Polly's Secret by Harriet A. NashMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Polly Jane Brooks is the youngest daughter of a landlord who owns a hotel in a little town. Polly dreams of bigger things in her life besides work. In particular, she doesn't like to miss the ball happening tonight, with her specially made silk dress and dance slippers sitting away in her room while she toils with her sister in the kitchen, making food for the guests. A sick and elderly traveler arrives at the hotel. Polly is ordered to bring him some gruel and it is there that she makes a solemn promise to keep the deeds to his house and property safe from greedy relatives until his son, William Train, should arrive back from India and claim them.
Since no one else has read this (I had to manually add the book), I feel obligated to provide an honest review. Here I go.
This is a growing-up tale about a young girl in a small town in Massachusetts. The ending is as happy as you would expect. The women get married and they all get rich, and the bad guys are shamed though not outright punished because that would be a bad trait to develop in a young woman.
It's cute and quaint in its way. It has a nice charm to it and it has all of the ideals from when it was written. It has aged considerably. The book does a good job of looking like it's neutral but it doesn't quite spare anyone. There is some anti-feminist and a few racist remarks that are subtle because this book strives to be a book written for young girls. I didn't mind that too much, but it did rankle my pc sensibilities a bit. There was one word that I didn't expect to see but wasn't surprised to see considering when it was written. To give a hint: It was published during the 1920's when the Ku Klux Klan was at its peak in membership and "Birth of a Nation" was a huge movie for its time. I'm sure you know what word I'm referring to now, but I will not state it here.
There's a scene where basically everyone pulls their daughters from the only school in town. Polly seems perturbed by this but is quickly quieted by the local old spinsters down the block. Although other women lament not being able to understand their husbands at times. And pretty much everyone gets married to the one they are "most suited" for even if it seems to be kind of against their will. But that's to be expected.
They didn't treat the older sister as well as the younger. She marries the richer husband, for most of the book anyway, but they keep saying how plain she is, how matronly, how dull, how dumb. Especially next to Polly, who is beautiful and smart and fun. But Deborah's work ethic is much better; all the more ironic that she gets a rich husband and doesn't have to do anything but have kids. She must be bored out of her mind.
The book's very into the idea of honest men doing honest work on the farm rather than becoming lawyers and doctors. The most intelligent person in the town is the schoolteacher and he's kind of nasty but makes a few good points. But he is chastised into retirement onto his farm and the only other teacher is a nonentity.
It was a cute, like I said. It has aged a bit, but its romanticism of the old way of life won't be lost on a few people. As far as I can tell, the author got the accent down right, but I'm not sure if all the poor people speak like that. The few illustrations it has are beautiful. Not sure if I should marker that word out or not. It does bother me that some young person will read it and wonder what the hell it is doing in this book.
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| I give you 3.5 out of 5 yonder stars. |
