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A Speckled Bird — cover
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Aeneas Press edition Victorian

A Speckled Bird

by Augusta J. Evans 1835–1909

The book, and the century it came out of.

An orphaned girl of mixed Northern and Southern blood is raised between two worlds in the aftermath of the Civil War, wanted fully by neither. Augusta Evans was among the first American women to make a fortune by her pen, a fierce Confederate who wrote propaganda for the cause and outsold nearly everyone; this late novel is her reckoning with the country the war left behind. Illustrated with 60 full-page plates — paintings by Austrian, Talcott and Colman among them.

“Certainly, because your father selected your name, and the bishop had no choice.”
The first sentence of A Speckled Bird
A note on this edition

A Speckled Bird, by Augusta J. Evans, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.

It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.

The edition
Format
Ebook
Extent
about 200 pages
Reading time
about 4 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785501005501
The plates

60 paintings are bound into this edition

Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.

Hen with Twelve Chicks, Ben Austrian
Hen with Twelve Chicks Ben Austrian 1900
A Woman Walking in a Garden, Vincent van Gogh
A Woman Walking in a Garden Vincent van Gogh 1887
Enclosed Field with Rising Sun, Vincent van Gogh
Enclosed Field with Rising Sun Vincent van Gogh 1889
Tree in the sun, Emile Claus
Tree in the sun Emile Claus 1900
On the Banks of the Ouse, Buckinghamshire, William Stokes Hulton
On the Banks of the Ouse, Buckinghamshire William Stokes Hulton 1900
part of a forest with figures, George Gillis Haanen
part of a forest with figures George Gillis Haanen 1846
The setting

A page from this edition

Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.

A page of A Speckled Bird as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of A Speckled Bird as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

A Speckled Bird, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Love & Society shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.

Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785501005501, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.

Before you buy

Questions readers ask

Is this the whole of A Speckled Bird?
Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
What exactly did you change?
The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Augusta J. Evans's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
Are the pictures really in the book?
Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
How long is it?
About 200 pages, which is roughly about 4 hours of reading.
What do I actually get?
An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
If this one suits you
A Speckled Bird
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