Indian Summer

By: William Dean Howells

Narrated by: Francis Reed

"Indian Summer" is an 1886 novel by William Dean Howells. Theodore Colville is a respected newspaperman in Des Vaches, Indiana. However, after a bad political move, his fans criticize him and his pride cannot withstand that. A concurrence is set up, and Colville decides to just give up the newspaper business. He sells his company to the new one. He feels he needs to take a long vacation, so he travels to Florence.

Colville hasn't been in Florence in almost 20 years. At that time he was a young architect, and Jenny Wheelwright broke his heart. In Florence he runs into a person he wasn’t eager to ever see again: Mrs. Bowen, whom he once knew as Lina Ridgely. She was best friends with Jenny. She is a widow and has a young daughter, Effie Bowen. They have a surprisingly pleasant chat and she invites him to a gathering at her home, Palazzo Pinti, that evening. He accepts the invitation...

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A Jamesian romance delivered by the perfect narrator

Francis Reed is perfectly cast as narrator for this 1885 romantic drama set among American expats in Florence, Italy. If you like Henry James and Edith Wharton chances are you’ll be charmed by this novel of William Dean Howells as well. Somewhat less sophisticated than Wharton but also less inscrutable than the James of Golden Bowl, it invites listening at long stretches, and the very formal manner and pronunciation of the narrator is absolutely appropriate for the content.