50 episodes listed below
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In Round the Block (1864), John Bell Bouton, a newspaper editor who later became a travel writer, stirs together comedy and pathos to explore the schemes and dreams of the average and extraordinary people inhabiting and intermingling on a single New York City block. In the path of the novel's circumambulation lie mystery, romance, and a murder trial, as love-matches and fortunes are made and lost through invention, speculation, and flimflam - plenty of flimflam. This richly-charactered novel, told with Dickensian brio, offers a fascinating slice of life, vivid in detail, of the bustling big-city habits and mores of America shortly before the Civil War. (Introduction by Grant Hurlock)
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Tiffles's African panorama starts as showmanship and ends in crowd heat, chaos, and Stoop's furious entrance.
Tiffles turns an exhibition hall into another of his doomed showcases, handing Marcus the money, closing the shop, and trusting the door to manage itself before striding toward his African panorama with practiced bravado.
A crowded wedding comedy gives way to a quiet piazza kiss under a kindly sky.
At old Van Quintem's house, romance comes wrapped in antique carriages, retired merchants, uneasy guests, and a second-floor crowd waiting on the wedding party.
Round the Block, Book 14 Chapter 3, 'Love Crowned,' stages a wedding at old Van Quintem's house with forty guests, a Dutch minister, and musicians hidden in the library.
This episode begins Chapter I of a novel set in a New York City block, describing changes among its inhabitants over a year.
A reading of John Bell Bouton's novel 'Round the Block', featuring a humorous and detailed account of a divorce case heard by a corpulent referee.
Tiffles prepares to present a panorama of Africa to an audience, with the help of an idiot and Patching.
John Bell Bouton's "Five Years" revisits a city block where unchanged buildings conceal altered tenants, fortunes, and relationships.