Customer Reviews

A Girl of the Limberlost (Dover Children's Classics)

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Think of it as a Midwestern Cinderella story, but with no glass slipper and plenty of moths. Gene Stratton Porter was at the peak of her skills when she wrote "A Girl of the Limberlost," which starts off as a young girl's struggle against her mother's virulent hatred -- and soon evolves into an enchanting little romance.

Elnora Comstock has barely signed up for college when she discovers that she can't afford it -- tuition and textbooks cost too much, and her shabby clothes are mocked by her classmates. Even worse, her half-crazy, malicious mother refuses to cough up any money.

But she soon finds that she can pay another way -- a strange lady called the Bird Woman is willing to pay money for moths, butterflies, caterpillars and chrysalids, which Elnora can easily find in a vast dangerous swamp called the Limberlost. And her friends Margaret and Wesley are happy to help her in any way they can -- clothes, a violin -- until the day when Mrs. Comstock comes to a shocking realization about her daughter.

Then Elnora encounters a wealthy young man named Philip Ammon, who has the same love of nature that she has -- as well as a wealthy socialite fiancee named Edith. But when a party in honor of Edith and Philip's engagement is wrecked by a butterfly and a fit of jealousy, he begins to realize what his true feelings for Elnora are...

"A Girl of the Limberlost" can be divided into two sections -- the first is a Cinderellaesque story about a strong, intelligent young girl who is pursing her music and education, despite her nasty old mother's loathing of her. But once that storyline is wrapped up, the second half of the book becomes a haunting, passionate love story.

Stratton-Porter was at her peak when she wrote this -- her prose is overflowing with natural beauty ("the whole earth was purple with a thick blanket of violets") and some very tough personal situations, such as when Margaret and Wesley take in a badly-abused young boy. And both halves of "A Girl of the Limberlost" reach a emotionally harrowing climax as two of the characters are forced to see the raw ugliness of their actions.

But the romance is also really adorable, especially since it's based on friendship and both parties only realize it belatedly. And Stratton-Porter adds in a touch of romance for other characters, including old married couples and snotty socialites.

Elnora is a likable, realistic girl that you'd like as a friend -- kind, charitable and hardworking, but has flashes of temper. And Philip Ammon is a rather sweet if clueless guy. Mrs. Comstock starts out as a crazy old lady who wallows in her grief and obsession with her dead husband, but Stratton-Porter rebuilds her into a character you can like and respect; Edith also starts off as a nasty snotty rich girl who cares more about social status than love, but the author puts her through the grinder and makes her more likable.

"A Girl of the Limberlost" is both a brilliant coming-of-age tale and a lush little romance, set against an epic backdrop of natural beauty. Definitely a must-read.

A lovely early 20th century book about a girl who lives in a rural area, catching rare moths to put herself through high school. This book is perfect for a girl in her young teens- an innocently romantic tale that focuses a on girl's growing understanding of her own role in the world. While the book's language and setting might seem outdated to some, the theme and plot are timeless classics.
This is a book that I have loved reading and re-reading for the past 20 years, since I was about 13 years old.

I've read this book every few years or so since I was 10(I'm now 60) the first copy being my grandmother's. One is transported into a different world, one where goals were clearer . Elnora's struggles can be related to by any girl today, and her triumph is purely her own. A lovely theme in the book allows each character to come to life as a caterpillar, spend a time in a cocoon, them emerge finally as a beautiful moth. Elnora's mother's transformation is particularly splendid. The ecological concerns of the novel convince the reader that our "modern" problems are mere variations on a theme. The reverence for hard work, creativity, and strict moral standards are refreshing.

Elnora Comstock, the plucky, resourceful heroine of this classic novel, first published in 1909, is a character who is still relevant and fascinating for today's readers. "A Girl of the Limberlost" was one of my favorite books as a girl, and it was one of my mother's and my grandmother's favorites. Like other timeless literary heroines who overcome great odds to achieve happiness (such as Anne of "Anne of Green Gables" and Jo of "Little Women"), Elnora is eternally fiesty, admirable and loveable.

When the novel opens, Elnora is determined to attend the high school in a nearby township. Her neglectful, sometimes abusive mother, Katharine, is equally determined to discourage her and ruin her dreams. Elnora and Katharine live in a cabin on the edge of the great Limberlost swamp, a place of wonder and danger, located three miles from the township where Elnora wants to go to school. The hard, cold Katharine is haunted by the death of her husband on the very day Elnora was born. She blames her only child for the death of her beloved husband because her birth kept Katharine from having the strength to aid her husband when he was drowning in the swamp.

On the first day of high school, Elnora's tacky clothes and inability to fit in with the snooty mean girls, along with the fact that she learns she will needs an unexpected amount of money for books and tuition leads her to brief despair. But her own ingenuity, along with the help of a loving neighbor couple, Margaret and Wesley Sinton, solve some of Elnora's problems.

I love the many intricate details in this book about Elnora's life in a rural early twentieth century world. For instance, the Sintons purchase clothing and accessories so that Elnora can fit in with her classmates. One article is a wonderful leather lunchbox which contains lidded dishes to hold small sandwiches, salad, condiments, dessert, milk, utensils and a cloth napkin. The descriptions of the different foods which are used to fill this lunchbox, and how Elnora's lunches eventually play a part in her meeting some destitute children whom she ultimately aides, are just fascinating.

Elnora is able to earn her way through school by her mastery of the natural world around her. She collects moths, butterflies, old Indian relics, bird's nests, specimens of tree leaves, flowers and grasses, and then either sells them or uses them to teach classes in natural history to grade school children. Her forays into the Limberlost, and what she finds there are described in loving detail.

The characters in the book are also memorable. How Katharine Comstock comes to change her outlook on life, and learn some hard lessons about the importance of motherhood and the real character of her dead husband is told with great depth of feeling. But this is not a cloying or overly sentimental book. These characters are very real and hold up very well to a twenty-first century reader's more sophisticated tastes.

Even the romance at the end of the novel, between Elnora and a handsome lawyer from Chicago, who are brought together by their love of the outdoors, is believable by today's standards. A deliciously malevolent and spoiled ex-fiancee who seeks to ruin Elnora's chance at true love is introduced, but all ends happily for everyone.

I recommend this novel highly. Gene Stratton-Porter was an important, prolific writer, and if you like this book, you should seek some other titles, especially "Freckles". "Freckles" is the prequel to "A Girl of the Limberlost" and is also a wonderful story about a young man overcoming adversity and finding love.

This review is for the Kindle edition of the novel, which contains the complete text and is available free for download to your Kindle, as the novel has entered public domain. The novel is also available in paperback and hardback editions, some of which contain copyrighted essays and criticism.

Elnora Comstock , despite country schooling, lack of money, and a mother who despises her, uses her wits and character to get an education. Her absolute understanding of right and wrong may seem quaint to a reader today, but it earns her education, money, and the love of all who meet her. The moral values exemplified by Elnora are refreshing to read about. She blames no one for her hardships, but works with all possible verve to overcome them. The ecological issues, which were emphasized in the very inferior made for tv movie, seem to presage our present day concerns. The Bird Woman is even then trying to preserve nature for the city folk who cannot enjoy it. I first read by grandmother's falling apart copy about 55 years ago. Once a decade I would locate the book somehow. Once I got it from a high school student who had inherited it from her great grandmother. Recently it showed up in the public library, but ABRIDGED.I was delighted when I discovered it had been reprinted in its original form. This book casts a strange spell over me. Edith Carr's final act of graciousness is a masterpiece of imagery.

I loved this book! Considering its age, I was expecting thick, dragging description and stilted dialog that would drive me crazy. However, there was neither--I haven't been so pleasantly surprised by a book in quite a long time! The characters immediately play with our sympathies; I even felt sorry for Kate Comstock, after all she had done to Elnora, when she learns the truth about her husband. Some of the plot twists were quite contrived (for instance, Elnora searches for how many pages for a single Yellow Emperor, and then her mother, an inexperienced moth hunter at best, finds a PAIR the first time she goes looking?), but it really didn't bother me. "Suspension of disbelief" is an easy mode to get into when the characters are this interesting. I also just loved the "test" Elnora puts forth at the end of the book. She really is a true lady, never compromising her standards and keeping her feelings for Philip in check EVEN when he comes to her a free man. It would have been very easy to throw herself into his arms for the final kiss of the book (it was what they both wanted, after all) at least fifty pages before the end, but that would have been too easy. So to those who would gripe that the book is too long, I wouldn't take out a single event. Give it a zealous four stars if you don't consider the age of the book. But grading on a curve with other books I've read from this era, five stars isn't enough!

This book makes you feel like you are there. When you read about Edith's ball, you can totally picture her dress. When Gene Porter talks about Elnora's gifts for graduation, you feel like jumping in there and seeing them for yourself, she descirbes them so well. This is a great story for someone who loves the outdoors and a little bit of romance and a tiny bit of suspense. That comes when you are finding out about Elnora's father. I just love the descriptions in this book! I cannot say it enough. I feel like I'm there, back in the time period with Elnora and experiencing everything that she experiences. With this book you can get a little bit of a lot of different types of writing. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves old stories. (Now, if you want me to tell what the story is about, here it goes.) Elnora is a girl who is growing up on the edge of a forest/swamp called the Limberlost. There she lives with her unattentive mother who has never really forgiven her husband (Elnora's father) for dieing and leaving her with a child to raise. This book follows Elnora through high school and her experiences with the "city people" and her struggles to become accepted and to earn her way through school and on to college. It also tells of her summers spent with Philip Ammon, a young man who is engaged to the most spoiled young woman one can imagine in my opinion. At the end, things are almost opposite from what they were at the beginning. At least with her mother and Philip. This story is a sort-of take off from "Freckles", which is another book by Gene Stratton Porter. "A Girl of the Limberlost" continues Porter's great talent for placing the reader in the world of the characters and using great passages telling about different kinds of flowers, ferns, mosses, and moths and butterflys. I would definetly recommend this book to a nature lover. This is a great book

Everyone who loves books should read this story!This is a VERY old Book! I am 58 years old, and I remember my Mother giving me her well read and tattered copy when I was quite young. I read it MANY times over the years, until it just fell apart! It is truly wonderful.I still remember much of it, and haven't read it in probably 40 years! I'm going to see if Amazon.com can find me a copy of it to give my daughter and grandaughter! Try it, you'll like it! Jenny Martin, Springville, Alabama

There are few books as readable, time after time, as this one by Gene Stratton-Porter. Its themes are as relevant today as they were when they were written at the turn of the century - overcoming seemingly insurmountable challenges; fitting in; challenging relationships; the value of friends and family; grief; belonging; honesty; education - formal, informal and the school of hard knocks; the wonder and beauty of the natural world - moths, woods, and swamps in particular; the ecological impact of development; love; patience; creative thinking; jealousy; and commitment.

First read at age 12 and later shared with my husband and daughters, we are enriched with every reading. Its lucid prose draws us deep into the northeastern Indiana woods, and we can't help but relish life, moths, and Elnora. Gene Stratton-Porter was once asked why she wrote such positive stories when more sensational, raw novels would probably sell more books. She said something to the effect that there is enough sordidness in the world, what we all need to be reminded of is that goodness is also there, and that she preferred writing stories which allow us to be uplifted and guided by that goodness!

Now a grandmother, I still appreciate the good fortune of having had a grandmother introduced Gene Stratton-Porter's books to me. This and should be on Oprah's Book Club and a feature film!

Everyone knows that teenage girls are supposed to experience extreme mood swings, be obsessed with their appearance and have romantic notions filling their remaining thoughts. As Henry Higgins says, their minds are full of "cotton, hay and rags." At least that is the popular stereotype, reinforced by the shallow portrayals of young girls in movies and television, who, when they aren't preoccupied with the mirror are busy trying to save the earth. That is why this book's heroine is a refreshing example of a young woman whose real attractiveness lies with her courage and intelligence, especially in the face of suffering, while she still has a healthy concern about how she is "carpentered." She also embraces a deep love for God's creation without being a rabid environmentalist.

Elnora Comstock is a 16-year-old girl who lives on the edge of a swamp called the Limberlost with her widowed mother. Elnora's life is difficult because her mother has retreated from the world since the tragic death of her beloved husband when Elnora was only a baby. Mrs. Comstock has become hardened and unloving, and Elnora's only affection is from a neighboring couple who have no children of their own. In this cold atmosphere, Elnora blossoms into a rare jewel of a person; rather than becoming embittered like her mother, she returns love for her mother's negligence and shows remarkable resourcefulness in meeting the challenges of pursuing her dreams while trying to remeain faithful to her mother's commands.

Gene Stratton Porter has written several popular novels which were bestsellers in the time they were first published in the early part of the 20th century. Freckles was somewhat of a prequel to A Girl of the Limberlost, and both books are full of accurate natural history, especially about moths and butterflies in the Limberlost Swamp in Indiana, while asserting that the wonders of nature could only have come from God's creative Hand (the author was actually married to someone named Charles Darwin Porter!)

Elnora is remarkably patient and loving while undergoing difficult trials, but rather than being an unbelievable, sickeningly-sweet character, she exhibits temper, anguish and sometimes walks a fine line between being obedient to her mother and justifying hiding certain things from her. Yet as Elnora grows into graceful maturity, her mother softens, and the reconciliation between mother and daughter is a touching reminder of how God would have us respond to providential trials. Even though we can't presently know the outcome of our daily battles, we can trust that He is lovingly guiding us to a wonderful end.