The Harvester
Written by Gene Stratton-Porter
Narrated by Mary Starkey
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
The Harvester is the story of David Langston, a solitary young man who harvests and sells medicinal herbs which he collects from his forested lands. He believes he needs nothing more than his work, his simple cabin and his trusty dog for companionship...that is until a hauntingly beautiful and demure vision visits him, and suddenly, he knows that it is the woman of his dreams. At that moment he realizes how truly lonely he has been, and that it is possible that a woman could share his home among the wild plants and herbs he collects...but first he must find this woman in his vision, and win her.
Gene Stratton-Porter
Gene Stratton-Porter (1863-1924) was an American author, photographer, and naturalist. Born in Indiana, she was raised in a family of eleven children. In 1874, she moved with her parents to Wabash, Indiana, where her mother would die in 1875. When she wasn’t studying literature, music, and art at school and with tutors, Stratton-Porter developed her interest in nature by spending much of her time outdoors. In 1885, after a year-long courtship, she became engaged to druggist Charles Dorwin Porter, with whom she would have a daughter. She soon grew tired of traditional family life, however, and dedicated herself to writing by 1895. At their cabin in Indiana, she conducted lengthy studies of the natural world, focusing on birds and ecology. She published her stories, essays, and photographs in Outing, Metropolitan, and Good Housekeeping before embarking on a career as a novelist. Freckles (1904) and A Girl of the Limberlost (1909) were both immediate bestsellers, entertaining countless readers with their stories of youth, romance, and survival. Much of her works, fiction and nonfiction, are set in Indiana’s Limberlost Swamp, a vital wetland connected to the Wabash River. As the twentieth century progressed, the swamp was drained and cultivated as farmland, making Stratton-Porter’s depictions a vital resource for remembering and celebrating the region. Over the past several decades, however, thousands of acres of the wetland have been restored, marking the return of countless species to the Limberlost, which for Stratton-Porter was always “a word with which to conjure; a spot wherein to revel.”
More audiobooks from Gene Stratton Porter
Freckles Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Song of the Cardinal Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to The Harvester
Related audiobooks
Freckles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5At The Foot Of The Rainbow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Moths of the Limberlost Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Harvester Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Michael O'Halloran Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Laddie: A True Blue Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Laddie Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Girl of the Limberlost Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Shepherd of Hills Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Story Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jane of Lantern Hill Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Calling Of Dan Matthews Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Under the Lilacs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Emily Climbs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Golden Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Riders of the Pony Express Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Old-Fashioned Girl (version 2) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Emily of New Moon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Penrod and Sam Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rilla of Ingleside Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Emily's Quest Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Patty Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Come On, Seabiscuit! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jerry Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Millionaire's Proposal (Unabridged) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eight Cousins Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Christy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Four-Pools Mystery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMary Emma and Company Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Classics For You
The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Perks of Being a Wallflower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Picture of Dorian Gray: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Complete Sherlock Holmes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Their Eyes Were Watching God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Clockwork Orange Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fountainhead Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad: A New Translation by Caroline Alexander Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frankenstein Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers in the Attic: 40th Anniversary Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pride and Prejudice: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Kill a Mockingbird Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Crucible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Series of Unfortunate Events #1 Multi-Voice, A: The Bad Beginning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/520,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5War & Peace - Volume I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Schindler's List Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Thousand Ships: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emma: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Atlas Shrugged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Tale of Two Cities Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gone With The Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5White Noise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For Whom the Bell Tolls Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Harvester
79 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wow. This one starts as a romance, instead of starting as a nature story and growing a romance later - the nature parts are nicely intertwined with the romance. It's truly wonderful - for all the Cinderella aspects. And since the reader has been with him since he fell in love, we can see it from his side with no Cinderella to it at all...Love it. Lots of twists and turns - seems like he keeps bringing men to the house for her to choose from. But a proper happy ending, despite the misunderstandings right near the end. Best Stratton-Porter book yet.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I last read this book probably at least 35 years ago, and was surprised at how much I still love it. I read it tonight on Google Books because my Grandma's copy of this is packed away somewhere in my parent's attic. This story, of a very Thoreau-ish young man who lives in the country on 600 acres devoted to medicinal plants and herbs, manages to strike a melancholic note without meaning to. Even a hundred years ago he was on a mission to preserve the disappearing flora from the Indiana country side that had been used in traditional and western medicine. I couldn't help but feel how much more we've probably lost in the hundred years since this book was written.The prose is over-wrought by today's standards, but the story of the plants and the noble man behind their cultivation, and his lovely pure-hearted romance of the delicate and sickly young woman that he comes to love still managed to tug at my heart.It's just a beautiful story and you can't help wishing that there were more men today like David Langston, the Harvester.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gene Stratton-Porter was fond of writing romantic novels with settings that emphasized the wonders and beauty of nature. The Harvester is one of her most successful works. Like Freckles and A Girl of the Limberlost it is set near the fictional Indiana town of Onabasha in 1910. David Langston lives alone in a small cabin on the land where he has established America's only farm devoted to growing wild medicinal plants in their ideal natural conditions. Raised by his mother after his father's death, Langston has spent his life in an effort to be honest, manly, and "clean" (Stratton-Porter's code word for sexual abstinence). Each year he leaves it to his dog to decide whether he should stay on his land, or go to Onabasha to look for a wife, and every year the dog indicates the land is best--until this year. The Harvester is unwilling to change his lifestyle until the night he experiences a wonderful vision of his perfect woman, decides he can't live without her, and begins his search. When he does find her, he also finds that love is a harder thing than he ever anticipated, and that he will need all his strength, courage, patience, and skill to win and to keep his mate. Set in idyllic surroundings, this is one of Stratton-Porter's best-written novels, and the Harvester himself is one of her most memorable characters.