Daily Book Excerpt: YA/Children’s books:
Further Chronicles of Avonlea
This is one of those stories where I think, “Nice try, Maud, but not only am I NOT going there with you – I kinda resent you making me go there in the first place.” Ha. I’m being dramatic – but seriously, ‘The Education of Betty’ is – I don’t know. The whole thing seems ikky to me. And that is the best and most articulate assessment I can make. I dislike the assumption that Betty needs to stop being a tomboy, needs to be pruned and shaped. Ew. I liked her better before. I dislike the assumption of our narrator that he is totally in charge of Betty’s entire life. Like – how she walks, dresses, whatever. I don’t care what anyone says – I like Betty better when we first meet her – chasing dogs across the lawn, than in the last scene – where she is submissive, ladylike, and quivering with romantic possibility. Spare me. Also – I guess I just don’t like the narrator himself. He comes across as smug, sexist, and unimaginative – not to mention jealous and ridiculous, he doesn’t have the balls in the end to just say, “YOU MUST MARRY ME” – or, eventually he does – but not before driving her into the arms of someone else. Ew. Like, dude: your days as a tutor are long gone. Stop acting like you still get to control every move Betty makes, you smug control-freak. Ew. Ikky. Ikky. I read the story keep waiting for Betty to say, “You know what, Stephen? I’ve had it with you. I can grow up on my own. I can ‘education’ myself on my own. You’re WAY too ikky, and WAY too invested in me, oh, learning how to walk slower, and keep my head erect, and comb my hair. Get a life, Stephen. Seriously.”
I never feel this way about Lucy Maud’s stuff, so whatever, in my opinion – this story is a huge misfire. You at LEAST need me to get on the narrator’s side. But in this case, I am voting against him. Because I think Betty is fine and lovely just the way she is. She’s not a terror. She’s not a juvenile delinquent. No. She just, uhm, LIKES TO READ, and likes to RUN AROUND OUTSIDE, and dismisses with a scoff the idea that women need to be ladylike. Oh my gosh, what is WRONG with Betty????? We have to call in a tutor to help her get rid of THOSE crazy ideas.
Yeah. That kind of nonsense is what kept women down, and I resent that Betty’s “education” really meant: Making her be like everyone else. So I find the story to be a huge bummer. It’s supposed to be charming, and kind of cute – you can tell, in how she writes it – it’s supposed to be a witty little domestic comedy. But it’s not.
I am going to provide an excerpt from the beginning when we get to see Betty as herself. Infinitely more interesting than the calmed-down shy coquette at the end. Ew.
Now Lucy Maud is the QUEEN of unconventional female heroines. Is Emily Byrd Starr a normal little girl? Who plays with dolls and tea sets? Uhm NO. Is Anne Shirley in any way conventional? Maybe the only conventional thing about her is that she wants desperately to belong and fit in. But, uhm, other than that? She is totally original and herself. And it’s not that these unconventional females don’t have to learn tough lessons along the way – about how to get along in the world – how to know how to pretend to fit in (like with the whole Aunt Ruth debacle in Emily Climbs) – even if every fiber of your independent unconventional soul SCREAMS against conformity. Sometimes it is better to conform to get along – than to assert your different-ness.
Yes. SOMETIMES. But ALL the time? Like with Betty?
No. Won’t go there with you, Lucy. And since in every other story you write there’s some unconventional and gorgeous and lovable female running around – I’m just gonna assume this one is a misfire, and move on. No hard feelings, Maudie.
Excerpt from Further Chronicles of Avonlea
I rode over to Glenby the next morning after my paternal interview with Sara, intending to have a frank talk with Betty and lay the foundation of a good understanding on both sides. Betty was a sharp child, with a disconcerting knack of seeing straight through grindstones; she would certainly perceive and probably resent any underhand management. I thought it best to tell her plainly that I was going to look after her.
When, however, I had encountered Betty, tearing madly down the beech avenue with a couple of dogs, her loosened hair streaming behind her like a banner of independence, and had lifted her, hatless and breathless, up before me on my mare, I found that Sara had saved me the trouble of an explanation.
“Mother says you are going to take charge of my education, Stephen,” said Betty, as soon as she could speak. “I’m glad, because I think that, for an old person, you have a good deal of sense. I suppose my education hs to be seen to, some time or other, and I’d rather you’d do it than anybody else I know.”
“Thank you, Betty,” I said gravely. “I hope I shall deserve your good opinion of my sense. I shall expect you to do as I tell you, and be guided by my advice in everything.”
“Yes, I will,” said Betty, “because I’m sure you won’t tell me to do anything I’d really hate to do. You won’t shut me up in a room and make me sew, will you? Because I won’t do it.”
I assured her I would not.
“Nor send me to a boarding school,” pursued Betty. “Mother’s always threatening to send me to one. I suppose she would have done it before this, only she knew I’d run away. You won’t send me to a boarding school, will you, Stephen? Because I won’t go.”
“No,” I said obligingly. “I won’t. I should never dream of cooping a wild little thing, like you, up in a boarding school. You’d fret your heart out like a caged skylark.”
“I know you and I are going to get along together splendidly, Stephen,” said Betty, rubbing her brown cheek chummily against my shoulder. “You are so good at understanding. Very few people are. Even dad darling didn’t understand. He let me do just as I wanted to, just because I wanted to, not because he really understood that I couldn’t be tame and play with dolls. I hate dolls! Real live babies are jolly; but dogs and horses are ever so much nicer than dolls.”
“But you must have lessons, Betty. I shall select your teachers and superintend your studies, and I shall expect you to do me credit along that line, as well as along all others.”
“I’ll try, honest and true, Stephen,” declared Betty. And she kept her word.
I hated this story too… Not only the squashing of her personality – but it _really_ creeped me out with the age difference, and the complete focus this older man (friend of her father!) had on her. ( I recognize the simliarites between Stephen and Dean Priest – but at least the Dean/Emily thing was scandalous).
melissa – Yes, there was something creepy and inappropriate in how, uhm, FIXATED he was on her. Definitely.
And the whole Dean Priest is, I have to say, one of the most genius relationships Lucy Maud has ever written – I think. I’ve read those books even more than the Anne books and I am always SLIGHTLY baffled by Dean Priest – and yet I find it totally believable.
It’s almost like you can see from the very beginning who he is, and his interest in her, even though she’s, what, 14?? But … for whatever reason (and what ARE the reasons??) – Emily is not creeped out by him and his – single-minded devotion to her.
Fascinating.
I agree. I like Dean. That relationship is facinating – and it doesn’t creep me out like this one.
I think Emily is more like 8 when she meets him (First book, visit to her Great-Aunt Nancy.) (I’ve read the Emily books more than the Anne books as well…). Some of why the Dean/Emily relationship doesn’t bug me as much is Emily is so much of an old soul. Betty seems more callow. Then, too, Dean less moulds Emily than cherishes her.
Was this short story written before Emily of New Moon? It almost feels like this story is a testbed for the subject, and LKM got it right in the Emily books.
And, you know I’m just dying here until you get to the Emily books :-)
How much do we absolutely adore Great-Aunt Nancy? Seriously – she is the kind of aunt you want to visit. She lets you alone!!
I’ll be doing the Emily books next and I’m actually kind of putting it off (obviously) because I love those books so much I don’t want to have it be over!
Okay, so Melissa, welcome to my crazy world, I have already been contemplating what episodes I want to excerpt. I have my personal favorites. What are yours??
Emily of New Moon:
— when she’s hiding under the table
— her first meeting with Ilse
— her first meeting wtih Dean on the cliff
— I also love many of the sections with Cousin Jimmy – especially when he starts to recite his poetry off by heart
— the unbeLIEVABLE moment when her horrid mean teacher comes to the house – and tries to make Emily kneel and ask for forgiveness – a truly goosebump-inducing moment
Emilys Quest
— the horrifying night when Emily is trapped in the church – and then Teddy saves her – beautiful!! Harrowing
— walking back to Shrewsbury after “running away” from Aunt Ruth’s – she goes home in the middle of the night, in a rage, talks with cousin Jimmy, and then walks back. It’s 7 miles. It’s the walk BACK that I adore … just how her rage disappears in the beauty of the dawn
— she and Ilse getting trapped by the storm – where the little child has disappeared – and Emily has her prophetic dream
— the awesome scene with the novelist where the unknown dog tears the novelist’s house to SHREDS (Emily: “Uhm, that’s not my dog”)
Emily Climbs
— I love some of the montage sequences in this book – all of Emily’s different ridiculous beaux
— the moments with Teddy’s mad mother … the letter she finds in the book
— any of the moments with Ilse – Ilse just is so alive in this book, such a real character
— her dream house – furnishing it with Dean – how she loves the house more than Dean, basically
What are your favorites??
I don’t blame you for putting it off – they are wonderful books. You could spend a month on them, and I would be thrilled :-)
Favorite scenes – all yours are up there, but there are a few more I’d add:
Emily of New Moon
— The scene where Emily and her father talk about his impending death. Actually, starting with the time she has outside, to the housekeeper shattering her, to her father rebuilding her world.
— Emily’s first visit to her mother’s room
— Perry saving her from the bull
–Mr. Carpenter’s school (didn’t you want to attend _that_ school?)
And, Uncle Jimmy’s poetry and the Farewell Summer… they’re emblazoned in my mind…
Jimmy Books!
Emily’s Quest –
— Ilse and the moustache
— the Seller of Dreams from Teddy – the whole snowstorm sequence.
–the aftermath of the snowstorm – blood is thicker than water
— Perhaps Teddy was just shy!
The dog is one of the funniest scenes ever…
And, the story of the Woman Who Spanked the King.
Emily Climbs –
–the only one I have in addition is Ilse’s wedding.
The scene in which Teddy states “There is only one star I hate. Vega of the Lyre” still chills me – the way they were cordial to each other, and he still stabs out at her is chilling.
All of Emily’s Second-sight sequences are wonderful. Ilse’s mother, the lost boy, Teddy and the ship. Oh, and the Murray Look.
I just read “The Education of Betty” and yecccch. What you all said.
“Betty had learned that she must consent to what I decreed, even when my decrees were opposed to her likings, as she had once fondly believed they never would be. . .”
Blargh. Stuff it, Humbert.
Karen – hahahahahahahahaha totally!!!! I keep waiting for her to give him the finger. Feck off, weirdo!!
melissa- Oh God. teddy and the ship.
How much do we just love Perry? What an awesome character. I love the scene when he is caught kissing Emily in Ruth’s parlor. hahahahahaha
Maybe I need to do more than one excerpt from these books – why not?? It’s my blog!!
Oh, and Melissa – that scene where Emily’s father breaks the news to her is some of Lucy Maud’s best writing ever. After Emily falls asleep, and he looks down at her, and says, out loud, “She will love deeply – she will suffer terribly – she will have glorious moments to compensate.”
girl, I have literally said those words to myself in times when I have “suffered terribly” – thinking: “He’s right. That’s how I am too. I will love deeply – I will suffer terribly – and I will have glorious moments to compensate.”
So profound.
How wonderful it would be if all parents could see their children so clearly.
I read this one yesterday morning and yeah, this one’s kinda “meh” for me too. I was kind of expecting (at least when first introduced) an Ilse Burnley-esque character in Betty (btw, the name Betty always makes me picture a ’50s housewife), but aside from “running wild” outside, she was still pretty polite and a little boring (a LOT boring post-“education”). Ilse would probably have called Stephen a blithering centipede and told him in no uncertain terms to eff right off and just have been more awesome in general.