The shuttle [Paperback]

Frances Hodgson Burnett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 4, 2009

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: If he had been marrying a woman with more brains, she would be more difficult to subdue, but with Rosalie Vanderpoel, processes were not necessary. If you shocked, bewildered or frightened her with accusations, sulks, or sneers, her light, innocent head was set in such a whirl that the rest was easy. It was possible, upon the whole, that the thing might not turn out so infernally ill after all. Supposing that it had been Bettina who had been the marriageable one! Appreciating to the full the many reasons for rejoicing that she had not been, he walked in gloomy reflection home. CHAPTER III YOUNG LADY ANSTRUTHERS When the marriage took place the event was accompanied by an ingenuously elate flourish of trumpets. Miss VanderpoePs frocks were multitudinous and wonderful, as also her jewels purchased at Tiffany's. She carried a thousand trunks—more or less—across the Atlantic. When the ship steamed away from the dock, the wharf was like a flower garden in the blaze of brilliant and delicate attire worn by the bevy of relatives and intimates who stood waving their handkerchiefs and laughingly calling out farewell good wishes. Sir Nigel's mental attitude was not a sympathetic or admiring one as he stood by his bride's side looking back. If Rosy's half happy, half tearful excitement had left her the leisure to reflect on his expression, she would not have felt it encouraging. " What a deuce of a row Americans make," he said even before they were out of hearing of the voices. " It will be a positive rest to be in a country where the women do not cackle and shriek with laughter." He said it with that simple rudeness which at times professed to be almost impersonal, and which Rosalie had usually tried to believe was the outcome of a kind of cool British humour. But this time ...

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Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: General Books LLC (August 4, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1458935574
• ISBN-13: 978-1458935571
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,344,762 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An old-fashioned page turner, September 9, 2001

By 

Ann E. Nichols (Sierra Vista, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Shuttle (The Best Sellers of 1907) (Library Binding)

The book is set in the 19th century, but the heroine, Bettina Vanderpoel of the filthy rich New York Vanderpoels, is no shrinking violet. That role is left to her older sister, sweet and not overly bright Rosalie. The story starts out with Rosalie being courted by and married to Sir Nigel Anstruthers, an impoverished English aristocrat on the make for a rich wife. Although she is only eight at the time, Betty hates Sir Nigel. Her instincts are on the money. Sir Nigel is a rotter, a blackguard, a cad, and a bounder. He is utterly infuriated that he did not automatically gain control of Rosalie's money when he married her. He and his equally appalling mother start a loathsome campaign of emotional abuse that gentle Rosalie is not equal to. Luckily, by chapter five it is 12 years later and Bettina has grown into a fine, strong-minded woman who has all the business sense that made the Vanderpoel fortune. The rest of the book tells us how she rescues her sister, her nephew, and the Anstruthers estate from Sir Nigel. The hero of the book is another impoverished aristocrat, but cut from genuinely noble cloth, even if most of his ancestors were of the Sir Nigel type.
Before the book is over, Bettina will be trapped, injured, and at the mercy of Sir Nigel, who has Perfectly Awful plans for the lovely lady. Will Bettina wring her hands helplessly and beg?
Don't be silly. Read and see how love, virtue, and justice triumph and Sir Nigel gets his.

53 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful ArtfullyTold Story!, February 7, 2005

By 

F. J. Powell (Chester, SC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Shuttle (Hardcover)

I have a 1907 edition of this book that I love.. I've read it several times and each time I savour the language and the world that Frances Hodgeson Burnett described before the First World War: a world of English village streets with sound of carts clattering past hawthorn hedges and brash young American boys bicyling in buttonup boots and celluloid collars up the pleached alleys of country estates.
I think that the previous reviewer has unfortunetely missed much of the subtlety of the story, painting it in almost comicbook colours. It's "comfort reading" for adults who grew up making friends with Little Lord Fauntleroy and a Secret Garden. This is a novel that celebrates the goodness of people and cultures on both sides of the Atlantic in tender and funny ways that remind me of Lousia May Alcott's books and in the end, metes out justice in very satisfying ways. You might also want to see if you can find F H Burnett's "T. Tembarom" --which is, as her characters themselves might put it, a "bang-up" book as well.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Shuttle, May 2, 2008

By 

Sheila C. Emanuel (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Shuttle (Paperback)

This was a fantastic book and a long one (I like that). I took it on a ski vacation and was tempted to take it to the slopes with me. I finally realized that was not a great idea but I could hardly wait to get back to my room, get comfortable, and begin reading again.