The Optimist's Daughter cover art

The Optimist's Daughter

Pulitzer Prize Winner

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Optimist's Daughter

By: Eudora Welty
Narrated by: Eudora Welty
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £7.99

Buy Now for £7.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

 This Pulitzer Prize–winning novel tells the story of Laurel McKelva Hand, a young woman who has left the South and returns, years later, to New Orleans, where her father is dying. After his death, she and her silly young stepmother go back still farther, to the small Mississippi town where she grew up. Along in the old house, Laurel finally comes to an understanding of the past, herself, and her parents. Classics Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Small Town & Rural

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Essential Welty cover art
Herzog cover art
The Sound and the Fury cover art
Paris in the Present Tense cover art
Tucker's Way cover art
I Liked My Life cover art
These Is My Words cover art
Blue Dahlia cover art
Willa Cather's Prairie Trilogy cover art
Still Alice cover art
Ordinary Grace cover art
America's First Daughter cover art
Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness cover art
Heft cover art
The Poisonwood Bible cover art
Wildflower Hill cover art
All stars
Most relevant
I sought out Eudora Welty on the advice of Ann Patchett (thanks Ann) and this in particular, as it was her late career Pulitzer winning novel (novella)!
Like other non Americans I found the authors own thick accent and sticky ‘older’ voice difficult to understand at first, but I persevered and my ear eventually attuned itself. I am glad that i did because Weltys own voice is so aligned with the story’s time and place that I feel certain it added colour and nuance.
It is a beautifully written piece, almost like poetry, and her ability to illuminate moments is startling. I was there.
Its really a novella rather than a fully fledged novel, its narrative is slight, any denouement even slighter. But what she chooses to gaze upon, she truly sees and her ability to describe her people in that moment is moving and authentic.

Southern gothic with the accent on the Southern

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great Writer she is so descriptive in her beautiful style. Listen to her fantastic and heartwarming narration.
I could listen to her voice forever
The stories are fascinating and the pace is superb.
Highly recommended to any reader of literature.

Eudora Welty

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I persevered until chapter 4 then abandoned it. Had to keep replaying to make out what had been said and found I had to over-concentrate to listen. Having a strong accent of this sort may be acceptable for listeners from north America but not for those from elsewhere. So annoyed to have wasted my money on this!

Too difficult to make out speech

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I do not write reviews, ever. But everything in this book, from story to narrator was apallingly bad. No wonder it was free. Just garbage. Total utter garbage

Total garbage

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.