Elsie Venner
by Oliver Wendell Holmes 1809–1894
The book, and the century it came out of.
A New England schoolmaster meets a pupil the other girls will not sit near — cold to the touch, silent, with something in her look nobody can hold — and the book asks whether she can be held responsible for what she is. Holmes was a physician who coined the word anaesthesia and told doctors they were carrying childbed fever on their hands; here he attacks Calvinist original sin with a case study, and lost friends over it. Illustrated with 60 full-page plates — paintings by Fisher, Scheyerer and Koch among them.
This tale was published in successive parts in the “Atlantic Monthly,” under the name of “The Professor’s Story,” the first number having appeared in the third week of December, 1859.
Elsie Venner, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, 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.
- Series
- Gothic & Horror
- Format
- Ebook
- Extent
- about 432 pages
- Reading time
- about 9 hours
- Illustrations
- Full-page plates, credited
- Text
- Complete, unabridged
- Language
- en
- This edition
- 2026
- ISBN
- 9785501387614
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.
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.
Both photographed from the finished volume.
Elsie Venner, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Gothic & Horror 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, 9785501387614, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.
Questions readers ask
- Is this the whole of Elsie Venner?
- 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. Oliver Wendell Holmes'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 432 pages, which is roughly about 9 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.
