Margaret WiddemerReseñas

Perfectly, sublimely sweet love story from 1915. So very much up my alley it's unreal. I think I will try to find a hard copy of it. I loved it. (Is that clear yet?)
A young woman named Phyllis, who is quite on her own, works in a library. She's grateful for the job, and it's a pretty decent job, but she still feels the daily grind and regrets that her future seems to stretch, unending, with no change or rest in sight. In a moment of dissatisfaction, she wishes for a rose-garden, a husband, and enough money. It's not so much that she's thinking about being in love, it's just that in her world, a husband seems the only way for a poor working class girl to get the rose-garden and the money.
And, voila! All of the above are suddenly within reach, and what happens from there on out makes for a splendid, touching story. She's a great character, and so are the DeGuenthers (the agents of her sudden good fortune), and so is Allan. You can guess who Allan is.

There are a few books like this that I've enjoyed very much, and I knew there had to be more somewhere! I'm glad to have found this one. It is sort of a sequel to The Rose-Garden Husband, that is to say, Phyllis & Allan play a pretty big part in it, though not the starring roles. This book is about their friend who was introduced in The Rose-Garden Husband: Dr. John Hewitt. The new character is Joy Havenith, a 19-year-old girl who lives with her grandparents and has been extremely sheltered her whole life. Her grandfather is a famous poet, and he dresses her in costumes so that she can serve as his muse, and requires her to live for nothing but his poetry and his literary parties and so forth. It's odd. She develops a desire to live more of a normal life and spend time with ordinary people her own age. Eventually she makes friends with Phyllis & Allan. They invite her to spend a month at their home, but her grandfather refuses to let her go. The only way he would ever let her out of his sight, he says, is if she was engaged. (He thinks this will never happen.) Out of desperation, Joy blurts out the name of the only young man she has ever really met (and she only talked with him for a few moments, but he was kind to her): John Hewitt. Surely they will never meet again...surely she will never have to face the consequences!
This ploy actually works, and she gets to spend the month with her wonderful friends. But John Hewitt almost immediately shows up, and the rest of the story goes from there.
It's a very sweet story. Not original--I'm afraid the plot is rather predictable! But I don't mind. Comparing it with some of my other favorite early-20th-century books, it's very, very well written. Occasionally funny, easy to get lost in but not overly intense. I will definitely be checking out more of Margaret Widdemer's books.

"Why not?" becomes a Rosamund's motto when, at the age of 23, she becomes independent. She's been brought up by an uncle who hemmed her in with restrictions and expectations, and her other family members aren't much better. But when her uncle dies, she seizes the opportunity to leave town and try something new.
This seems to be a recurring theme for Margaret Widdemer: young girl who doesn't like the way her life is going suddenly has the opportunity to chase happiness.

Rosamund has a long list of wishes, some of which seem frivolous or unnecessary, but she attacks them all with her motto, "Why not?"

She buys a house from a rather intimidating man named John Squire. He lives next door to her. Like her relatives, he too seems to have pretty strict ideas as to what she should and shouldn't be doing. He's pretty quiet, but somehow he ends up involved in all of her little troubles and situations. Hmm, wonder why? For most of the book she wavers between appreciating his kindness and resenting his viewpoints. Also, she has the impression that he's approaching middle age...but that impression is not correct!

Rosamund adopts a child, because one of her wishes is to have someone around who will look up to her. She also helps out the up-and-coming young inventor Jerrold, whom she sees in the role of her "knight," another thing on her list of wishes.
She also advises a girl named Sydney, who is terribly frustrated with the way she's being prodded into the life of a society lady. Sydney's preferred pursuits are much more tomboyish. This is where the always awkward, never enjoyable, girl-dresses-as-boy plot device comes in. But of course it doesn't last. It does, however, create one of those silly misunderstandings that make Rosamund's life more complicated.
Rosamund also has a plan to support herself by telling fortunes for tourists. She doesn't really get into this, and whatever little bit she does try is obviously just fake little platitudes (kind of like the papers inside fortune cookies) or things she already knows to be true.
Margaret Widdemer is a really engaging writer. Even when I can pick apart her stories and identify some things I don't like, here I am still giving it 4 stars.

Another triumph from the author of The Rose-Garden Husband.
Delight is the name of the main character. She has a childhood that reminds me of Little Elizabeth from "Anne of Windy Poplars." Little Elizabeth is always dreaming of "Tomorrow," when everything will be wonderful. Delight is always dreaming of "year-after-next." At any rate, she hasn't any parents, and she grows up in an institution. When she's just about reached adulthood, she discovers an unknown aunt who decides to take her as a companion, which basically means live-in secretary. And the life's not so bad, except that Delight is very shut-in and basically alone, and she knows that life could be much more than that. Then her aunt dies and leaves her A LOT of money.
She decides that she is going to make everything from her daydreams come true, as far as she can. She goes and hunts up a girl that she met just once, convinced that this girl is a prime candidate for best friend. She decides to buy her own house and put as much enjoyment into her life as possible. Her decisions are motivated by more than just a desire for fun, though.
This may be a bit of a spoiler, but it will be pretty obvious to anyone who enjoys these kind of books what's going to happen, so I'm just going to give a big hint: A few chapters in, "The Year of Delight" becomes a variation on L.M. Montgomery's The Blue Castle. Although (score for Margaret Widdemer, whom I am really starting to like), this book was published a few years before The Blue Castle.
I really enjoyed it. The thing about her and her friend setting up housekeeping and hosting a bunch of other young people reminded me of the light-heartedness of Patty's Butterfly Days by Carolyn Wells. (I should stop--I've already referenced 3 other books in describing just one. I wonder how many people will have read all of them?)
The ending was good, although it deserved maybe even a little bit more sparkle and less of that guy Everett. That's what made me give it 4 stars instead of 5. But I really liked it overall.

Well, I sort of liked it, but with some reservations. Not Margaret Widdemer's strongest book, although still readable.
Marjorie met Francis and spent time with him for a few weeks before he was sent overseas in World War I. The last day they had together, he convinced her to get married. She was swept up in the romance of the situation, and two of her friends had just gotten married, so she agreed.
Fast-forward a couple of years, and though some nice enough letters have been exchanged, Marjorie realizes that she looks on Francis as a stranger and is totally terrified by the thought of his coming home to New York. But come home he does, thrilled to see her again. For a few hours she tries to camouflage her feelings, but then it just gets to be too much and Francis realizes that she's not in love with him. She offers to try and make it work anyway, which he resents. And then she gets mad and offended. It looks like they're all set to annul their marriage, but then Francis shows up and asks her to take a drive with him. She's willing, but before she knows it, they're halfway to Canada. He has a job up there in the forests, and he is hoping that a few months spent together will make everything okay.
She pretty much forgives him for kidnapping her, and there are several things she really likes about the place where they live in Canada. And she does start to look on Francis at least as a friend. In fact, she's quite touched by the evidence of how much work he had put into their new home, with her likes and interests in mind.
But then a couple more misunderstandings occur and Francis gets jealous and distrustful of Marjorie. His jealousy makes him rather brutish. He thinks she doesn't love him, so he puts on a harsh face and insists that she at least prove her honesty by taking on a fairly demanding job out there in the woods. He starts to feel guilty about this pretty quick, but just doesn't know how to make things better.
Anyway, there is a happy ending, but overall Francis is pretty high-handed and too easily angered.

This is a FAR, FAR cry from Margaret Widdemer's other books that I have read. It's a collection of short stories, the first of which ends on a mildly happy note, but the rest have as their theme shame, despair and death. I can hardly believe that this is the same author.
Something just went wrong here. I didn't even really finish it, just skimmed to see if any of the other stories got any better. (Nope.)
Her others that I have read are great, though, to the same degree that this is not!

This book deals with a large family of siblings, as they one by one get married off. Some of their stories are cute, some are sweet, some are just strange or blah, and most of them are funny. Not my favorite of Margaret Widdemer's books so far as a whole, but a couple of the stories were pretty memorable. My favorite: one of the sisters, Annice, is desperate to own a silk dress and decides that any effort is worth it. She reads in an old book that there is a law that if a woman asks a man to marry her and he refuses, he is obligated to buy her a silk dress (who would write a law like that???). Anyway, Annice selects the bachelor most unlikely to get married, and decides to throw herself in his way a few times and then propose. It sounds ridiculous, and it is, but it's also pretty funny, and she's kind of sweetly naive when he truly does start to be attracted to her. He's a little bit older, and kind of serious and thoughtful and old-fashioned, and she's a lot like him, which he's never seen in a girl before.

Not the best place to start with Margaret Widdemer books, but amusing enough.

Stars just because of the sweetness of the story.

I love MW's writing but this collection of short stories was a bit different than the romantic novels that made me a fan. The writing it's very good. The subject matter for the most part was serious, such as teen pregnancy and sexuality, suicide, etc. I was kind of surprised to see these topics handled in a book from a hundred years ago that seemed to be a YA book. I did like this book even though it was not what I was expecting.
Synopsis: A collection of short stories about growing up in a summer resort town at the turn of the century.

The main characters are different in each story but turn up in supporting roles throughout. It made me want to reread it and added to the depth of each story as I made connections and got to know the characters.

Enjoyable plot, interesting characters, and a deep mystery. A great read for a rainy day. This author has written many books and I am excited to try out others!

A book I've not read!

I love MW's writing but this collection of short stories was a bit different than the romantic novels that made me a fan. The writing it's very good. The subject matter for the most part was serious, such as teen pregnancy and sexuality, suicide, etc. I was kind of surprised to see these topics handled in a book from a hundred years ago that seemed to be a YA book. I did like this book even though it was not what I was expecting.
Synopsis: A collection of short stories about growing up in a summer resort town at the turn of the century.

The main characters are different in each story but turn up in supporting roles throughout. It made me want to reread it and added to the depth of each story as I made connections and got to know the characters.

I love MW's writing but this collection of short stories was a bit different than the romantic novels that made me a fan. The writing it's very good. The subject matter for the most part was serious, such as teen pregnancy and sexuality, suicide, etc. I was kind of surprised to see these topics handled in a book from a hundred years ago that seemed to be a YA book. I did like this book even though it was not what I was expecting.
Synopsis: A collection of short stories about growing up in a summer resort town at the turn of the century.

The main characters are different in each story but turn up in supporting roles throughout. It made me want to reread it and added to the depth of each story as I made connections and got to know the characters.

I love books like this. The plot is somewhat predictable but I didn't mind. Joy is simply adorable, and John is great character as well. Phyllis and Allan of [b:The Rose-Garden Husband|8042424|The Rose-Garden Husband|Margaret Widdemer|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327985424s/8042424.jpg|12674175] are supporting characters. At one point, they all put on an amateur performance of [b:Iolanthe|5475135|Iolanthe|W.S. Gilbert|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327919217s/5475135.jpg|5542776], which made me very happy.

Joy's poet grandfather is a satiric character, which is interesting considering Margaret Widdemer was a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet herself.

A classic Gothic romance, still a good read after all these years. In the 1840's, Perdita Van Dorn is an orphan, the adopted niece of ferryman Jacob Van Dorn. Across the Hudson River is the Red Castle, as huge mansion built a century ago by a slave trader. Legend says that any woman brought to the castle will be shamed. It is now occupied by the original owner's orphaned granddaughters, cousins Isobel and Eugenia, who are both subject to wild mood swings. All three girls are about the same age; Isobel and Perdita grow up as good friends. Eugenia is set to inherit the castle when she marries another cousin, Major Mark Harradine, a hero of the Mexican War. But she flies into a rage and refuses him, and he marries Perdita instead. She loves him unreservedly, but there are dark doings afoot and many secrets to uncover before the happy ending.