarded by many to be the “greatest American woman novelist of her day,” Edna Ferber would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize in a 1925 for her book So Big, and is also the author of Showboat and Cimarron, which along with other of her later works were successfully adapted for stage and screen.
Enjoy the full story!"
Fanny Herself is the story of Fanny Brandeis, a sensitive, young Jewish girl coming of age in the Midwest at the turn of the 20th century. It is generally considered to have been based on Ferber’s own experiences growing up in Appleton, Wisconsin. Fanny’s inner struggle between her compassionate, artistic side and her desire for financial independence as a successful young businesswoman is the recurring theme of the novel. Ferber’s engaging style of writing will quickly draw you into her story. Regarded by many to be the “greatest American woman novelist of her day,” Edna Ferber would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize in a 1925 for her book So Big, and is also the author of Showboat and Cimarron, which along with other of her later works were successfully adapted for stage and screen.
Enjoy the full story!"
280 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1917
60 people are currently reading
648 people want to read
About the author
Edna Ferber
282 books286 followersEdna Ferber was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels were popular in her lifetime and included the Pulitzer Prize-winning So Big (1924), Show Boat (1926; made into the celebrated 1927 musical), Cimarron (1929; made into the 1931 film which won the Academy Award for Best Picture), and Giant (1952; made into the 1956 Hollywood movie).
Ferber was born August 15, 1885, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to a Hungarian-born Jewish storekeeper, Jacob Charles Ferber, and his Milwaukee, Wisconsin-born wife, Julia (Neumann) Ferber. At the age of 12, after living in Chicago, Illinois and Ottumwa, Iowa, Ferber and her family moved to Appleton, Wisconsin, where she graduated from high school and briefly attended Lawrence University. She took newspaper jobs at the Appleton Daily Crescent and the Milwaukee Journal before publishing her first novel. She covered the 1920 Republican National Convention and 1920 Democratic National Convention for the United Press Association.
Ferber's novels generally featured strong female protagonists, along with a rich and diverse collection of supporting characters. She usually highlighted at least one strong secondary character who faced discrimination ethnically or for other reasons; through this technique, Ferber demonstrated her belief that people are people and that the not-so-pretty people have the best character.
Ferber was a member of the Algonquin Round Table, a group of wits who met for lunch every day at the Algonquin Hotel in New York.
Ferber was born August 15, 1885, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to a Hungarian-born Jewish storekeeper, Jacob Charles Ferber, and his Milwaukee, Wisconsin-born wife, Julia (Neumann) Ferber. At the age of 12, after living in Chicago, Illinois and Ottumwa, Iowa, Ferber and her family moved to Appleton, Wisconsin, where she graduated from high school and briefly attended Lawrence University. She took newspaper jobs at the Appleton Daily Crescent and the Milwaukee Journal before publishing her first novel. She covered the 1920 Republican National Convention and 1920 Democratic National Convention for the United Press Association.
Ferber's novels generally featured strong female protagonists, along with a rich and diverse collection of supporting characters. She usually highlighted at least one strong secondary character who faced discrimination ethnically or for other reasons; through this technique, Ferber demonstrated her belief that people are people and that the not-so-pretty people have the best character.
Ferber was a member of the Algonquin Round Table, a group of wits who met for lunch every day at the Algonquin Hotel in New York.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews
March 1, 2017
I would love to write a glowing, insightful, eloquent review of this somewhat autobiographical 1917 novel by Edna Ferber, but I know that the best I can do is to say I adored the book and love the author. I have now read all Ferber titles available at Project Gutenberg but I will definitely be starting the list over again Someday.
Fanny Brandeis grew up in Winnebago, Wisconsin. Her parents (like Ferber's) ran a general store in town and when Mr. B dies, Fanny's mother Molly takes over control of the business and makes it more of a success than it had ever been. Fanny's brother Theodore, a talented violinist, has a chance to study in Europe, but Mrs. B knows it will mean denying herself and Fanny nearly everything except basic needs. Fanny insists that she understands and accepts the situation, and on the surface it seems she does. But when Mother dies, what does Fanny do? How will she cope? Will she continue running the store or will she leave town and make her own way in the world in a fashion which will guarantee that Fanny comes first at last? How will she grow into the person she was meant to be....who is that person....does Fanny herself even know?
I miss Fanny already. She seemed so real. I could understand so many of the issues in her life, and her battles with them. I could easily see Ferber herself struggling in the same way; maybe every woman does on some level. Be true to who we are, or be what society expects of us....that is too often the question.
Fanny Brandeis grew up in Winnebago, Wisconsin. Her parents (like Ferber's) ran a general store in town and when Mr. B dies, Fanny's mother Molly takes over control of the business and makes it more of a success than it had ever been. Fanny's brother Theodore, a talented violinist, has a chance to study in Europe, but Mrs. B knows it will mean denying herself and Fanny nearly everything except basic needs. Fanny insists that she understands and accepts the situation, and on the surface it seems she does. But when Mother dies, what does Fanny do? How will she cope? Will she continue running the store or will she leave town and make her own way in the world in a fashion which will guarantee that Fanny comes first at last? How will she grow into the person she was meant to be....who is that person....does Fanny herself even know?
I miss Fanny already. She seemed so real. I could understand so many of the issues in her life, and her battles with them. I could easily see Ferber herself struggling in the same way; maybe every woman does on some level. Be true to who we are, or be what society expects of us....that is too often the question.
May 7, 2020
What a find! There are terms, phrases and themes in this book that are not politically correct in today's age. And that's okay! You don't have to be a die-hard feminist to relate to this story. You don't have to agree with socialism, or capitalism to relate to this story. You don't have to be Jewish or approve of how this family lives their Judaism to relate to this story. I think we all are multidimensional; and like Fanny, can't be pigeonholed with labels.
I enjoyed the descriptive writing, the "old fashioned" style. I got the ending I was hoping for...I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't know this powerhouse, this Jewish author that created some of the most memorable stories and movies for Hollywood.
I enjoyed the descriptive writing, the "old fashioned" style. I got the ending I was hoping for...I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't know this powerhouse, this Jewish author that created some of the most memorable stories and movies for Hollywood.
January 13, 2024
“It is the penalty they pay who, given genius, sympathy, and understanding as their birthright, trade them for the tawdry trinkets money brings.”
Fanny Brandeis, “a strange mixture of tomboy and bookworm,” grows up in Brandeis’ Bazaar, her mother’s general/novelty store in the small town of Winnebago, Wisconsin. Fanny’s family is Jewish. She is smart, tolerant, reads Dickens and Zola, is an artist, but is also willing to get into street fights with boys who pick on other kids: “She kicked, and scratched, and bit, and clawed, and spat.” Her mother, Molly Brandeis, is confident and has a strong personality, but faces an uphill struggle in running the store while taking care of her family.
“But here was a woman gently bred, untrained in business, left widowed with two children at thirty-eight, and worse than penniless—in debt.”
Fanny and her mother must sacrifice to support her brother who is a gifted violinist; he leaves them to train and play in Europe. Back in small-town Wisconsin, the lives of Fanny and her mother are “bounded and controlled by the store,” which increasingly must compete with the mail-order business. And all of this takes place in a time when the business world and society at large are both dominated by traditional gender norms.
“Now, as a rule, I never employ a woman when I can use a man.”
A tragedy in Fanny’s life becomes a turning point, pushing her to move to a big city, Chicago, and to become something (“deliberately selfish [and] calculatingly ambitious”) that is not reflective of who she is as a person, but for which she has unparalleled talent. To succeed at it, she must only forfeit her heart, her herself, and her people.
“She would make something of herself. It was a worldly, selfish resolve, born of a bitter sorrow, and ambition, and resentment.”
Edna Ferber can write! This is a wonderful read. The characters are great. The story is solid—it is sharp and analytical in places, but heartwarming in others. And there is humor:
“If you want the Jane Austen thing I’ll accommodate. I’ll drop my handkerchief, gloves, bag, flowers and fur scarf at intervals of five minutes all the way downtown. Then you may scramble around on the floor of the cab and feel like a knight.”
Other Memorable Quotes:
“Oh, I read. I’m free to pick my book friends, at least.”
“There is something about a small town that holds you. Your life is so intimately interwoven with that of your neighbor.”
“In grubbing for the pot of gold she almost missed the rainbow.”
“It is only the strong who can be silent when in doubt.”
“And the creative fire requires fuel.”
“When that time comes get on a train for Denver. From Denver take another to Estes Park. That’s the Rocky Mountains, and they’re your destination, because that’s where the horizon lives and has its being.”
“And the mountains are there … to make you clean and whole again.”
“And analysis is death to romance.”
“To justify one’s own existence. That was all that life held or meant.”
Fanny Brandeis, “a strange mixture of tomboy and bookworm,” grows up in Brandeis’ Bazaar, her mother’s general/novelty store in the small town of Winnebago, Wisconsin. Fanny’s family is Jewish. She is smart, tolerant, reads Dickens and Zola, is an artist, but is also willing to get into street fights with boys who pick on other kids: “She kicked, and scratched, and bit, and clawed, and spat.” Her mother, Molly Brandeis, is confident and has a strong personality, but faces an uphill struggle in running the store while taking care of her family.
“But here was a woman gently bred, untrained in business, left widowed with two children at thirty-eight, and worse than penniless—in debt.”
Fanny and her mother must sacrifice to support her brother who is a gifted violinist; he leaves them to train and play in Europe. Back in small-town Wisconsin, the lives of Fanny and her mother are “bounded and controlled by the store,” which increasingly must compete with the mail-order business. And all of this takes place in a time when the business world and society at large are both dominated by traditional gender norms.
“Now, as a rule, I never employ a woman when I can use a man.”
A tragedy in Fanny’s life becomes a turning point, pushing her to move to a big city, Chicago, and to become something (“deliberately selfish [and] calculatingly ambitious”) that is not reflective of who she is as a person, but for which she has unparalleled talent. To succeed at it, she must only forfeit her heart, her herself, and her people.
“She would make something of herself. It was a worldly, selfish resolve, born of a bitter sorrow, and ambition, and resentment.”
Edna Ferber can write! This is a wonderful read. The characters are great. The story is solid—it is sharp and analytical in places, but heartwarming in others. And there is humor:
“If you want the Jane Austen thing I’ll accommodate. I’ll drop my handkerchief, gloves, bag, flowers and fur scarf at intervals of five minutes all the way downtown. Then you may scramble around on the floor of the cab and feel like a knight.”
Other Memorable Quotes:
“Oh, I read. I’m free to pick my book friends, at least.”
“There is something about a small town that holds you. Your life is so intimately interwoven with that of your neighbor.”
“In grubbing for the pot of gold she almost missed the rainbow.”
“It is only the strong who can be silent when in doubt.”
“And the creative fire requires fuel.”
“When that time comes get on a train for Denver. From Denver take another to Estes Park. That’s the Rocky Mountains, and they’re your destination, because that’s where the horizon lives and has its being.”
“And the mountains are there … to make you clean and whole again.”
“And analysis is death to romance.”
“To justify one’s own existence. That was all that life held or meant.”
February 9, 2014
One of the Great Novels of American Business
Edna Ferber's classic novel "Fanny Herself" is many things. It is a "semi-autobiographical" novel about a young girl growing up in Appleton Wisconsin in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century. It is loosely based on episodes from her own life, and other family members. Her older sister was named Fannie, and was the author of a famous cookbook titled "Fannie Fox's Cookbook". In her autobiography "A Peculiar Treasure" Ferber even quotes several episodes from this book saying that the account cannot be improved upon.
But this is also a novel about religious tolerance and the culture of the midwest during this period of history. Ferber is an acute, humorous, and precise observer of culture and behavior. Her eye for detail, and her ear for dialogue are apparent in the many plays and movies which she wrote. Her observations of the pleasures of growing up as a bright, curious, and Jewish girl in small town Wisconsin are both revealing, and amusing.
Ferber also writes tellingly of the dynamics of her family, a father who could not work, and had no business instincts; a mother who was proud, capable, and competent, unafraid of taking risks, and a sibling for whom much was sacrificed.
Perhaps the most interesting story in this novel evolves after Fanny leaves home and goes to work for a new, rapidly expanding, mail order catalog company based in Chicago. A thinly disquised version of the new and explosive company subsequently called Sears and Roebuck. Although this part of the story is fiction, the descriptions of Sears, how it operates, how it changed American business, it's management, and it's methods are excellent. As with her famous Emma McChesney stories, Ferber is able to capture the essence of business transactions as interpersonal relationships in a way that no other author has done. Ferber wrote about businesses all over the United States, from the riverboat business of Showboat, to the oil business of Giant! Her novels are extensively rooted in the growth and challenges of business owners, workers and customers.
One of the great scenes of the novel is the description of a Suffragette parade in New York in the years before WW1. It brings into sharp focus the feelings of women who were unable to vote, even as they expanded their roles into all other areas of society.
This novel is a great place to start for anyone who has not read Ferber. It has many of the themes and even some of the characters of her other work. Highly recommended.
Edna Ferber's classic novel "Fanny Herself" is many things. It is a "semi-autobiographical" novel about a young girl growing up in Appleton Wisconsin in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century. It is loosely based on episodes from her own life, and other family members. Her older sister was named Fannie, and was the author of a famous cookbook titled "Fannie Fox's Cookbook". In her autobiography "A Peculiar Treasure" Ferber even quotes several episodes from this book saying that the account cannot be improved upon.
But this is also a novel about religious tolerance and the culture of the midwest during this period of history. Ferber is an acute, humorous, and precise observer of culture and behavior. Her eye for detail, and her ear for dialogue are apparent in the many plays and movies which she wrote. Her observations of the pleasures of growing up as a bright, curious, and Jewish girl in small town Wisconsin are both revealing, and amusing.
Ferber also writes tellingly of the dynamics of her family, a father who could not work, and had no business instincts; a mother who was proud, capable, and competent, unafraid of taking risks, and a sibling for whom much was sacrificed.
Perhaps the most interesting story in this novel evolves after Fanny leaves home and goes to work for a new, rapidly expanding, mail order catalog company based in Chicago. A thinly disquised version of the new and explosive company subsequently called Sears and Roebuck. Although this part of the story is fiction, the descriptions of Sears, how it operates, how it changed American business, it's management, and it's methods are excellent. As with her famous Emma McChesney stories, Ferber is able to capture the essence of business transactions as interpersonal relationships in a way that no other author has done. Ferber wrote about businesses all over the United States, from the riverboat business of Showboat, to the oil business of Giant! Her novels are extensively rooted in the growth and challenges of business owners, workers and customers.
One of the great scenes of the novel is the description of a Suffragette parade in New York in the years before WW1. It brings into sharp focus the feelings of women who were unable to vote, even as they expanded their roles into all other areas of society.
This novel is a great place to start for anyone who has not read Ferber. It has many of the themes and even some of the characters of her other work. Highly recommended.
August 2, 2011
It's hard to rate this one. It's an early feminist novel in which the main character is also one of the few Jewish people in her small town in Wisconsin. It is certainly a novel of it's time - 1917. The main character, Fanny, has a very successful business career, but a difficult personal life. It's not the best novel ever, but it is interesting subject matter and does a good job with the main character.
October 7, 2013
This is the first Ferber book I've read. I think I've missed something good, perhaps! Almost 100 years old, this book, but surprisingly modern in parts. Of course, there's a lot of silly philosophy that we would now laugh at or be terribly insulted by, but all in all, impressive.
February 12, 2023
Vague Spoilers
Gosh, I don’t like to give 1 star but 1 star does mean “didn't like it” and I didn't like this book.
Fanny Herself tells the story of Fanny Brandeis, a young Jewish woman living in the early 20th century. As a girl, Fanny watches her mother run a local business in her small Wisconsin hometown. As a woman, Fanny moves to Chicago and becomes a businesswoman. And not just any business woman - she is the business world’s version of Superwoman! Everything she does at work is perfect, glorious, and brings big bucks. This is the first point of the story that gets on my nerves. Does Fanny ever make a mistake? Feel unsure? No. She does no wrong at work. I understand the story was supposed be inspirational for women who wanted to enter the work force at the time the novel was written but it paints a false portrait for readers; everything about Fanny’s work life runs too swimmingly to be true! She is always amazing, gifted, and assured, with impeccable clothes, pay raises, and lake view apartments. The story would have been far more engaging and believable to me had I seen Fanny facing some trials at work such as, I don’t know, maybe having to ask for a raise? Or something. Anything! Even talented people have slip ups sometimes. Fanny's effortless success makes the book (and Fanny) seem predictable and unrealistic.
Then Fanny has this childhood friend, Clarence, who has also moved to Chicago. Clarence is all the time telling Fanny that she is an artist at heart and that it is a disgrace “to her race” (meaning the Jewish people) that she doesn’t do something artistic and work with her heart. It has potential to be an inspirational (if trite) idea. “Young workaholic works with head but loses heart. Friend/potential suitor helps find heart.” Sweet. The whole thing is so contrived, however, that it’s just a big eye-roller. There is actually a section where the author tells us that Fanny is not working with her heart and goes on to explain to the reader in most elementary terms that she doesn’t mean the type of heart that is an organ but the type that refers to emotions. She gives definitions! It struck me as silly.
There were some parts about women’s suffrage and Fanny’s violinist brother that engaged me enough to keep turning pages but even those parts didn’t make me enjoy the book. I just kept wishing the book was about the violinist brother instead of Fanny. I just didn’t like Fanny, Fanny whose first thought when there was talk of war was that she wouldn’t be able to get her merchandise from Europe. Eye-roll! But, of course, Fanny’s boss likes her. He loves her. And did I mention he’s married? Yuck. It just wasn’t for me.
Gosh, I don’t like to give 1 star but 1 star does mean “didn't like it” and I didn't like this book.
Fanny Herself tells the story of Fanny Brandeis, a young Jewish woman living in the early 20th century. As a girl, Fanny watches her mother run a local business in her small Wisconsin hometown. As a woman, Fanny moves to Chicago and becomes a businesswoman. And not just any business woman - she is the business world’s version of Superwoman! Everything she does at work is perfect, glorious, and brings big bucks. This is the first point of the story that gets on my nerves. Does Fanny ever make a mistake? Feel unsure? No. She does no wrong at work. I understand the story was supposed be inspirational for women who wanted to enter the work force at the time the novel was written but it paints a false portrait for readers; everything about Fanny’s work life runs too swimmingly to be true! She is always amazing, gifted, and assured, with impeccable clothes, pay raises, and lake view apartments. The story would have been far more engaging and believable to me had I seen Fanny facing some trials at work such as, I don’t know, maybe having to ask for a raise? Or something. Anything! Even talented people have slip ups sometimes. Fanny's effortless success makes the book (and Fanny) seem predictable and unrealistic.
Then Fanny has this childhood friend, Clarence, who has also moved to Chicago. Clarence is all the time telling Fanny that she is an artist at heart and that it is a disgrace “to her race” (meaning the Jewish people) that she doesn’t do something artistic and work with her heart. It has potential to be an inspirational (if trite) idea. “Young workaholic works with head but loses heart. Friend/potential suitor helps find heart.” Sweet. The whole thing is so contrived, however, that it’s just a big eye-roller. There is actually a section where the author tells us that Fanny is not working with her heart and goes on to explain to the reader in most elementary terms that she doesn’t mean the type of heart that is an organ but the type that refers to emotions. She gives definitions! It struck me as silly.
There were some parts about women’s suffrage and Fanny’s violinist brother that engaged me enough to keep turning pages but even those parts didn’t make me enjoy the book. I just kept wishing the book was about the violinist brother instead of Fanny. I just didn’t like Fanny, Fanny whose first thought when there was talk of war was that she wouldn’t be able to get her merchandise from Europe. Eye-roll! But, of course, Fanny’s boss likes her. He loves her. And did I mention he’s married? Yuck. It just wasn’t for me.
December 5, 2012
“To thine own self be true” a quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet can best describe the gist of this book. Fanny Herself by Edna Ferber (1887-1968) is a surprisingly engrossing and interesting narrative about a young Jewish girl growing up in a small Wisconsin town. The story was first published in 1917 and covers about ten years in the life of Fanny Brandeis. After her father dies, her mother struggles to make a living and a life in a local retail store. She sees her son’s potential to be violin virtuosi and both girl and mother sacrifice almost everything to accomplish this goal. After her mother’s death, Fanny moves to Chicago and becomes a successful buyer at a large mail-order house. I found it a moving and inspiring tale about a girl driven by desire and vision turning eventually into an autonomous powerhouse to eventually become a complete woman. I suppose Fanny’s love of books and reading endeared her to me on a personal level. This is my first introduction to the works of the Pulitzer Prize winning Edna Farber but it won’t be my last. As the author of more than thirty novels and short stories, I will have lots to choose from. Although this book would probably appeal more to women than men, I highly recommend it to all.
May 19, 2008
I love Edna Ferber's work because she offers such a detailed look at her characters, and also succeeds in capturing a moment in time, place and history. The ending took quite a leap, for me (although the romantic in me secretly loved it) but overall I really enjoyed the book. Also read So Big...probably her best.
September 19, 2016
I loved it! So timeless and wonderful and charming! It was modern and nostalgic, all at the same time. I can't believe I haven't heard of her before.
I loved it! So timeless and wonderful and charming. It was modern and nostalgic, all at the same time. I can 't believe I haven't heard of her before. Great way to break in my new kindle fire☺
I loved it! So timeless and wonderful and charming. It was modern and nostalgic, all at the same time. I can 't believe I haven't heard of her before. Great way to break in my new kindle fire☺
May 20, 2016
This was heading for a certain five stars right up till the last chapter. It just turned a little too twee at the end - more like a woman's magazine serial than a serious novel. But like a sloppy serial, it's a super read. And free on PG!
June 8, 2012
I loved the story of Fanny and her mom Molly. I loved Fanny's transition to adulthood. Ferber's writing is crisp and fun. The omnipresent narrator that talks directly to the reader is a nice touch -- not often done. And yet -- I wanted something more. The end was lacking. The narrator promised and didn't deliver the remainder of the story of Fanny. For a book I was in which I was thoroughly engrossed (to the point of nearly missing my stop on the Metro), I can't help but be disappointed.
November 5, 2021
I'm never really sure what to expect when I start reading an Edna Ferber book. She so often creates something thought-provoking and slightly strange from such simple premises. Fanny Herself is one of her more conventional stories, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It has a similar theme to So Big, but has a simpler structure and is slightly more plot-driven than character-driven. The characters are still memorable though, and the ending is satisfying(though a bit over-convenient). And Edna Ferber's inventive prose is present in full force:
"A jeweler's window holds square blobs of emeralds, on velvet, and perhaps a gold mesh bag, sprawling limp and invertebrate, or a diamond and platinum la valliere, chastely barbaric."
Fanny Herself is a highly accessible book about staying true to oneself, enhanced by warm, likable characters and beautiful writing. If you prefer simpler stories and have never ventured into Ferber's work before, Fanny Herself may be a good place to start.
"A jeweler's window holds square blobs of emeralds, on velvet, and perhaps a gold mesh bag, sprawling limp and invertebrate, or a diamond and platinum la valliere, chastely barbaric."
Fanny Herself is a highly accessible book about staying true to oneself, enhanced by warm, likable characters and beautiful writing. If you prefer simpler stories and have never ventured into Ferber's work before, Fanny Herself may be a good place to start.
September 28, 2025
big fan(ny)
July 30, 2021
Delightful book about a small town America Jewish girl who has to make her way in the world. I would recommend this to people who enjoyed A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith and Louisa May Alcott's works.
September 16, 2025
I enjoyed Fanny’s character. She had the gift of rightly “seeing” people. My pastor recently spoke about right hearing, related to God’s Word, of course. This made me reflect on Fanny’s right seeing of someone both within their circumstances and outside their circumstances. However, seeing herself was not so easy.
March 8, 2024
4.5 stars. So far I tend to like Ferber's earlier work best, and this novel fits that trend. I'm sure I'll be reading it again so perhaps I will manage a proper review at some point.
November 9, 2016
Fanny Herself by Edna Ferber *****
From the adorable preface to the perhaps unnecessary and trite but adventurous and romantic conclusion, Fanny Herself was a delight. Motherly love and sacrifice, loyalty to yourself and your heritage, selfishness vs. altruism, grit, and the healing power of nature are some of the themes included in Fanny’s journey to find a successful life (the definition of which she learns to be different than she expected) that really gripped me. I enjoyed the concept that it has taken thousands of years to create every person’s personality and skills.
Fanny: I’ll prove to you that my ancestors’ religion doesn’t influence my work, or my play.”
Heyl: Dear, you can’t prove that, because the contrary has been proven long ago. You yourself proved it when you did that sketch of the old fish vender in the Ghetto. The one with the beard. It took a thousand years of suffering and persecution and faith to stamp that look on his face, and it took a thousand years to breed in you the genius to see it, and put it down on paper…”
From the adorable preface to the perhaps unnecessary and trite but adventurous and romantic conclusion, Fanny Herself was a delight. Motherly love and sacrifice, loyalty to yourself and your heritage, selfishness vs. altruism, grit, and the healing power of nature are some of the themes included in Fanny’s journey to find a successful life (the definition of which she learns to be different than she expected) that really gripped me. I enjoyed the concept that it has taken thousands of years to create every person’s personality and skills.
Fanny: I’ll prove to you that my ancestors’ religion doesn’t influence my work, or my play.”
Heyl: Dear, you can’t prove that, because the contrary has been proven long ago. You yourself proved it when you did that sketch of the old fish vender in the Ghetto. The one with the beard. It took a thousand years of suffering and persecution and faith to stamp that look on his face, and it took a thousand years to breed in you the genius to see it, and put it down on paper…”
Read
August 5, 2011The advice to all writers is usually "write what you know." So I was surprised that Ferber's most autobiographical novel wasn't my favorite of hers. Some elements work beautifully. Her stories of growing up Jewish in a small town are wonderful; the character of her mother - a strong woman making the best of a difficult life - was memorable; and Fanny's ability to create an impressive career in a man's world was very ahead of its time. What kept the book from becoming one of my favorites was the introduction of a childhood friend who seemed more like a paragon of perfection than a person, and when Fanny changes direction at his behest, I was more annoyed than inspired. Still, Ferber, not at her best, works very well for me.
July 2, 2012
My first Edna Ferber book and I really enjoyed it. Her characters are so well-drawn and amazingly modern (written in 1917). Fanny Brandeis is a Jewish girl from a small town in Wisconsin with big dreams - semi-autobiographical as I understand it. Fun witty writing. I'll be checking out more from the Pulitzer Prize winning Ferber.
September 8, 2010
One of Ferber's better novels, I think - the story of the life of Fanny Brandeis. It's a longer story, following Fanny as a child and to her adult years. I quite enjoyed it...it's a lovely, comfortable book.
May 31, 2012
Though this may not be one of Edna's famous novels, it really impressed me. Fanny is a great character, a strong female like all the rest of Edna Ferber's women, but on a deeper level, it seems. Very much enjoyed Fanny Herself.
August 4, 2014
Unique, charming story of a Jewish girl growing up in Wisconsin and then making her way in the world. Interesting views of the workings of a mail order house very similar to Sears and Roebuck. Good salt-of-the-earth characters.
January 1, 2025
What fun to finally read a book by Edna Ferber. The expressions, vocabulary, culture, clothing, etc. of the period added to the enjoyment. The use of authorial intrusion was fairly frequent, and I loved it.
August 8, 2011
Very much fun to read this novel from the early part of the last century.
Was this Edna Ferber's first novel? It may have been.
If so, she started out strong.
Was this Edna Ferber's first novel? It may have been.
If so, she started out strong.
August 19, 2011
LibriVox download a very enjoyable book read delightfully by J. M. Smallheer. I'm going to listen to more Ferber for sure. In fact I have decided to record 3 of her books on LibriVox.
May 24, 2012
Interesting plot -- young Jewish woman raised in a small midwestern town by a bad-ass widowed mom -- and an evocative picture of early 20th-century America. Very entertaining feminist novel.
July 6, 2012
Loved this book. Edna Ferber was way ahead of her time in thinking. Delightful characters and a fun look at life a century ago.
February 14, 2014
Books of the Century challenge. Loveddd this book. I have to read more Edna Ferber. I think this was published in 1917.
April 27, 2023
i LOVED this book, LOVED it!
it is fun and entertaining and tastes almost as good as Edna Ferber's first novel, Dawn O'Hara, with all those descriptions of german pastries! (there's less pastries here, but plenty of other dishes are described...)
what did i love so much? edna ferber's clear-sighted and beautifully articulated views on the gendered social world of the early 20th century US middle class, which come through the behaviors of gender non-conforming women, and this non-conformity does not come donned in the wearing of men's clothes or the adoption of masculine gaits, identities, names, or whatever... no, these women say, i will have to work "as a man" and they go ahead and do it. but they're not "girl-bosses", they're not assholes, they're not bitter, they're not... they're not... they're just trying to be persons. And the men in the novels are also trying to be persons. edna ferber sees persons who struggle because their personhood overwhelms the gender molds set out for them, and these persons change the world by being persons who refuse to conform and set out to DO stuff. NOT TO BE STUFF. they're not living inside their minds, disembodied and blinded by their own inner light, they are living in the world and they know it...
but that's not it, that's not even 10% of it... this book is just... it's like a Trollope novel. every character is a person and every person is real and you get to know them so well that they are forever part of your own self after you're done. and like Trollope, edna ferber has not lasted as a beloved and widely read author after her death, because she wrote "bestseller" type novels: she wrote for a living and she wanted her books to sell and to be read widely. she is not Virginia Woolf (and i LOVE virginia woolf, i mean, whoa), she does not write that kind of literature, she writes novels, she writes "good reads". but not "bestseller types", if by that you mean, um, the Da Vinci code or that genre everyone reads now, the, um, you know, noir crime novels... no, she wrote books that sold and were widely read because they keep you company, and make you think, really Think, and realize stuff, all the while keeping you entertained...
AND OMG, if you ever lived in Wisconsin and Chicago, this book is just, chockful of things that will make you nostalgic, so that helped, too... and you learn so much about what it was like to be jewish in the midwest small-town, which i think is something that i had never read about at all, not in a "matter-of-fact" way in a novel, in any case (i mean, it's one thing to read about anti-semitism, it is another to read a book featuring a jewish family and a jewish community in Winnebago, and read about their lives as regular people, but also, not regular people because they are separate, and seen as separate...)
finally, THE MAIL ORDER BUSINESS!!!!!!!!!!!!! her descriptions of the labor issues in the mail-order business in Chicago are so reminiscent of Amazon that it is uncanny!
it is fun and entertaining and tastes almost as good as Edna Ferber's first novel, Dawn O'Hara, with all those descriptions of german pastries! (there's less pastries here, but plenty of other dishes are described...)
what did i love so much? edna ferber's clear-sighted and beautifully articulated views on the gendered social world of the early 20th century US middle class, which come through the behaviors of gender non-conforming women, and this non-conformity does not come donned in the wearing of men's clothes or the adoption of masculine gaits, identities, names, or whatever... no, these women say, i will have to work "as a man" and they go ahead and do it. but they're not "girl-bosses", they're not assholes, they're not bitter, they're not... they're not... they're just trying to be persons. And the men in the novels are also trying to be persons. edna ferber sees persons who struggle because their personhood overwhelms the gender molds set out for them, and these persons change the world by being persons who refuse to conform and set out to DO stuff. NOT TO BE STUFF. they're not living inside their minds, disembodied and blinded by their own inner light, they are living in the world and they know it...
but that's not it, that's not even 10% of it... this book is just... it's like a Trollope novel. every character is a person and every person is real and you get to know them so well that they are forever part of your own self after you're done. and like Trollope, edna ferber has not lasted as a beloved and widely read author after her death, because she wrote "bestseller" type novels: she wrote for a living and she wanted her books to sell and to be read widely. she is not Virginia Woolf (and i LOVE virginia woolf, i mean, whoa), she does not write that kind of literature, she writes novels, she writes "good reads". but not "bestseller types", if by that you mean, um, the Da Vinci code or that genre everyone reads now, the, um, you know, noir crime novels... no, she wrote books that sold and were widely read because they keep you company, and make you think, really Think, and realize stuff, all the while keeping you entertained...
AND OMG, if you ever lived in Wisconsin and Chicago, this book is just, chockful of things that will make you nostalgic, so that helped, too... and you learn so much about what it was like to be jewish in the midwest small-town, which i think is something that i had never read about at all, not in a "matter-of-fact" way in a novel, in any case (i mean, it's one thing to read about anti-semitism, it is another to read a book featuring a jewish family and a jewish community in Winnebago, and read about their lives as regular people, but also, not regular people because they are separate, and seen as separate...)
finally, THE MAIL ORDER BUSINESS!!!!!!!!!!!!! her descriptions of the labor issues in the mail-order business in Chicago are so reminiscent of Amazon that it is uncanny!
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