Martha FinleyReviews

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Shameless drivel. An idealized version of rich white Christian family life with not a single real feeling described. 3 bible quoting sessions, and several episodes of lectures on Revolutionary War heroes (but not that Unitarian Washington) all listened to avidly by the family youngsters and adults, with encores requested.½

That title pretty much sums it up.

An idolatrous history of America wrapped in a sunday school lesson, thinly wrapped in the semblance of a story

This is among the more harmless of the Elsie books, but it leaves impossible standards of motherhood, childhood, humanhood, etc.

This books. My word, what can I even say.... More racism, more absurdly controlling parents, more destroying the spirits of a perfect child, and well, lets just say it, more grooming of the creepy paedophilic uncle figure she eventually marries. Please do not let your daughters read this.

Actually a somewhat decent story as compared to the rest of the series, though if your child has lost their father it will make them feel guilty for having normal emotions involved in grief, and for not being sad that they can no longer pray for their father. I speak from experience.

A horrifying book. I read and enjoyed it as a child, I re-read it as an adult and was really and truly stunned. It has everything, backing down to abusers, absent and then hyper controlling parents, racism, a child clinging to literally the only kind adult they had ever met and the old south!

Admittedly, these stories did significantly improve my grammar. But please. I beg you. DO NOT LET A YOUNG IMPRESSIONABLE CHILD READ THESE.

All. The. Abuse.
So much grooming. Dear lord.

All the creepy references to "my dear young child wife"

An excellent story of destroying the spirits of a perfectly sweet and passionate child

The first book in the series I tried to find out what this was actually all about. I'm usually very generous with books written such a long time ago, because life and views and experiences and beliefs were very different from what they are now. However, I couldn't believe that a little girl should be like Elsie.

I read the following two volumes, and I felt more and more uneasy: this seems to me not a normal parent-child relation, it definitely stinks of a pedophile father and his dependent victim. Although I'm sure that this thought never crossed the author's mind, it is just too exaggerated. All those father-daughter contacts are quite excessive and don't ring true to me. Still, it was so strange that I read two more sequels, so for that it deserves two stars.

If you cry easily, have some tissues set aside while you are reading this book. If you are the kind of reader that feels every emotion as the characters in the books, be prepared. I still own my copy from when I was in middle school school. Being in 6th grade reading this book, I was definitely a mess. This book is about a young girl named Elsie Dinsmore who tries to win the heart of her cruel father. Blaming Elsie for his wife’s death, he has finally agreed to meet her 8 years later. Throughout the book, Elsie tries to keep a loving outlook toward her father. There is even a part in the book where Elsie was forced to sit in another at the piano keyboard while her family ate their dinner. Elsie soon passes out due to hunger and her family said she wanted “attention.” It’s very sad but I promise the ending is worth it.

Ahh, it felt so lovely to be reading an Elsie book again! The characters are just so lovely, and the story so pure and wholesome. The morals and messages sprinkled throughout, while a bit on the nose at times, are so good and encouraging. I loved these books as a pre-teen, and still do.

Don't know how other people have found this to be a classic. So dripping with Christianity that there's no plot or story really. Gave up fast.

This is number 12 in the series written for girls in the late 1880s, which made it rather confusing since I had only previously read a couple of the much earlier books, five years ago. There are many people in Elsie's family who all seem to live in or around the same location, and I regularly lost track of who was whom.

Elsie herself, now a grandmother, does not come into this much. The earlier part of the story is taken up with her son Edward and his wife Zoe who have a disagreement about a friend who stays with them. I thought that was fairly interesting, if rather long-winded and, in places, moralistic.

The second part of the story features Elsie’s daughter Violet and her step-children. One of them has a hot temper has been threatened with boarding school. The various subplots have potential, but the style is not just old-fashioned but full of stilted and long-winded conversations and descriptions.

I can see that, for the era, the adults are in fact quite liberal and loving; maybe the author was trying to show the importance of fathers being involved in their children’s lives. There's some rather too overt Christian content, too. But the hot-tempered child Lulu is really the only interesting person in the book.

If anyone is curious, or would like to read these books from a social history point of view, they are available freely as Google Books or at Project Gutenburg, as well as published in paperback form.

I can't say I would recommend this, though, and doubt if I'll read any of the others in the lengthy 'Elsie' series.

What fascinates me the most about this particular volume of the Dinsmore series is, seeing as it was published in 1875 (10 years after the end of the Civil war) it's depictions are probably near to what author, Martha Finley actually experienced in real life.

This was a book geared toward children and teens, but it is a book rich with action, optimism and historical flair, good enough for adults. It is suggested that these books are best read in order, a lot happens before Elsie's Womanhood, making this story a shift in many ways from the previous books.

Elsie is engaged to the man she loves, enjoying and struggling with the transition from a daughter, closely watched over, to a stately wife in charge of several properties and a growing family. Finley's writing is meticulous and smooth with storylines and characters linking together.

Their are some brief, grim scenes in this about the times of slavery and viewpoints that show how different society was back then. Disturbing to a modern reader, yet it was still progressive for the time, as the reader will see. Elsie is a strong and gallant character - showing a well written and thought out female lead in early literature. There is a happiness and uplifting feeling throughout the book both in writing style and personality of the characters.

A lot happens in this book - mine is an original copy which reads very well - making this a great and surprising reading experience.

Elsie is a young teenager when this book begins, established as a wealthy young lady, now living with her much-loved father. This book follows her friendships and her maturing, as she falls in love for the first time.

There are some poignant moments as well as some that made me roll my eyes somewhat. I did feel that the story was a little more realistic than the first, and that Elsie felt a bit more believable, although the chasm between the 'good' and the 'bad' people is a little too big to be true.

A strong Christian theme underlies the story, but it wasn't quite as overt as in the first book, and Elsie wasn't so irritating as she was as a young child; she no longer keeps dissolving into tears, and while she's hardly a typical teenager, she does seem rather more likeable.

Three and a half stars, really.

Referenced in 'Jo of the Chalet School', this is the first of the much maligned 'Elsie' books. It features the rather too-good-to-be-true Elsie, who is brought up with her aunts and uncles of similar age until her father Horace returns to the family home. She is regularly bullied by her young uncle, picked upon by their governess, and then finds that her father is very strict and apparently cold to her. She longs for love, finding it in her maid 'Mammy', who has brought her up as a devout Christian. There is rather too much preaching for my tastes; I can't imagine how this would appeal to today's children, and can understand why the book have been parodied. Nobody could be quite so humble and pious at the age of eight; Elsie's worst fault appears to be her tendency to dissolve into tears at little provocation. And yet, somehow, it made compulsive reading. So much so that I've downloaded some of the sequels which are also available free for the Kindle.

What an inane book. 314 pages of nothing. The biggest crisis in the book is when the plantation owner's daughter, Elsie Dinsmore, accidentally noticed a copy of Oliver Twist on her father's desk and started to read it. Apparently she wasn't to read any books, especially novels, without passing them before her father ahead of time. Her punishment? She could not go into his office for a month unless he was there. This was a MAJOR punishment and caused great angst for the girl and her father. Many hugs and kisses later the punishment stuck. There were many prayers to God by Elsie begging forgiveness for such a grievous transgression. To understand this crisis, read the article in Wikipedia about the Elsie Dinsmore series of books by Finley.

For more information on the author and this series of books on Mildred Keith, check out Martha Finley on Wikipedia. In some of the other titles in this series, the issue of slavery is faced because members of the family own slaves and planations in Virginia.. However, not in this book. We meet two slaves and neither is called that but rather they are servants and are happy "employees" who are almost part of the family.

Too downtrodden. Made me angry. Orphan supported by her religion, downtrodden waif who always does the right thing. Too many cheeks.

Looking back on this book I'm rather surprised that it had such an emotional effect on me. I remember that this was the first time that I had ever cried while reading a book. Now it seems a bit overdone and dramatic but as an eight year old reading it for the first time it struck a definitive chord in me. Overdone sentiments notwithstanding I think the strength of the book lies in the strength of its main character. I had to laugh at one reviewers take on Elsie Dinsmore. Yes, she's entirely too perfect and possessing characteristics more akin to Mother Teresa than a normal little girl but most children who took the time to read this book probably didn't even notice, much like I didn't. Adults on the other hand are a totally different story. I think this book is definitely typical of its time. Maybe not as effective today as it was in years past.