How long is it?
236 pages in the Mint Editions 2023 paperback edition.
Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Literary fiction
Early Autumn
Reading facts
✓ Checked- Reading effort
- 37 / 100Moderate
- Length
- 236 pagesMint Editions · 2023
- Reading time
- 4 h 45 minat 50 pages an hour ·
- Pace
- Measured
- Emotional intensity
- 4 / 5
About 4 h 45 min · at 30 minutes a day, about 10 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
About the book
In 1920s Durham, Massachusetts, Olivia Pentland lives within a wealthy family whose colonial ancestry governs its ideas of marriage and respectability. Her husband, Anson, offers little companionship, and their daughter Sybil’s return from school in Paris sharpens Olivia’s concern about the future awaiting her. Anson’s outspoken cousin Sabine unsettles the household, while Michael O’Hara, a successful Irish newcomer, offers Olivia attention at odds with the life her marriage requires.
Reader notes
Quiet and inward-looking, the family drama develops through visits, private conversations and Olivia’s reflections. The pace is leisurely, romantic desire remains sexually discreet, and the scrutiny of relatives occupies as much room as the prospect of new love.
How it reads
- Writing style
- Descriptive
- Tone
- Melancholic · Satirical · Reflective
- Structure
- Linear
- Driven by
- Character · Relationships · Ideas
- Point of view
- Third person, omniscient
- Setting
- Durham, Massachusetts (fictional town)
Reading complexity
- Writing
- 3 / 5
- Ideas
- 3 / 5
- Structure
- 2 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 1 / 5
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Themes
- Family
- Marriage
- Class
- Freedom
- Legacy
- Love
Content notes
- Violence
- Mild
- Sexual content
- Mild
- Swearing
- Mild
- Substance use
- Mild
- Abuse
- Mild
- Self-harm or suicide
- Mild
Series and reading order
Escape
- 3Early Autumn · This book · 1926
Questions readers ask
Which edition is shown here?
Mint Editions · 2023 · Paperback. ISBN 9781513210858.
What is the order of books in Escape?
3. Early Autumn.
How long does it take to read Early Autumn?
About 4 hours 45 minutes at 50 pages an hour, based on the 236-page Mint Editions edition. Dense books can take longer.
If you liked this
Edition and details
- Publisher
- Mint Editions
- Publication year
- 2023
- Format
- Paperback
- Pages
- 236
- ISBN
- 9781513210858
- Edition language
- English
- Original language
- English
- First published
- 1926
- Genres and form
- Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Literary fiction · Family saga · Social novel · Psychological fiction · Satire
- Editions
- 1
- Languages
- 1 (English)