October Books - A Decidedly Agricultural Dream Theme
(Cross-Posted at christianreader)
A Tenderfoot Bride: Tales from the Old Ranch, by Clarice E. Richards, 1920
eBook free from Project Gutenberg
An engaging, pleasant biographical (or perhaps quasi-biographical) account of the adventures of a young couple from the east as they take on cattle-ranching in Colorado. They run into obstacles with the former ranch owner--whom they find difficult to boot out--and in keeping neighboring cattle off their land due to restrictions from the Federal Government concerning neighboring free-range land. A mystery of perceived evil of the former owner--no one could quite pin him on it--and friendships with the neighbors and ranch hands are woven into the fabric of the story. A major theme is the changing nature of the times and economy and the need to be resilient, to adapt and evolve, and sometimes to let go of one thing when it is time to take hold of the next.
The Golden Bird, by Maria Thompson Daviess, 1918
eBook free from Project Gutenberg
When she finds that she and her Uncle have lost all the money which they lived upon, instead of marrying the nearest suitor at hand, Ann Craddock (the narrator) decides to move with her Uncle to his brother's farm in the State of Harpeth (which is possibly near Virginia, though the point could be argued). She sells her collection of expensive dresses and lingere to fund an investment in prize breed chickens. Naming her expensive rooster "Mr. Golden Bird," she falls in love with her chickens and a mysterious man who appears from the woods dressed like "Pan" in rustic clothing and handmade leather moccasins to rescue her with his way of handling chickens and things of the farm. (He reminded me of Dicken from The Secret Garden, only older, and with a good sense of farm economy, as well as things of the forest.)
Pan invites her to romp in the woods and treats her to camp-cooked suppers of hand-picked wild greens seasoned with walnut kernels while matching her knowledge of what has been playing at the Metropolitan Opera--and who has been seen attending. Before he must be off on a day's moccasin-padded walk lend a farmer promised help with some sheep, he advises her on the proper mix of feed and other care for the chickens, and makes little effort to disguise his delight and passion for the woman he believes to be his ideal "earth-woman."
Ann is too enamored with the whole idyll of nature, chickens, and man to disrupt it with questions and facts, and so she happily lives with his mystery and digs into her garden and chicken care with vigor. Almost certainly the U.S. will become involved in the great World War and greater productivity would be needed. Of course this frenzied pinnacle of passion for farm success and for Pan-of-the-woods must eventually crash, but the question is how.
I think the exaggeration of the idyll was intended as humor, but it struck me as somewhat ridiculous--and a little dangerous and ill-advised. I found little of insight or instructive thought. However, I was interested enough in the recommendations for WWI farm productivity to keep reading.
Hope Hathaway: A Story of Western Life by Frances Parker, 1904
eBook free from Project Gutenberg
Strong, inciteful character protrayal and mostly-plausible situational details--with new character introductions throughout--help keep the story moving and interesting.
Hope Hathaway is a young woman one with the ranch environment in which she has grown up, and yet, having a mother who prefers New York society, she is well-schooled and able to carry herself with propriety and emotional maturity among her upper-class friends. Thankfully for Hope, it seems that both men and women of society and education come to visit or to make a new sort of life for themselves in the free air of the range, and so Hope suffers no lack of congenial friends, be they noblemen, cowhands, or the mixed-race Indian children in the foothills where she goes to teach school after a slight rift with her parents over her disinterest in marrying her second cousin and lifelong friend.
We have a pleasant story of the heroine as she works her teaching contract and finds herself having to use her wits, friendships, and sharpshooting skills to prevent episodes of violence from being perpetrated on an English nobleman-turned-sheep rancher. There are good men all around keeping themselves and Hope's lady friends heartened--goodness in their general arrangements, company, and thoughtfulness. Interestingly, no women need men to come to their rescue in this novel. Even the fleas and disfunctionalism of the home where Hope stays during her teaching contract does not seem to phase her. Of course, there is the obligatory romance thwarted by misunderstanding--the one disappointment in an otherwise well-executed story.
As westerns go, it was thoughtful and fairly interesting, with a heroine worthy of merit. I have put two others by Frances Parker on my future reading list.
A Tenderfoot Bride: Tales from the Old Ranch, by Clarice E. Richards, 1920
eBook free from Project Gutenberg
An engaging, pleasant biographical (or perhaps quasi-biographical) account of the adventures of a young couple from the east as they take on cattle-ranching in Colorado. They run into obstacles with the former ranch owner--whom they find difficult to boot out--and in keeping neighboring cattle off their land due to restrictions from the Federal Government concerning neighboring free-range land. A mystery of perceived evil of the former owner--no one could quite pin him on it--and friendships with the neighbors and ranch hands are woven into the fabric of the story. A major theme is the changing nature of the times and economy and the need to be resilient, to adapt and evolve, and sometimes to let go of one thing when it is time to take hold of the next.
The Golden Bird, by Maria Thompson Daviess, 1918
eBook free from Project Gutenberg
When she finds that she and her Uncle have lost all the money which they lived upon, instead of marrying the nearest suitor at hand, Ann Craddock (the narrator) decides to move with her Uncle to his brother's farm in the State of Harpeth (which is possibly near Virginia, though the point could be argued). She sells her collection of expensive dresses and lingere to fund an investment in prize breed chickens. Naming her expensive rooster "Mr. Golden Bird," she falls in love with her chickens and a mysterious man who appears from the woods dressed like "Pan" in rustic clothing and handmade leather moccasins to rescue her with his way of handling chickens and things of the farm. (He reminded me of Dicken from The Secret Garden, only older, and with a good sense of farm economy, as well as things of the forest.)
Pan invites her to romp in the woods and treats her to camp-cooked suppers of hand-picked wild greens seasoned with walnut kernels while matching her knowledge of what has been playing at the Metropolitan Opera--and who has been seen attending. Before he must be off on a day's moccasin-padded walk lend a farmer promised help with some sheep, he advises her on the proper mix of feed and other care for the chickens, and makes little effort to disguise his delight and passion for the woman he believes to be his ideal "earth-woman."
Ann is too enamored with the whole idyll of nature, chickens, and man to disrupt it with questions and facts, and so she happily lives with his mystery and digs into her garden and chicken care with vigor. Almost certainly the U.S. will become involved in the great World War and greater productivity would be needed. Of course this frenzied pinnacle of passion for farm success and for Pan-of-the-woods must eventually crash, but the question is how.
I think the exaggeration of the idyll was intended as humor, but it struck me as somewhat ridiculous--and a little dangerous and ill-advised. I found little of insight or instructive thought. However, I was interested enough in the recommendations for WWI farm productivity to keep reading.
Hope Hathaway: A Story of Western Life by Frances Parker, 1904
eBook free from Project Gutenberg
Strong, inciteful character protrayal and mostly-plausible situational details--with new character introductions throughout--help keep the story moving and interesting.
Hope Hathaway is a young woman one with the ranch environment in which she has grown up, and yet, having a mother who prefers New York society, she is well-schooled and able to carry herself with propriety and emotional maturity among her upper-class friends. Thankfully for Hope, it seems that both men and women of society and education come to visit or to make a new sort of life for themselves in the free air of the range, and so Hope suffers no lack of congenial friends, be they noblemen, cowhands, or the mixed-race Indian children in the foothills where she goes to teach school after a slight rift with her parents over her disinterest in marrying her second cousin and lifelong friend.
We have a pleasant story of the heroine as she works her teaching contract and finds herself having to use her wits, friendships, and sharpshooting skills to prevent episodes of violence from being perpetrated on an English nobleman-turned-sheep rancher. There are good men all around keeping themselves and Hope's lady friends heartened--goodness in their general arrangements, company, and thoughtfulness. Interestingly, no women need men to come to their rescue in this novel. Even the fleas and disfunctionalism of the home where Hope stays during her teaching contract does not seem to phase her. Of course, there is the obligatory romance thwarted by misunderstanding--the one disappointment in an otherwise well-executed story.
As westerns go, it was thoughtful and fairly interesting, with a heroine worthy of merit. I have put two others by Frances Parker on my future reading list.