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Fanny Herself — cover
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Aeneas Press edition 20th Century

Fanny Herself

by Edna Ferber 1885–1968

The book, and the century it came out of.

A Jewish girl in a Wisconsin town runs her dead mother’s store, then goes to Chicago and rises in a mail-order house by being better at it than the men — and by putting away everything she came from. Ferber was a reporter at seventeen and won the Pulitzer for So Big; Show Boat, Cimarron and Giant all began as her novels. The price of assimilation is the real subject, and she does not pretend it was cheap. Illustrated with 57 full-page plates — paintings by Frankfort, Vuillard and Béraud among them.

It has become the fashion among novelists to introduce their hero in knee pants, their heroine in pinafore and pigtails.
The first sentence of Fanny Herself
A note on this edition

Fanny Herself, by Edna Ferber, 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 312 pages
Reading time
about 6 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785501467545
The plates

57 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.

Klara Frankfort met Jack, Eduard Frankfort
Klara Frankfort met Jack Eduard Frankfort 1917
Le Boulevard des Italiens, Émile Cagniart
Le Boulevard des Italiens Émile Cagniart 1900
Motif from Timmermansgatan, Eugène Jansson
Motif from Timmermansgatan Eugène Jansson 1899
Mise en place du monument du “Triomphe de la République” de Jules Dalou, place de la Nation, en 1899, Victor Marec
Mise en place du monument du “Triomphe de la République” de Jules Dalou, place de la Nation, en 1899 Victor Marec 1899
The Lovers (Autumn Evening), Émile Friant
The Lovers (Autumn Evening) Émile Friant 1899
Winter on the Balcony, Harald Sohlberg
Winter on the Balcony Harald Sohlberg 1899
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 Fanny Herself as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of Fanny Herself as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

Fanny Herself, 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, 9785501467545, 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 Fanny Herself?
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. Edna Ferber'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 312 pages, which is roughly about 6 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
Fanny Herself
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