kcfoxy's Full Review: Gene Stratton-Porter - A Girl of the Limberlost Bo...
Welcome to the Children's Book Write-Off! A number of Epinions' writers have gathered to celebrate forkid's 400th epinion. The invitation was for each writer to select and review a favorite childhood story. Of course, there are many wonderful books to chose from, and the following writers will offer some intriguing and excellent choices:
An avid book reader since the age of 4, my earliest memories include some bedtime stories: Barbar, Madelaine and The Twelve Dancing Princesses. Proud owner of a library card, that gateway to a world of wonder and imagination, I also received books for birthdays and at Christmas time.
Faithful readers may recall some less pleasant times with my mother, (Temper Tantrums>The Dysfunctional Family), but through books, we could generally bridge the growing rift. Gene Stratton Porter's classic tale, A Girl Of The Limberlost, accompanied a microscope, the summer I turned 10.
The Book
The story of Elnora Comstock, begins the fall she is set to leave country schooling and embark upon an adventure at the town high school. Without nice clothing, or even books that the other children take for granted, Elnora feels an outcast.
Mrs. Comstock, is a harsh, embittered woman, still grieving for the husband she lost to the Limberlost swamp, the night Elnora was born.
While mourning, the mother somehow has always blamed her only child, and provided a misery existance bereft of motherly love. Raised in a log cabin, on the edge of the Limberlost, Elnora finds solace in the wonders of nature and the kindliness of a neighboring couple, Uncle Wesley and Aunt Margaret.
The story revolves around Elnora's love of the swamp, and the friendship she forms with The Bird Woman, (modeled after Porter, a naturalist herself), who buys moths, butterflies and other specimens the young girl can gather, preserve and mount. While a self-contained novel, AGOFL draws something from an earlier story, Freckles, also set in the Limberlost swamp.
Besides a mother-daughter story, there are additional characters, such as Billy, one of three nearly feral children, who deprive Elnora of her lunch, and a possible love interest, Phillip Ammon, a young lawyer from Chicago.
A Renaissance woman, Porter conceived and built her own log cabin, (14 rooms) in the town of Geneva, located adjacent to the same Limberlost swamp, which percolated waters from two major rivers. Her knowledge and love of this area is translated readily into this, and other, turn of the century novels.
What's remarkable, are the strong and self-reliant female characters, certainly daring for the early 1900's publication date. As a child, I could relate to the strained relationship and misunderstandings between mother and daughter. I reveled in the young girl's love of forest and wild creatures; cried for her setbacks and cheered for each small victory.
Some may say the writing is dated, and some of the language archaic. The universal themes of love, betrayal, redemption, along with human qualities such as decency, hard work and honesty, may transmit messages with a capital M, but I find it as valuable today as writings of other favorites authors: Mark Twain, Jack London and Zane Grey.
I have read and re-read this novel many times, and each time I find something new to love. Porter submitted her first stories without telling her family, and was able to see several novels and nature works published in her life time. Also recommended: Freckles, The Harvester and The Keeper Of The Bees, (the last one set along the Southern California coast).
There are Porter websites, and a museum located in Geneva, IN. Unfortunately, the forests, and much of the Limberlost swamp are gone, but maps and self-guided tours can give you a taste of what once was a magnificent watershed. Porter's cabin, with some of the original furniture and collections, still stands, as testimony to a woman of all seasons.
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