AN EPISODE OF FIDDLETOWN (PT 1) by BRET HARTE
1001 Classic Short Stories & Tales
Jon Hagadorn
4.5 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 2 August 2023
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This classic Bret Harte story follows the life of a young woman who learns to see and feel beyond herself when she is introduced to her ex-husband's orphaned daughter as she tries to leave Fiddletown and her bad memories of it behind. The story takes many twists and turns and deals with 19th century morals as well as racist treatment of the Chinese.
Fiddletown was a booming gold rush town in 1853 and sported a population of 2,000 souls. When the gold ran out, a Chinese population took root there and it became the largest concentration of Chinese outside of san Francisco.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | And the Yeah, Welcome back everyone to one thousand one classic short stories entails this is your host |
| 0:34.3 | John Haggadorn today begins part one of its story by Brett Hart called an episode of |
| 0:41.4 | Fiddle Town. |
| 0:42.6 | It's a story that questions what real motherhood is all about |
| 0:45.9 | and proves that it isn't just giving birth to someone |
| 0:48.5 | that makes a mother. |
| 0:49.9 | But it's the sacrifice that a mother makes for her child that matters the most. |
| 0:54.4 | It's a fantastic story and it's going to take a lot of unexpected twist and turns. |
| 0:59.3 | In 1858, Fiddletown considered her a very pretty woman. |
| 1:08.0 | She had a quantity of light chestnut hair, a good figure, a dazzling complexion, and a certain languid grace which passed easily for |
| 1:16.3 | gentle womanliness. She always dressed becomingly, and in what Piddleton accept accepted as the latest fashion. |
| 1:24.0 | She had only two blemishes. |
| 1:26.5 | One of her velvety eyes, when examined closely, had a slight cast, and her left |
| 1:31.5 | cheek bore a small scar left by a single drop of vitriol. |
| 1:35.0 | Happily the only drop of an entire file, thrown upon her by one of her own jealous sex that reached the |
| 1:42.0 | pretty face it was intended to Mar. |
| 1:45.1 | But when the observer has studied the eyes sufficiently to notice this defect, he was generally |
| 1:49.8 | incapacitated for criticism, and even the scar on her cheek was thought by some to add |
| 1:54.7 | frequency to her smile. |
| 1:57.8 | The youthful editor of the Fiddletown Avalanche had said privately that it was an |
| 2:01.9 | exaggerated dimple. |
| 2:04.0 | Colonel Starbutle was instantly reminded of the beautifying patches of the days of Queen Anne, |
... |
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