Wired Love: A Romance of Dots and Dashes

Written by Ella Cheever Thayer

Narrated by Rebecca H. Lee

Written in the 1800s by Ella Cheever Thayer, “Wired Love” became a best seller for ten years, and this blind love story is as relevant today in the age of online dating as it was during a time before the household telephone. Can two operators in distant telegraph offices find love through “the wire”? Will sparks fly? Find out in this sweet, farcical, and “wired” romance!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Audiobooks Unleashed
• Release date: Oct 23, 2020
• ISBN: 9781953250667

Reviews for Wired Love

[herenya_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have been meaning to read this for years. It is about Nattie, a telegraph operator who chats whenever she can “over the wire” with C., another telegraph operator miles down the line.I love stories where characters fall in love through exchanged messages. (Is there a simple title for this dynamic? Aside from calling it You’ve Got Mail-ish? I couldn’t find one on TVtropes. Is there an AO3 tag?) And the experiences of telegraph operators is absolutely fascinating -- simultaneously a product of the past and yet incredibly relatable from a contemporary perspective, because the internet and mobile phones mean we spend so much time communicating through text.I was a little disappointed that, after Nattie and Clem meet in real life, the focus shifts away from the telegraph office to antics at their boardinghouse. But the story continues to be fun and delightful. “Yes,” replied Nattie, "it's hard to make them believe sometimes that everything less than ten words is a stated price, and that we only charge per word after that number. And, speaking of ignorance, do you know I once actually had a letter brought me, all sealed, to be sent that way by telegraph. [...] and I had a young woman come in here once, who asked me to write the message for her, and after I had done so, in a somewhat hasty scrawl, she took it, looked it all over critically, dotted some 'i's,' and crossed some 't's,' I all the time staring, amazed, and wondering if she supposed I could not read my own hand-writing, then scowled and threw it down disgustedly saying, 'John never can read that! I shall have to write it myself. He knows my writing!'”“Can such things be!” cried Miss Archer.“But,” asked Quimby, from his uncomfortable perch on the edge of the chair, "Isn't there a—a something—a fac-simile arrangement?”“I believe there is, but it is not yet perfected,” replied Nattie.“Ah, well! then the young woman was only in advance of the age,” said Miss Archer; “and what with that and the telephone, and that dreadful phonograph that bottles up all one says and disgorges at inconvenient times, we will soon be able to do everything by electricity; who knows but some genius will invent something for the especial use of lovers? something, for instance, to carry in their pockets, so when they are far away from each other, and pine for a sound of 'that beloved voice,' they will have only to take up this electrical apparatus, put it to their ears, and be happy. Ah! blissful lovers of the future!”

[bravenewbks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Perhaps presaging the advent of internet dating, this is a lovely old-fashioned story about a telegraph operator who begins to fall in love with another telegraph operator -- though of course they've never met, they've only spoken to each other "on the wire."

If you are able to enjoy a late-1800s style of writing (I personally find it quite charming) and its accompanying social commentary, I highly recommend this book. Think of it as a Jane Austen novelette tackling the strangeness of getting to know people without having met them -- or, as the case may be, of forming a very complete picture of a stranger in your mind, then being faced with the reality.

[zeborah · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Long before the rise of the internet, this book deals with the joys and perils of falling in love sight unseen. The telegraphing was fun and the relationship sweet albeit rife with the paternalism of the time. Then follows some fairly trite and predictable Comedic Misunderstandings whose purpose is to make sure the story fills the length of a book.The two subplots have their own bewilderments: I'm perfectly happy for Cyn to devote herself to music but the trope of the woman who's been wronged in love therefore can never love more is... um okay. And Quimby is the very Puddleglum of romance. If he had *any* fondness or respect for Celeste it would seem a nice comedic pairing, but being too much of a wimp to extract himself from the trap just foretells a creeping doom and despair from their nuptials. Why would an author put something into a sweet book as light relief?!

[thatotter-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If this book had been written today, I would have found it dreadfully twee and affected. As it was written in 1880, I found it pretty delightful. The world needs more slice-of-life literature about 19th-century telegraph operators.