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  1. Books
  2. Crime
  3. Noir crime

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The Ponder Heart

Originally published in The New Yorker in 1954, The Ponder Heart is easily Eudora Welty's most comic novel, a lighthearted burlesque that rivals Caldwell's Tobacco Road for capturing rural idioms, and the novels of Mark Twain for high farce. Edna Earle, a person of large distinction in Clay County, and the talkative owner of the Beulah Hotel, tells the story of her Uncle Daniel Ponder, a local hero whose over-affection for society compels him to give everything he owns away. The disappearance of Uncle Daniel's second wife, the waifish and willowy Bonnie Dee Peacock, leads to his arrest for murder. The trial, which comprises the second half of the novel, is a masterpiece of courtroom anarchy. A cast of Dickensian characters coupled with Edna's hysterically accurate observations of small-town life, transport the reader, like a raucous family drive, to a truly original conclusion.


Author:

  • Eudora Welty

Narrator:

  • Sally Darling

Format:

  • Audiobook

Duration:

  • 4 h 0 min

Language:

English

Categories:

  • Crime
  • Noir crime
  • Classics and poetry
  • Classics

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  • 4 books

    Eudora Welty

    Eudora Welty's long list of memorable novels and short stories includes A Curtain of Green, The Wide Net, The Golden Apples, The Bride of Innisfallen, Delta Wedding, The Ponder Heart, and Losing Battles. She was awarded the 1972 Pulitzer for Fiction for The Optimist's Daughter. Ms. Welty died in 2001 at the age of 92.

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