Agnes Adams (1891–1951)
Autor de Those Shepton Children
Series
Obras de Agnes Adams
The Queen's Gold 1 copia
Etiquetado
Conocimiento común
- Nombre canónico
- Adams, Agnes
- Nombre legal
- Adams, Agnes Louise Logan
- Otros nombres
- Logan, Agnes (birth name and published name)
Adams, Agnes (married name and published name) - Fecha de nacimiento
- 1891-08-10
- Fecha de fallecimiento
- 1951-06-06
- Género
- female
- Nacionalidad
- UK
- País (para mapa)
- UK
- Lugar de nacimiento
- Litcham, Norfolk, England, UK
- Lugares de residencia
- Wall, near Litchfield, England, UK
Chesham Bois, Buckinghamshire, England, UK
Four Oaks, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, England, UK - Educación
- Casterton School
St. Andrews University (LL A) - Ocupaciones
- Children's Book Writer
Novelist - Biografía breve
- Agnes Louise Logan Adams was a British author for both children and adults. Born in Litcham, Norfolk, in 1891, she was the daughter of a clergyman (the Rev. Josiah Warwick Adams), and was educated at Casterton School. She lived for a time in Wall (near Litcham), where her father was the vicar from 1911‑1930, as well as in Chesham Bois, in Buckinghamshire. At the time of her death in 1951, she was living in Four Oaks, Sutton Coldfield. Adams received her LLA ("Lady Literature of Arts" ‑ a degree given to female graduates in the period before they were allowed to graduate with the male students) from the University of St. Andrew's, and studied for a time in Paris. In addition to her children's books, she wrote adult novels under the name Agnes Logan. (source: The Girls' School Story Encyclopaedia)
Miembros
Reseñas
When her long-lost Uncle Hugh - the twin brother of her dead mother - turns up out of the blue one day, eponymous English girl Monica Hancox finds that she simply cannot accept him as her father has done, nor love him as her brother Jim does. Despite her feelings, Uncle Hugh joins the family, and when the Hancoxes relocate to Portugal, to find a better climate for Jim's delicate health, he comes along. Arriving at Mount Estoril shortly after a revolution has occurred, the Hancoxes find that they are in Portugal at a tense time, particularly when rumors of smugglers begin to surface. Monica's worsening relationship with Uncle Hugh, who seems to know some rather dodgy local characters, strains her usually close bond with Jim, especially when she confides her fears that he (Uncle Hugh) is up to no good. When some startling truths about Uncle Hugh are revealed, will Monica, now coping with a broken leg, be able to do what is right, and protect the honor, not just of her family, but of her nation...?
Published in 1936, Agnes Adams' An English Girl is a family story, holiday adventure, and children's mystery, all rolled into one. The developments are fairly predictable - the narrative signals Uncle Hugh's duplicitous nature early on, describing his behavior in such terms that it is clear that Monica's instinctive distrust is justified - so the mystery really lies, not in determining whether Uncle Hugh is a wrong one, but in figuring out just what it is he is up to. The book is engaging enough, for a story of its type, although I was a little put off by the ways in which it relies on stereotyped national characteristics, particularly of the English, to move the narrative along. Monica and Jim's father comments at one point that the "golden word of an Englishman" is worth a great deal in Portugal - something of which they should feel proud - while at a later point Dr. Mackenzie, the Scotsman treating Mr. Hancox when he falls ill, wonders aloud whether the distraught Uncle Hugh is English at all, given his overt emotionalism. Clearly, straightforward English honesty and reserved English stoicism in the face of trial, are very important characteristics in the identity formation of the main cast of characters, and most crucially, of the titular heroine. If at times this preoccupation with English identity felt a little overblown, I did appreciate some of the moments in which the characters reflect on the ethical ramifications of the events around them, or feel a sense of connection to the wider world. Monica's views on gun-running - "to smuggle fire-arms - to make money out of people's quarrels and misfortunes, and to put into their hands the means to kill each other nice and cheap while you feather your own nest - ugh, it's a vile game!" - struck a chord with me, as did her nighttime reflection that "she felt, somehow, no anger against Uncle Hugh or any of his friends, or against any of the people who do wretched things that mar the fair peace of God's earth; she was not angry or separated from them or in the least superior." There is a real moral sensibility here, one that is quite beautiful, despite the author's occasional digressions into nationalism.
I'm not sure to whom I would recommend An English Girl. I myself tracked it down because the author is listed in the girls' school story encyclopedia done by Sue Sims and Hilary Clare, and I was curious to see what else she had written. I suppose readers who enjoy vintage British girls' fare would be the best audience...… (más)
Published in 1936, Agnes Adams' An English Girl is a family story, holiday adventure, and children's mystery, all rolled into one. The developments are fairly predictable - the narrative signals Uncle Hugh's duplicitous nature early on, describing his behavior in such terms that it is clear that Monica's instinctive distrust is justified - so the mystery really lies, not in determining whether Uncle Hugh is a wrong one, but in figuring out just what it is he is up to. The book is engaging enough, for a story of its type, although I was a little put off by the ways in which it relies on stereotyped national characteristics, particularly of the English, to move the narrative along. Monica and Jim's father comments at one point that the "golden word of an Englishman" is worth a great deal in Portugal - something of which they should feel proud - while at a later point Dr. Mackenzie, the Scotsman treating Mr. Hancox when he falls ill, wonders aloud whether the distraught Uncle Hugh is English at all, given his overt emotionalism. Clearly, straightforward English honesty and reserved English stoicism in the face of trial, are very important characteristics in the identity formation of the main cast of characters, and most crucially, of the titular heroine. If at times this preoccupation with English identity felt a little overblown, I did appreciate some of the moments in which the characters reflect on the ethical ramifications of the events around them, or feel a sense of connection to the wider world. Monica's views on gun-running - "to smuggle fire-arms - to make money out of people's quarrels and misfortunes, and to put into their hands the means to kill each other nice and cheap while you feather your own nest - ugh, it's a vile game!" - struck a chord with me, as did her nighttime reflection that "she felt, somehow, no anger against Uncle Hugh or any of his friends, or against any of the people who do wretched things that mar the fair peace of God's earth; she was not angry or separated from them or in the least superior." There is a real moral sensibility here, one that is quite beautiful, despite the author's occasional digressions into nationalism.
I'm not sure to whom I would recommend An English Girl. I myself tracked it down because the author is listed in the girls' school story encyclopedia done by Sue Sims and Hilary Clare, and I was curious to see what else she had written. I suppose readers who enjoy vintage British girls' fare would be the best audience...… (más)
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Estadísticas
- Obras
- 6
- Miembros
- 7
- Popularidad
- #1,123,407
- Valoración
- 2.8
- Reseñas
- 2
Published in 1928, Those Shepton Children collects three of Agnes Adams' shorter works that were all released separately - Our Lil: A Village Story in 1923, That Barbara Moore in 1924, and Ella of Berry Farm in 1927 - as part of Oxford University Press's "Golden Rule Series." Although written and published in the 1920s, the stories are set almost sixty years earlier, in the mid-19th century, making them works of historical fiction. I was particularly struck, while reading, by the fact that the children depicted in Adams' stories are all members of the rural working class, as most of the vintage British children's book of this era that I have read concern themselves with the lives of middle and upper-class children. Adams depicts serious social issues and problems - the lack of educational opportunities available to the children of farmers and rural workers, particularly girls; the effects of parental alcoholism on the home; the abuse of children by their caregivers - with sympathy, and if the resolutions she offers to some of her plot-lines seem too easily accomplished, I was nevertheless impressed by the fact that she chose to explore them at all in works intended for younger readers. It is clear that education is meant to be the overarching theme here, and that Adams is attempting to depict the lives of rural children much in need of schooling, at just that moment in time when educational reform in England was coming to a head. In Ella of Berry Farm, the vicar even comes to call upon Farmer Cole, to share the news of a new Education Bill (perhaps the 1870 Education Act?) that makes education available to all, including girls. One wonders what lessons Adams hoped her readers in the 1920s would take away from these stories set in the 1860s and 70s. The benefit of education is a clear underlying theme, but there is also the issue of gender here, as each of the heroines in the three stories included in Those Shepton Children is a bit of a 'difficult' girl, one who doesn't quite fit the conventional mold. Ella is a poet, despite her father's distrust of education for girls; Lilian a philosopher in the making, with her musings about finding God in nature; while Barbara is a bit of a rebel, one not afraid to clash with the religious and educational authority figures in her small world, and one who must be persuaded with reason toward the right path, rather than forced onto it by a show of superior strength. Adams is making a point here, not just about the importance of education, but about its importance for girls, particularly girls of the lower classes, who are far more likely to need a means of earning their way in the world, than their peers in the middle and upper classes. She is also making a point about class, undermining the notion that there is less intelligence and/or curiosity in the children of the working people than in their more economically advantaged peers. All in all, quite an interesting collection of tales, one I would recommend (with the caveat that the final story, That Barbara Moore, contains two unfortunate casual uses of the word "n*gger") to those looking for vintage British girls' fare that explores issues of education and class.… (más)