Alice Turner Curtis

The reader of Alice Turner Cook's Little Maid series - a collection of twenty-five children's novels featuring young girls growing up in colonial and revolutionary America - might be forgiven for thinking that the Revolution was a fairly minor conflict conducted by amiable rivals, rather than a bitter struggle that divided neighbor from neighbor - a war fought by guerrilla-rebels against an occupying force that did not feel itself obligated to observe any of the customary rules of war. The terrible prison ships of Wallabout Bay, where deliberately inhumane conditions caused more American deaths than all the battles of the war combined, make no appearance in A Little Maid of Old New York; nor does the internecine violence between Patriot and Tory neighbor have any place in A Little Maid of Narragansett Bay.

By the same token, readers of A Little Maid of Old Philadelphia might wonder how such notable figures as George Washington, the Marquis de la Fayette, and General Howe found the time to conduct a war, with so many visits from endearing young girls looking for lost dogs, or eager to deliver messages and help the cause. Valley Forge makes an appearance, but don't expect tales of emaciated soldiers munching on candles to survive the winter. There is certainly mention made of hardship, but it is quickly glossed over by a tale of bringing honey to the men...

Time and distance often do soften the harsh realities of history in our collective imagination, but I think the sanitized picture painted in Curtis' books (of which I have now read three) probably owes more to the conventions governing children's literature in the early part of the twentieth century, when these titles first saw publication. The tale of two young Philadelphia girls - Ruth Pennel and Winifred Merill - who take part in plays, go to May-Day parties, and get lost while driving their pony-cart in the country, A Little Maid of Old Philadelphia can tell us more about social expectations of childhood in 1919 than in 1778. Ruth's great deed in warning Lafayette of a British plan to capture him occurs almost at the end of the book, and feels like an afterthought to the "real" story.

Still, this was an entertaining book, that will appeal to those readers with a taste for sentimental children's novels, and an interest in vintage girls' series. Just don't expect real historical fiction...… (más)

Part of Alice Turner Curtis' Little Maid series, a collection of twenty-four books, each featuring the story of a young girl during the time of the American Revolution, A Little Maid of Old New York relates the adventures of Annette Vincent, a ten-year-old girl living in occupied New York in 1783, shortly before the withdrawal of British troops from the city. Although her family are all ardent Patriots, Annette's best friend, Kathy Down, is the daughter of prominent Tories, and the majority of the book centers on Annette's efforts to remain true to her friend, while also demonstrating to her skeptical older cousin, John Van Arsdale, that she is loyal to the American cause.

This is only the second Little Maid book I have read (the first being A Little Maid of Narragansett Bay), but I already detect certain themes that most likely recur in the other titles. For a story set during a time of such violent political and social upheaval, A Little Maid of Old New York is rather sedate. Originally published in 1921, I imagine that it must conform, in this respect, to established trends in girls' literature of the era. The conflicts seem too easily resolved, with little of the ugliness that one would expect between Patriots and Tories, and the characters often seem a little one-dimensional in their virtue.

Located in a far more urban setting than A Little Maid of Narragansett Bay, this title also features a setting of greater affluence. Unfortunately, this means that there are more African-American servants and slaves, all of whom speak in the stereotypical "dialect" assigned to "negroes" in books of this type. At one point one of these characters refers to another slave as a "n*gger." There are also numerous patronizing throw-away remarks concerning Native Americans, who apparently still "lurk" around Staten Island, in a vaguely threatening manner.

Ugliness such as this is often encountered in children's books published before a certain date, but its frequency in this specific title was off-putting. Somehow its juxtaposition with the sentimental innocence of the story makes it all the more disturbing.… (más)

Alice Turner Curtis wrote twenty-four of the Little Maid books, each detailing the adventures of a young patriot girl during the time of the American Revolution. A Little Maid of Narragansett Bay is the third of this series, and contains the story of Penelope Balfour, a young farm girl in Rhode Island, whose father is off fighting with the American regiment under Colonel William Barton.

"Smiling Penny," as her older brother Ted sometimes calls her, longs to do something to help the American cause, and she soon has her opportunity... In the meantime, she and young Florence Dickinson, the daughter of wealthy Tories, quarrel and make up; and Penny becomes good friends with Mrs. Godfrey, the minister's wife.

This is a very sedate story: set during a very bloody period of history, it contains no fighting, and the conflicts (such as the resentment against the Tory family, the Dickinsons) seem too easily resolved. Of course, this was published in 1915, and is really more of a sentimental girls' novel that just happens to be set during a war, than it is a piece of realistic historical fiction. Perhaps it was thought that the latter would not be suitable for young girls? However that may be, this was an enjoyable, lighthearted read, although the stereotypical speech of some of the black ("darky") servants was disturbing.… (más)