REVIEW: Esther Cameron's Story
Sep. 14th, 2014 08:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllEsther Cameron’s Story: Rosa N. Carey The Office of the Girl’s Own Paper
Subtitled ‘A Tale of Life and Influence’, my biggest grumble about this book was that the author didn’t trust her own story, and, far too often, the flow of the narrative would be halted for a little homily – either the musings of the older Esther who is telling her tale, or the wide words older people share with her during her girlhood. Though they are words full of good advice, some of them are repetitive and although some sins are besetting and we need to hear some things several times in life, Carey could have cut some of those nuggets out.
We meet Esther after she’s just admitted to a plain girl’s vanity. She’s miffed that she was named after the great Biblical beauty (although wasn’t Esther also brave and trusting?) because she isn’t pretty. She’s whinging a little about this to her school chum, and comparing herself harshly with her older sister Carrie, who is pretty and accomplished, and, in just-turned-seventeen Esther’s eyes the epitome of good. Perhaps, as we come to see, Carrie is too good (i.e. just as plain girls can be vain, do-gooders can be wrong).
For this is to be the last day of Esther’s childhood. Her uncle has come to fetch her from her boarding school, bringing with him the news that, due to unwise speculation, her father is ruined, and has suffered a mental and physical breakdown. He soon dies, leaving his wife griefstricken and a largeish family to contrive on very little.
The youngest child, Frankie or Dot, and Esther’s darling, is lame and possibly disabled in other ways. Next comes Jacqueline (or Jack), a hoydenish 14 who hadn’t gone away to school like her older sisters and shows a lack of discipline because of it. Next comes Esther, who will now have to work, like Carrie, to support the family, then there is Allan – Esther’s chum for all that she venerates Carrie – who is nearly qualified as a doctor. The eldest is Fred, who is selfish. He insists he will make it as an artist, refuses an office job that his uncle has found for him and asks for a portion of all the money that is left – and exit Fred from the story.
Fortunately, Uncle Geoff offers the indigent Camerons a home with him, but it is made clear that it is sensible Esther who will have to take on the housekeeping duties, as her mother is knocked up (in the old-fashioned sense) and Carrie is Carrie (I’ll get to what I mean by that). The whole family’s finances are straitened as a result of the new situation and the house is smaller than the home the Camerons grew up in, plus it is in a town, rather than out in the countryside. They all have to adjust.
The girls become governesses to young girls, with Carrie getting a job first, but Esther gaining the better position through her uncle’s good offices. She is to teach Flurry (or Florence) Lucas, the motherless daughter of the richest man in town. His house is run by his sister Ruth, who is also in poor health and so cannot take too much responsibility for her niece’s upbringing, but she is a sweet person, who has learned life lessons through suffering and exerts a good influence on Esther.
As the narrator, Esther admits her flaws, faults and grumbles (many of them down to youth). But she does strive to carry out the duties that she believes that God has set before her – her job, her duties at home to her younger siblings, her mother and drudgery like constant mending and managing the few household servants. Much of it is hard and monotonous. Her burden is shared on occasion, but not as much as it should be.
The really interesting figure n this book, and a type that must be drawn from life is Carrie. The seeds can be seen in the good old days, when Carrie’s delight is to do good works – visiting the poor, taking Sunday and night classes (this book is set in the 19th century). However, she puts this above practicing and performing her music, even though she is a better musician that Esther, as Esther knows all too well, or helping very much at home. When the family moves to their new situation, and help is even more needed at home because of Mrs Cameron’s delicacy and the lack of money, Carrie chooses to use her ‘lesiure’ hours outside the family circle, leaving the work at home (mending! tending to Dot!) to Esther. In this, she’s encouraged by the insensitive Vicar’s wife – as if the fact that two of the Camerons are invalids didn’t mean that she was needed at home – who goes so far as to undermine Mrs Cameron’s paternal authority. Carrie will not even accept the offer of a holiday with the Lucases at their seaside cottage, so the treat is all Esther and Dot’s.
Of course, he holiday becomes no treat when Flurry decides to be naughty, dragging crippled Dot along with her and nearly getting drowned. Esther saves the day, thus forever endearing herself to Giles Lucas, whom she always used to think thought her too childish. But almost immediately after that, Carrie’s stubbornness, described as ‘spiritual self-will’ leads to herself making herself seriously ill. Esther is now called upon to nurse Carrie. Although she willingly does so, it takes months, during which she realises that she misses the Cedars and the Lucases who live there. (You can see where that’s going.)
There s a moment near the end that reminded me of a speech by Marianne Dashwood to Elinor in ‘Sense and Sensibility’ where Carrie shares with Esther what she’s learned after her sickness, namely that Esther, who was more obedient to their mother and, ultimately, God, and did the homely, dull work needed to keep the family ticking, was behaving more correctly. It wasn’t really discussed, but Esther was also better at obeying the teaching about treating the Sabbath as a rest day, which allowed her health to hold up so she could do what needed to be done.
I enjoyed reading it, but I think it would have been a better story, as I said, if it had been left to breathe. Perhaps there could have been more time for Esther to sort her feelings for the Cedars and its inhabitants or know her own mind regarding Giles instead of having things told to her – although given that this is aimed at girls, maybe that’s unrealistic to expect. Spiritually, it could have gone deeper. The only character who seems to have experienced anything like a conversion is Ruth Lucas, although Esther, Giles and especially Carrie learn lessons and change.
Subtitled ‘A Tale of Life and Influence’, my biggest grumble about this book was that the author didn’t trust her own story, and, far too often, the flow of the narrative would be halted for a little homily – either the musings of the older Esther who is telling her tale, or the wide words older people share with her during her girlhood. Though they are words full of good advice, some of them are repetitive and although some sins are besetting and we need to hear some things several times in life, Carey could have cut some of those nuggets out.
We meet Esther after she’s just admitted to a plain girl’s vanity. She’s miffed that she was named after the great Biblical beauty (although wasn’t Esther also brave and trusting?) because she isn’t pretty. She’s whinging a little about this to her school chum, and comparing herself harshly with her older sister Carrie, who is pretty and accomplished, and, in just-turned-seventeen Esther’s eyes the epitome of good. Perhaps, as we come to see, Carrie is too good (i.e. just as plain girls can be vain, do-gooders can be wrong).
For this is to be the last day of Esther’s childhood. Her uncle has come to fetch her from her boarding school, bringing with him the news that, due to unwise speculation, her father is ruined, and has suffered a mental and physical breakdown. He soon dies, leaving his wife griefstricken and a largeish family to contrive on very little.
The youngest child, Frankie or Dot, and Esther’s darling, is lame and possibly disabled in other ways. Next comes Jacqueline (or Jack), a hoydenish 14 who hadn’t gone away to school like her older sisters and shows a lack of discipline because of it. Next comes Esther, who will now have to work, like Carrie, to support the family, then there is Allan – Esther’s chum for all that she venerates Carrie – who is nearly qualified as a doctor. The eldest is Fred, who is selfish. He insists he will make it as an artist, refuses an office job that his uncle has found for him and asks for a portion of all the money that is left – and exit Fred from the story.
Fortunately, Uncle Geoff offers the indigent Camerons a home with him, but it is made clear that it is sensible Esther who will have to take on the housekeeping duties, as her mother is knocked up (in the old-fashioned sense) and Carrie is Carrie (I’ll get to what I mean by that). The whole family’s finances are straitened as a result of the new situation and the house is smaller than the home the Camerons grew up in, plus it is in a town, rather than out in the countryside. They all have to adjust.
The girls become governesses to young girls, with Carrie getting a job first, but Esther gaining the better position through her uncle’s good offices. She is to teach Flurry (or Florence) Lucas, the motherless daughter of the richest man in town. His house is run by his sister Ruth, who is also in poor health and so cannot take too much responsibility for her niece’s upbringing, but she is a sweet person, who has learned life lessons through suffering and exerts a good influence on Esther.
As the narrator, Esther admits her flaws, faults and grumbles (many of them down to youth). But she does strive to carry out the duties that she believes that God has set before her – her job, her duties at home to her younger siblings, her mother and drudgery like constant mending and managing the few household servants. Much of it is hard and monotonous. Her burden is shared on occasion, but not as much as it should be.
The really interesting figure n this book, and a type that must be drawn from life is Carrie. The seeds can be seen in the good old days, when Carrie’s delight is to do good works – visiting the poor, taking Sunday and night classes (this book is set in the 19th century). However, she puts this above practicing and performing her music, even though she is a better musician that Esther, as Esther knows all too well, or helping very much at home. When the family moves to their new situation, and help is even more needed at home because of Mrs Cameron’s delicacy and the lack of money, Carrie chooses to use her ‘lesiure’ hours outside the family circle, leaving the work at home (mending! tending to Dot!) to Esther. In this, she’s encouraged by the insensitive Vicar’s wife – as if the fact that two of the Camerons are invalids didn’t mean that she was needed at home – who goes so far as to undermine Mrs Cameron’s paternal authority. Carrie will not even accept the offer of a holiday with the Lucases at their seaside cottage, so the treat is all Esther and Dot’s.
Of course, he holiday becomes no treat when Flurry decides to be naughty, dragging crippled Dot along with her and nearly getting drowned. Esther saves the day, thus forever endearing herself to Giles Lucas, whom she always used to think thought her too childish. But almost immediately after that, Carrie’s stubbornness, described as ‘spiritual self-will’ leads to herself making herself seriously ill. Esther is now called upon to nurse Carrie. Although she willingly does so, it takes months, during which she realises that she misses the Cedars and the Lucases who live there. (You can see where that’s going.)
There s a moment near the end that reminded me of a speech by Marianne Dashwood to Elinor in ‘Sense and Sensibility’ where Carrie shares with Esther what she’s learned after her sickness, namely that Esther, who was more obedient to their mother and, ultimately, God, and did the homely, dull work needed to keep the family ticking, was behaving more correctly. It wasn’t really discussed, but Esther was also better at obeying the teaching about treating the Sabbath as a rest day, which allowed her health to hold up so she could do what needed to be done.
I enjoyed reading it, but I think it would have been a better story, as I said, if it had been left to breathe. Perhaps there could have been more time for Esther to sort her feelings for the Cedars and its inhabitants or know her own mind regarding Giles instead of having things told to her – although given that this is aimed at girls, maybe that’s unrealistic to expect. Spiritually, it could have gone deeper. The only character who seems to have experienced anything like a conversion is Ruth Lucas, although Esther, Giles and especially Carrie learn lessons and change.
