The Two Elsies (Original Elsie Classics, Book 11) (Finley, Martha, Elsie Books, Bk. 11.) (Mass Market Paperback)

by Martha Finley (Author) "IT WAS A LOVELY summer morning, glorious with sunlight and sweet with the fragrance of flowers and the song of birds..." (more)
Key Phrases: Grandpa Dinsmore, Grandma Elsie, Aunt Elsie (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
There has been almost no character in American juvenile fiction which has attained more widespread interest and affection than "Elsie." -- Ladies Home Journal, April 1893 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
Living with her uncle's family on a southern plantation in the mid-nineteenth century, motherless eight-year-old Elsie finds it difficult to establish a relationship with her worldy father who seems indifferent to her religious principles. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Cumberland House Publishing (August 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581821042
• ISBN-13: 978-1581821048
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,304,142 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Chock-full of horrible lessons, August 15, 2008

By	Jennifer Joy Johnson - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Where to begin with the horrible life lessons that Elsie teaches? Perhaps start in the beginning:

1) If people are evil and unjust, the best thing you can do as a Christian is ignore it. Remember the old axiom 'All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing'? Christians should be aware of evil and unjust behavior, directed at them or otherwise.
This bad lesson is taught as Elsie's wretched cousin continues to do evil works, while Elsie just pretends she doesn't see them. She doesn't come forward about her cousin's evil works until after a little slave boy has been beaten and is about to be turned out of the house.

2) If you lavish enough adoration upon the man who ignores or ridicules you, he will eventually love you. There's a life lesson for little girls- Elsie's father is abusive, controlling, and manipulative. He punishes Elsie on whims or punishes her while excusing the worse behavior of others. Eventually he grows to love her- after she nearly wastes to death pining for his affection. Even better lesson- almost dying will make the emotionally distant man in your life love you!

3) People have it in for you because you're a Christian. No, not every non-Christian is hostile to Christians. However, anyone might feel less than charitable towards a person who constantly lectures them about their "sins", like listening to non-religious music on Sundays. Last time I read the Bible, it was the Pharisees who made up ridiculously elaborate rules and made it a sin to not follow them.

4) It's okay for a man to beat you if he thinks you were in the wrong. This isn't an argument against spanking as part of discipline- but there is a HUGE difference between spanking and beating. A buggy whip is never an appropriate tool to mete out punishment. Now, for how this lesson is taught? Elsie brings her father what she thinks is a perfect copybook lesson. She proudly opens the book to find a giant ink stain. She's shocked. Her father rages at her for spoiling the book, and then takes her innocent confusion to be outright lying. He then drags her off to beat her, only being stopped at the last moment. Elsie then says it would have been all right if he had beaten her, because he thought it was for the best.

5) That lesson leads into the next one: Hearing explanations is for losers. Every time Elsie attempts to explain something, she's shushed, smacked, starved, ridiculed, boxed on the ears, sent away in disgrace, or locked up. It's no wonder she has no backbone- if you were punished for attempting to explain yourself, you'd shut up too. The worst part is, they always ask her to explain first, but before five words are out of her mouth, it's pariah time.

6) Adult men who say that they are in love with little girls are fine people and should probably marry the girl in question. The concerned party is one Edward Travilla, who falls in love with Elsie when she's 7, and marries her as soon as her father consents. He then keeps her as his perpetual child bride. That is wrong and creepy no matter what era you're in- he is in love with a child. Not a happy friendly uncle love, but a 'I want to marry this little girl the second I'm allowed to'. If happy friendly uncle love had been made much of, only to have him surprised by her womanliness in her actual womanhood, this wouldn't be quite as creepy. However, he makes a big deal of his adult love for her and his wishes that she was just a bit older so he could actually marry her, so it's never not creepy.

7) Catholics are bad. Like, really really really Satan-worshiping bad. And nuns will whip you half to death if you don't bow down and worship statues of Mary.

8) Perhaps the deadliest thing in this world is grief and brain fever.

I read this entire series to please a lovely lady who was like a grandmother to me. I admit to lying when I told her I enjoyed them, but since the entire series is on-line now, my best friend and I read them and laugh heartily. However, these books will be kept out of our own daughters hands until they can see them for the silliness they are.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elsie Dinsmore was one of my favorite childhood books, January 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Elsie Dinsmore (Elsie Dinsmore Collection) (Library Binding)

I found it very heart-warming to find that it is not only still possible to buy a copy of Elsie Dinsmore but also that there are others that have enjoyed the book. When I was a child, I never got tired of reading this book. I found it to be strangely compelling and unforgettable. My 12-year-old daughter recently read Elsie Dinsmore and she too loved it. As an adult I can appreciate the historic significance of this book. How interesting it is to get a glimpse of life from post-Civil War life in the South. How child-rearing practices have changed! I'm not a religious person, and I've always found the book to be a bit "preachy" for my tastes, but it never kept me from reading it over and over.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elsie Dinsmore Surprise, May 27, 2004

By	Phillip Stephens "dedthang" (Wilmer, Texas United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Elsie Dinsmore (The Original Elsie Classics, Book One) (Paperback)

I hadn't thought of Elsie Dinsmore in several years. I just found out recently that this was an entire series--approximately 25 volumes I think. The way I became acquainted with the book at all was I was at my grandparents house one day, prowling around in the barn. There was a room on one side that had a roof over it instead of just rafters and I climbed up there and found all kinds of amazing things. My father and Uncle and Aunt had all left stuff behind when they grew up and it was stored here. There was a copy of Elsie Dinsmore up there. The front and back of the book were missing and it was written back before they used acid-free paper and the pages were brittle but I carried that book home with me and read it and thought it was one of the best books I'd ever read. I was probably about 8 years old at the time (actually I've forgotten), but at any rate I was thrilled to find out this book was part of an entire series. I just found out tonight that they are available at Amazon.com and that pleases me very much.

I would like to point out that (I read several reviews) while some people refer to them as sappy and that Elsie was too sweet to be real, these books were written for children, young children and were written at a time in history when the idea was that the main character of a book (especially for kids) should be (Gasp! Shock!) -- likeable. And Elsie certainly was. These books are perfect for small children. They are books that can be read and/or shared by the entire family, especially if you read to your children before bedtime (which doesn't seem to happen too much these days) but rest assured you can tuck your child(ren) in and read aloud to them and not worry about profanity, sex or any of the other things that might be objectionable for young children. Also I'd like to mention, along these lines, there were other books written for kids that were also great. There was Trixie Belden the 13-year old detective -- about 25 volumes, Beverly Gray also 25 volumes (a newspaper reporter who had all kinds of adventures) but no sex, drugs or cursing and of course everyone knows about the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. And if you can find them, there were the Tom Swift books for boys -- about a teenage scientist who invented things like a rocket ship to fly to the moon, etc. I read some of these as a kid and loved them also.