Hidden View
Brett Ann Stanciu
Hidden View is a short novel set in the Vermont agrarian landscape, a story of Fern Hartshorn, unworldly, and unexpectedly pregnant at nineteen. Marrying an older man she barely knows, Fern begins her adult life on an isolated and hardscrabble farm named Hidden View. Shortly after the birth of her daughter, the future of the farm is jeopardized by a family dispute over ownership between her husband and his brother, Lucien. Unwillingly, Fern is torn between the two brothers, bound to Hal by marriage, child, and a modicum of economic stability, and to Lucien by companionship and a deepening desire. This novel embodies the geography of Vermont. The mountainous landscape suffuses the novel with its mark upon characters through spring mud, the lavish profusion of summer, winter’s bitter starkness, and its constant, ineffable beauty. Just as the landscape seasonally transforms, the characters of Hidden View reveal themselves through action and dialogue. Thus, in a snowstorm, while a young child pleads for a toasted cheese sandwich, Fern struggles with her deteriorating marriage and rising desire for Lucien, struggling at the uniquely human place of how, and why, to choose her course. Lyrically, the language and metaphors arise from the setting, complementing the novel’s integrity. Hidden View's characters are vivid, written without disdain or cliché, distinctive to the setting of this Vermont farm and its particular family fracas. The reader wants to know what happens to these people in their troubled lives. The ending, while lucid, casts the reader back to the vagaries of life. Fern writes, “I was so young then, so ripely full of blood and milk and desire and work. I was so young I believed my heart might freeze and thaw and blossom. How little I knew that cycle would repeat over and over and over, that our life, while brief and mortal, is also long and tedious and bound to the constraints of our weak flesh.” Therein lies the tension of Hidden View: the corporal versus the spiritual world, and that in-between of human activity and choice. On a small farm in Vermont, that story unfolds.
Author - Brett Ann Stanciu.
Narrator - Suzanne d'Corsey.
Published Date - Friday, 13 January 2023.
Location:
United States
Description:
Hidden View is a short novel set in the Vermont agrarian landscape, a story of Fern Hartshorn, unworldly, and unexpectedly pregnant at nineteen. Marrying an older man she barely knows, Fern begins her adult life on an isolated and hardscrabble farm named Hidden View. Shortly after the birth of her daughter, the future of the farm is jeopardized by a family dispute over ownership between her husband and his brother, Lucien. Unwillingly, Fern is torn between the two brothers, bound to Hal by marriage, child, and a modicum of economic stability, and to Lucien by companionship and a deepening desire. This novel embodies the geography of Vermont. The mountainous landscape suffuses the novel with its mark upon characters through spring mud, the lavish profusion of summer, winter’s bitter starkness, and its constant, ineffable beauty. Just as the landscape seasonally transforms, the characters of Hidden View reveal themselves through action and dialogue. Thus, in a snowstorm, while a young child pleads for a toasted cheese sandwich, Fern struggles with her deteriorating marriage and rising desire for Lucien, struggling at the uniquely human place of how, and why, to choose her course. Lyrically, the language and metaphors arise from the setting, complementing the novel’s integrity. Hidden View's characters are vivid, written without disdain or cliché, distinctive to the setting of this Vermont farm and its particular family fracas. The reader wants to know what happens to these people in their troubled lives. The ending, while lucid, casts the reader back to the vagaries of life. Fern writes, “I was so young then, so ripely full of blood and milk and desire and work. I was so young I believed my heart might freeze and thaw and blossom. How little I knew that cycle would repeat over and over and over, that our life, while brief and mortal, is also long and tedious and bound to the constraints of our weak flesh.” Therein lies the tension of Hidden View: the corporal versus the spiritual world, and that in-between of human activity and choice. On a small farm in Vermont, that story unfolds. Author - Brett Ann Stanciu. Narrator - Suzanne d'Corsey. Published Date - Friday, 13 January 2023.
Language:
English
Chapter 1
Duration:00:00:36
Chapter 2
Duration:00:21:47
Chapter 3
Duration:00:21:41
Chapter 4
Duration:00:09:29
Chapter 5
Duration:00:15:58
Chapter 6
Duration:00:11:38
Chapter 7
Duration:00:02:00
Chapter 8
Duration:00:03:50
Chapter 9
Duration:00:00:35
Chapter 10
Duration:00:15:53
Chapter 11
Duration:00:09:43
Chapter 12
Duration:00:01:32
Chapter 13
Duration:00:11:14
Chapter 14
Duration:00:07:34
Chapter 15
Duration:00:05:34
Chapter 16
Duration:00:10:38
Chapter 17
Duration:00:21:12
Chapter 18
Duration:00:12:01
Chapter 19
Duration:00:02:34
Chapter 20
Duration:00:17:10
Chapter 21
Duration:00:11:50
Chapter 22
Duration:00:22:12
Chapter 23
Duration:00:04:36
Chapter 24
Duration:00:15:33
Chapter 25
Duration:00:08:15
Chapter 26
Duration:00:06:58
Chapter 27
Duration:00:00:24
Chapter 28
Duration:00:00:49
Chapter 29
Duration:00:16:35
Chapter 30
Duration:00:05:53
Chapter 31
Duration:00:19:26
Chapter 32
Duration:00:03:00
Chapter 33
Duration:00:01:59
Chapter 34
Duration:00:14:05
Chapter 35
Duration:00:03:20
Chapter 36
Duration:00:43:26
Chapter 37
Duration:00:09:49
Chapter 38
Duration:00:18:05
Chapter 39
Duration:00:04:00
Chapter 40
Duration:00:06:45
Chapter 41
Duration:00:07:57
Chapter 42
Duration:00:26:43
Chapter 43
Duration:00:01:25