- Year Published: 1909.
- Pages: 480.
Martin Eden Summary of Chapters
Chapters 1-10
In these chapters of Martin Eden, we see a young man who decides to take off his cap. He was in a very big hall in which he was very out of place. There many objects within the room such as a: grand piano, a table, oil paintings and so on. He saw the oil painting which captured his eye. He found himself staring at it. On the table, there was a letter in which he and his friend read. There were also thousands of books in the room. As he was browsing through the books, a young lady entered the room. He did not notice her at first. Soon enough, he spotted her. It took him a while before he realized that he already knew her. They soon found themselves in deep conversation.
The group then moved into the dining room. The man found the process of getting into this particular room rather difficult. But he eventually got there. All of the guests sat at the table. The young man was very quiet during the early stages of the meal. But he soon got talking later. After the evening was over, he went outside to have a cigarette. He said good night to those who were there and continued on his way. The young man then caught a car to Telegraph Avenue. This Avenue was full of young people and in particular young men. The young man heard that they were singing all kinds of songs. He took the time to watch them closely.’
Martin soon found himself return to the back hall which was very dark. He went into his room and found himself dreaming about a young woman. He imagined her name to be Ruth and how she had soft, white hands with a beautiful face. When he woke up from his ‘dream’ he soon went off to sleep.
The following day, he woke up to a child who was crying. He had some time with his dear sister whom he loved dearly. After breakfast, he had to get himself outside. He took a while to decide which out of two libraries to go to. The woman Ruth who he dreamed about lived in one of the suburbs of one of the libraries so he decided to go there.
We then see Eden incredibly hungry. He was not hungry for food, but rather for the sight of a woman he longed for. But he was unable to pluck up the courage to contact her himself. During one evening, Martin decided to go to the theater. Of course, he was hoping he would see Ruth. On the stage, in the orchestra, he could see several women. But he was not sure they would be of Ruth’s liking. He did not like what he saw.
Eden had a full week of very heavy reading. He had eventually met Ruth but had not seen her since. He was truly in a world of his own for hours. He decided to visit the library to look up the meanings of several weird words that he had discovered. He learned a lot from these discoveries. Staff members at the library have seen Martin there often and knew exactly who he was. He decided to ask a staff member about what he was considering about Ruth. The staff member was very helpful.
It was then time for Martin to go to San Francisco. He wanted to write a story to his friends which he did. Once it was finished, he posted his manuscript to The Youth’s Companion. He found the courage to call Ruth. They met up and had a great time together.Eden and Ruth had dinner together at her parents home.
Chapters 11-20
In these chapters, we see that Martin write’s poems. He wrote many love poems to Ruth who found them inspiring. Eden was soon finding himself with less money so he had to go to the editor of his manuscript to see how that was going. Martin kept on at it regardless of the lack of responses.
The rejection slips for Martin’s writing work continued to come through. Ruth begged to hear some of his stories. So he began to read her one. Sadly, all she could do was point out all of the little mistakes in his story.
The next day, Martin did something different to normal. He decided to move away from his stories and readings. He went to San Francisco