Third Violet by Stephen Crane.

The Third Violet is, in almost every respect, a stark departure from Stephen Crane's previous novels: a light, frothy, summertime tale of love, class, and art. Told extensively through incidental dialogue and minor incident, Crane's novel gives us a fly-on-the-wall perspective of the burgeoning romance between temperamental artist Billie Hawker and Grace Fanhall, an upper-class woman who is continually flummoxed by her would-be suitor's "ridiculousness." Through their courtship, Crane probes into the cavernous gulf that exists between men and women, rural and urban communities, and the bourgeois and bohemian classes.

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Public-domain recording courtesy of LibriVox (librivox.org).

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