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Aeneas Press edition Edwardian

Across the Years

by Eleanor H. Porter 1868–1920

The book, and the century it came out of.

Twenty-odd stories about the difference between what people meant to do and what they did: a wife who keeps a diary, a man who comes home after twenty years, a child who understands the grown-ups perfectly. Porter trained as a singer in Boston before turning to fiction, and in 1913 gave the language a word — Pollyanna — that has been used against her ever since; these quieter pieces are the evidence that the reputation is unfair. Illustrated with 60 full-page plates — paintings by Bellows and Hill among them.

The stories in this volume are here reprinted by the courteous permission of the publishers of the periodicals in which they first appeared,—The Ladies’ Home Journal, Ainslee’s Magazine, The Scrap Book, The New England Magazine, The Pictorial Review, The Housewife, The Pacific Monthly, The Arena, Lippincott’s…
The first sentence of Across the Years
A note on this edition

Across the Years, by Eleanor H. Porter, 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 168 pages
Reading time
about 3 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785486524585
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.

Village on the Hill, George Bellows
Village on the Hill George Bellows 1916
Flowering Fruit Trees, Joseph Raphael
Flowering Fruit Trees Joseph Raphael 1913
The Orchard and a Cow, Varengeville, Camille Pissarro
The Orchard and a Cow, Varengeville Camille Pissarro 1899
Landschaft am Weyerberg, Paula Modersohn-Becker
Landschaft am Weyerberg Paula Modersohn-Becker 1899
Eero Järnefelt - Figuuriharjoitelma maalaukseen Aurora-seura (lamppua sytyttävä tyttö ja pöydän takana istuva mies) , keskeneräinen - A II 1109 - Finnish National Gallery, Eero Järnefelt
Eero Järnefelt - Figuuriharjoitelma maalaukseen Aurora-seura (lamppua sytyttävä tyttö ja pöydän takana istuva mies) , keskeneräinen - A II 1109 - Finnish National Gallery Eero Järnefelt 1915
Landscape with a tree, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz
Landscape with a tree Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz 1913
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 Across the Years as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of Across the Years as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

Across the Years, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Literary Classics 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, 9785486524585, 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 Across the Years?
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. Eleanor H. Porter'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 168 pages, which is roughly about 3 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.
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Across the Years
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