Fanny herself by Edna Ferber

  I like how she writes but this story kind of makes you angry, just a little bit since it’s not so far out there to read of a woman being taken advantage of, whether by family or friends or at work. But it also makes me wonder if the brother knew how much he was taking advantage of her generosity, or if he never thought about her struggle, he went away quite young, and I doubt they talked about it with him…

The book is well written, though.

Details:

Molly Brandeis is a widow with two children, Fanny and Theodore, and also with debts. She puts herself into her shop, she works hard, makes it going. When a famous violinist wants to send Theodore to Germany to study violin, they sacrifice a lot to send him money. 

She’s talented too, her drawings have life. She’s a strong character, she defended Clarence Heyl when some kids were bullying him. I think he got scared of her, thought she seemed a wildcat.

She keeps making sacrifices for years, she works and saves money, and with time Theodore only writes when he needs money. He even gets married, and Fanny is angry that now she has to support her too. 

The mother dies. Theodore doesn’t come back for his mother’s death, he only writes to tell her about the baby and ask for money.

Clarence is back, strong and successful because of her.

There’s a lot of stuff: she sells everything, a place where you can sell by mail, a success, her boss is ‘after’ her, workers have a low pay, the suffragettes, one of her drawings in the papers…

Theo comes back and says that he suffered because the Europeans are very critical and his wife wanted money and cheated on him with another man, but he wants her still and Fanny feels sorry for him… so she helps him, but then the war starts and he goes back to her in Germany.

The boss leaves the company because of the changing system and wants to start a new one with her. While alone at home because his wife is away, he makes avances so she hits him and runs away.

She feels very low now. She escapes to “Heyl’s place” in the mountains. She feels better there, and when he comes back they fall in love. She wants to accept the job at the journal, and they’ll be married and happy.

I think Edna said something about Theodore’s being a famous violinist in America, so I guess he won’t die in the war.