The Man Who Stole A Meeting-House by J. T. Trowbridge
"The Man Who Stole A Meeting-House" by J. T. Trowbridge is a humorous tale written in the late 19th century. This novella combines elements of social commentary with satire, unveiling the foolishness of extreme frugality through the absurd exploits of its protagonist. The story revolves around a man named Jedwort, whose miserliness drives him to absurd lengths, including the theft of a community meeting-house. The narrative unfolds through the eyes of thenarrator's traveling companion, who recounts the story of Old Jedwort and his family. As the tale progresses, we learn about Jedwort's oppressive nature, his relentless pursuit of wealth, and the impact of his behavior on his wife and children. The plot thickens when Jedwort decides to claim the old meeting-house as part of his property and attempts to fence it in, asserting a ridiculous claim to the abandoned church. As tensions rise within the community and among his family, an unexpected turn of events, including a fire that destroys the meeting-house, leads to Jedwort's temporary insanity. Ultimately, the tale concludes with Jedwort's return to sanity, revealing the positive changes his family has experienced in his absence, highlighting themes of redemption and the importance of community support. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Read now or download (free!)
| Choose how to read this book | Url | Size | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read online (web) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23165.html.images | 76 kB | ||||
| EPUB3 (E-readers incl. Send-to-Kindle) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23165.epub3.images | 110 kB | ||||
| EPUB (older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23165.epub.images | 109 kB | ||||
| EPUB (no images, older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23165.epub.noimages | 82 kB | ||||
| Kindle | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23165.kf8.images | 217 kB | ||||
| older Kindles | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23165.kindle.images | 210 kB | ||||
| Plain Text UTF-8 | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23165.txt.utf-8 | 63 kB | ||||
| Download HTML (zip) | https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/23165/pg23165-h.zip | 109 kB | ||||
| There may bemore files related to this item. | ||||||
About this eBook
| Author | Trowbridge, J. T. (John Townsend), 1827-1916 |
|---|---|
| Title | The Man Who Stole A Meeting-House 1878, From "Coupon Bonds" |
| Note | Reading ease score: 87.5 (6th grade). Easy to read. |
| Credits | Produced by David Widger |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature |
| Subject | Short stories |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 23165 |
| Release Date | Oct 24, 2007 |
| Most Recently Updated | Jan 26, 2021 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 146 downloads in the last 30 days. |
| Project Gutenberg eBooks are always free! | |
