Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... The Romance of a Christmas Card (1916)by Kate Douglas Wiggin
None Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. The minister grew younger every year, for Reba doubled his joys and halved his burdens, tossing them from one of her fine shoulders to the other as if they were feathers. She swept into the quiet village life of Beulah like a salt sea breeze. She infused a new spirit into the bleak church "sociables" and made them positively agreeable functions. The choir ceased from wrangling, the Sunday School plucked up courage and flourished like a green bay tree. She managed the deacons, she braced up the missionary societies, she captivated the parish, she cheered the depressed and depressing old ladies and cracked jokes with the invalids. A tale of Christmas cards and family reunions, written by the author of "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm", which I am sure I read as a child although I remember almost nothing about it. It was published in 1916 by but never mentions the World War I as it is set in the USA before it joined the war. The overt moralising and cloying sentimentality of Victorian and Edwardian books for girls somehow passed me by when I read them as a child, but I find them extremely irritating nowadays. However, in this case, I did like Reba and how she stated her opinion that it was wrong for Letty always to be a prop, expected to support others her whole life, and never be supported by others. She was rather more feisty than the usual minister's wife, while still performing that role very well. Surprisingly humorous and sweet story about the residents of a small New Hampshire village called Beulah in the 1880s. The pastor's wife designs Christmas cards which find their way into the hands of two people who left Beulah long ago and decide to come back home, looking for forgiveness and a fresh start. no reviews | add a review
"My door is on the latch tonight, The hearth fire is aglow. I seem to hear swift passing feet -- The Christ Child in the snow." Reba, the minister's new wife, was spirited, vigorous, courageous, and clever. She was also invincibly, incurably happy -- so that the minister seemed to grow younger every year. Reba doubled his joys and halved his burdens, tossing them from one of her fine shoulders to the other like feathers. She swept into the quiet village life of Beulah like a salt sea breeze. Now she has a plan -- one involving a few small verses she has penned. For there are rebellious youths and some contention in the church that threatens to split it . . . No library descriptions found.
|
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.4Literature English (North America) American fiction Later 19th Century 1861-1900LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |
I enjoyed The Romance of a Christmas Card, finding it, much like Kate Douglas Wiggin's The Old Peabody Pew: A Christmas Romance of a Country Church , an entertaining and heartwarming seasonal read. As a minister's child myself, someone who is well aware that such children are often scrutinized and judged to an excessive degree, I found the story-line involving Dick Larrabee quite interesting. I don't know that the book as a whole really moved me that deeply - somehow, I could never really become that deeply involved in the characters' struggles, emotionally speaking - but it was pleasant and sweet, with a satisfactory ending entirely in keeping with the Christmas spirit. Recommended to anyone looking for heartwarming, old-fashioned Christmas stories with a New England flavor. ( )