The Trees Audiobook By Conrad Richter cover art

The Trees

Awakening Land Series, Book 1

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The Trees

By: Conrad Richter
Narrated by: Danny Campbell
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The Awakening Land trilogy traces the transformation of a middle-American landscape from wilderness to farmland to the site of modern industrial civilization, all in the lifetime of one character. The trilogy earned author Conrad Richter immense acclaim, ranking him with the greatest of American mid-century novelists. It includes The Trees (1940), The Fields (1946), and The Town (1950) and follows the varied fortunes of Sayward Luckett and her family in Southeastern Ohio.

The Trees is the story of an American family in the wilderness - a family that "followed the woods as some families follow the sea." The time is the end of the 18th century, the wilderness is the land west of the Alleghenies and north of the Ohio River. But principally, The Trees is the story of a girl named Sayward, eldest daughter of Worth and Jary Luckett, raised in the forest far from the rest of humankind, yet growing to realize that the way of the hunter must cede to the way of the tiller of soil.

©1940 Conrad Richter (P)2019 Tantor Action & Adventure Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction World Literature Awakening Land
Beautiful Writing • Authentic Dialogue • Wholesome Story • Interesting Narrative • Award-winning Trilogy • Perfect Voice
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I first read this in college many years ago and loved it so much. I was thrilled to see it here.

wonderful history

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I've loved this story since I first read it as a teenager and have reread many times over. I was thrilled to see it as an audiobook.

The reader does a fair job, until he came to the pronunciation of a major character name. How is it that someone cannot pronounce "Portius"? The repeated mispronunciation certainly is jarring and lowers the quality of listening to the story.

Good, wholesome story

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The narration, the story line and the authentic dialogue. an older scotch Irish Appalachian Southern, many of the expressions and grammar familiar. the book feels rather short, but it is part of a trilogy. You will not be disappointed.

the authentic dialogue

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It's written well, and is interesting, but it is not what I'm looking for in a book. While the story flows along, every so often something gruesome and cruel slides into the narrative. You're left with this vision in your mind of cruelty and gore. Why do I want to do that to myself? Granted, the first white people who inhabited our nation had terrible hardships. I've read about it before. I don't need to wallow in the knowledge that the people had no education and died young due to disease and unfathomable pain. That, because of ignorance and the society and culture they lived in, they did unspeakably cruel things. These things are from where we descend. I just don't want to dwell on it today. I understand. I respect. I am saddened. But I'm looking for something less burdensome and more light-hearted in a book today.

not for me

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I read this book 50 years ago and am pleased to say it’s still a favorite, holding my interest to the end. The reader has a unique voice which may have put some off—it did me initially. But by the end I felt it was the perfect voice for this book.

A taste of early frontier life

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well written! I enjoy, so much, writing that comes from long gone generations. Buy it!

Very

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This was well written and narrated. In search of the mini series to watch. Vivid tale of a woman in the wilderness, on to Fields.

Excellence at it's Best

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Soooooo. When I say I love it. I have to say that I love it because it's excellent writing and gripping storytelling. This story punches you in the face, then kicks you in the gut, and finally says thank's for reading.

I can see why Conrad Richter is a pulizer prize winner, and these stories are truly a work of literary genius, but wow! You will feel the feels.

Gut Wrenching

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I love this Award winning trilogy of books by Conrad Richter. I’ve read them all. He captures so vividly and touchingly, the early 19th century development of a community in the Midwest. Characters and conditions come to life with Richter’s beautiful writing.
Unfortunately- this narrator - does not do the material justice. He seems to have put on a “Woodsy” character voice with a sing songy style that - to my mind - diminishes the seriousness - and humor - in the material.

A very shallow rendering of a very deep story.
If you can get past that - you may love this book!

I’d love to dive into “The Fields” next - but I’m not sure I will if it’s the same narrator.

An incredible story; drab performance

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perhaps others can overlook the early chapters. I stopped after seven to give it a shot. the father brought his family to the wilderness, with his wife clearly not wanting to move; and though he built her a nice casket when she soon died, he could comfort himself that "he could always get a squaw."
He was eager to get his daughter married to the only other man in the woods not so she would be taken care of but so that he could leave his other, young children alone for days 'because if there was a problem his married daughter would always take them in. " (if they could get to her). He didn't like being tied down to his family because he enjoyed "wandering."
Jerk.

the character of the father was so unlikable and dishonorable.

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