Fanny Herself: A Passionate Instinct

Written by Edna Ferber

Narrated by Karen Commins

Fanny Herself: A Passionate Instinct was originally published as a serialized story under the title Fanny Herself in The American Magazine from April to November 1917. Jewel Audiobooks is proud to present the first unabridged edition of this American classic!

The story revolves around Fanny Brandeis, starting with her childhood in Winnebago, WI, where her parents run a shop. After Fanny's father dies, her mother Molly must make extremely difficult choices about Fanny's and her brother Theodore's educations. These choices set the course for the entire family throughout their lives.

Rather than rely on dialogue to advance the plot, noted American author Edna Ferber is an exceptional storyteller who delights the listener with narrative.

Although the book is now 100 years old, it contains lessons that are still valuable. Like many of us, Fanny must decide whether to pursue wealth or follow her creative dreams. Can she be happy, and will she find love?

Author Edna Ferber won the Pultizer Prize for Novel in 1925 and may be best known for her book Show Boat, which was adapted into a successful and long-running musical.

Look for the companion Kindle ebook containing all of M. Leone Bracker's beautiful, hand-drawn illustrations that accompanied the 1917 magazine series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jewel Audiobooks
• Release date: Oct 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781509454938

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.