Edna Ferber: That's Marriage

Written by Edna Ferber

Narrated by philip chenevert

Edna Ferber observed people with the eye of a painter. She saw us clearly, much too clearly for what we are: humans with strange behaviors. Being a novelist with a way with words, she then proceeded to describe these strange behaviors in a way that was and still is, funny and painful because we recognize our silliness and oddness all too well. In this story she describes how a tiny mannerism in a husband can drive a loving wife to up one wall and down the other. And how, when she finally breaks after 4 years with this man whom she loves and hates at the same time, the man is left with a bewildered look on his face because, well, he didn't do anything and yet his sweet wife is screaming and dissolving into tears. Of course it works the other way too and husbands are driven to distraction by some small mannerism their wives do without thinking. Enjoy this delightful story and take a moment to reflect on the wonderful ability of humans to live with each other at all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Philip Chenevert
• Release date: Jan 29, 2024
• ISBN: 9798868788345

Edna Ferber

Edna Ferber (1885-1968) was an American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan to Jewish parents, Ferber was raised in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Economic hardship and antisemitism made their family a tight knit one as they moved constantly throughout Edna’s youth. At 17, she gave up her dream of studying to be an actor to support her family, finding work at the Appleton Daily Crescent and the Milwaukee Journal as a reporter. In 1911, while recovering from anemia, Ferber published her debut novel, Dawn O’Hara: The Girl Who Laughed, earning a reputation as a rising star in American literature. In 1925, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her novel So Big, which follows a young woman from a suburb of Chicago who takes a job as a teacher in a rural town. She followed up her critically acclaimed bestseller with the novel Show Boat (1926), which was adapted into a popular musical by Oscar Hammerstein and P. G. Wodehouse the year after its release. Several of her books became successful film and theater productions—So Big served as source material for a 1932 movie starring Barbara Stanwick, George Brent, and Bette Davis, which was remade in 1953 with Jane Wyman in the lead role. Ferber spent most of her life in New York City, where she became a member of the influential Algonquin Round Table group. In the leadup to the Second World War, Ferber supported President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was a fierce critic of Hitler and antisemitism around the world.