Winesburg, Ohio (full title: Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small-Town Life) is a 1919 short story cycle by the American author Sherwood Anderson. The work is structured around the life of protagonist George Willard, from the time he was a child to his growing independence and ultimate abandonment of Winesburg as a young man. It is set in the fictional town of Winesburg, Ohio (not to be confused with the actual Winesburg), based loosely on the author’s childhood memories of Clyde, Ohio.
Mostly written from late-1915 to early-1916, with a few stories completed closer to publication, they were “...conceived as complementary parts of a whole, centered in the background of a single community.” The book consists of twenty-two stories, with the first story, “The Book of the Grotesque,” serving as an introduction. Each of the stories shares a specific character’s past and present struggle to overcome the loneliness and isolation seeming to permeate the town. Stylistically, because of its emphasis on the psychological insights of characters over plot and plain-spoken prose, Winesburg, Ohio is known as one of the earliest works of Modernist literature.
Winesburg, Ohio was received well by critics despite some reservations about its moral tone and unconventional storytelling. Though its reputation waned in the 1930s, it has since rebounded and is now considered one of the most influential portraits of pre-industrial small-town life in the United States.
In 1998 the Modern Library ranked Winesburg, Ohio No. 24 on its list of the 100 Best English-Language novels of the Twentieth Century.
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