What Can she Do?

"What Can she Do?" was originally published in 1873 by E. P. Roe, a Presbyterian pastor and an author. About a month ago I picked up this edition of the book, printed in 1901, and when I brought it home, I ended up doing something with it that I don't often do with my old books: I read it.

And I ended up really liking it!

Usually my older books are displayed on my shelves, protected from damage, and I'll occasionally flip through them and read a few pages here and there. But this book was different. It sat on the dining room table by my laptop for about a week and, whenever I was waiting for a game to load, I would pick it up and read.



From the title, I had no idea what to expect; I had never heard of the book or the author before. Well, after reading only the dedication I had a pretty good grasp on Mr. Roe's view of helpless, simpering women. Haha.

The plot centers around the Allen family which consists of Mr. and Mrs. Allen and their three daughters, Laura, Edith, and Zell. Mr. Allen is a wealthy businessman prone to taking risks and his ailing wife spends her time at home, relaxing and recuperating (until the next social event rolls around - then she's never too ill to get out of bed). Left largely to their own devices, the three girl spend their nights lavishly entertaining their beaux. Laura, the eldest, is being courted by Mr. Goulden, an attentive, somewhat dull businessman. Edith has Gus Elliot, a man easily-controlled, and Zell is being seen by the rakish Mr. Van Dam.

The family's hopes for a bright future are dashed when the conniving Mr. Fox utterly destroys Mr. Allen's business and the family loses their fortune. To top it all off, Mr. Allen suffers from an attack of apoplexy and dies. Suddenly the girls are thrust out into the world, penniless, jobless, and without skill. Moving to the country, the girls must find a way to support themselves despite never having been trained to do a single day of honest work in their entire lives. Can they rally together and make the best of the situation? What about the three men? Are they still willing to pursue marriage now that the girls haven't any money?

I won't give away any more of the plot so you can read it for yourself (hey, it's even a free ebook!).

One of the things I liked best about my edition of the book were the illustrations!


Mr. Allen and Edith.


Mr. Allen at head of table; Mrs. Allen to his right; Laura to Mrs. Allen's right; Zell across from Laura; Hannibal behind her; Edith to Mr. Allen's left.


Edith (standing) and Laura (sitting).

So, in the end, I wound up enjoying the book much more than I had anticipated. It had a nice plot and interesting characters and I found it a pleasing read.

There were only a few things I didn't like. Namely, Mr. Roe was very thorough in getting his message across. Understandable, though at times a bit repetitive.

Also, some of the dialogue was hard to follow since some of the characters' speech was spelled as it should be pronounced. Take, for example, the Scottish gardener, Malcom McTrump, has a very thick accent.
"Weel, noo, ye're a canny lass to coom and filch all old Malcom's secrets to set oop opposition to him But then sin' ye do it sae openly I'll tell ye all I know. The big wourld ought to be wide enought for a binnie lassie like yoursel to ha' a chance in it, and though I'm a little mon, I would na be sae mean a one as to hinder ye. Mairover the gardener's craft be a gentle one, and I see na reason why, if a whilte lily like yoursel must toil and spin, it should na be oot in God's sunshine, where the flowers bloom, instead o' pricking the bluid oot o' yer body, and the hope oot o' yer heart, wi' the needle's point, as I ha' seen sae mony o' my ain coontry lassies do. Gude-by, and may the roses in yer cheeks bloom a' the year round." (p. 160-161)
Needless to say, I read his dialogue twice.

:)

Postcard #1 - Good Luck

When I go to antique shops, something I love looking though is the bins of old postcards. I can (usually) find some really interesting ones for a great price!

I spend ages sorting through the stacks of postcards, reading through them until I find ones with uniqute messages. Those are the ones I buy.

For example, a postcard that I bought fairly recently:



It reads "Good Luck" inside a four-leaf clover with some flowers (sweet peas? pansies? violets? - I'm hopeless at identifying flowers).



And the back has a message written in the area for "addresses only" (it was never sent, so unfortunately there's no date. I'd guess between 1905 and 1915 because of the ink and the fact that it was in a bin of other postcards dated around that time). It reads:

I think it
was Grace. Have
I guess [sic] right? Thank
you very much for
the card. hoping you
are all well.
Lovingly yours,
Laura

I just wish I knew the story behind it! (In case you haven't caught on by now, I'm big on the story behind things :D ) What did Grace do? Was she right? Who did Laura give this to? Did she ever even give it? Were they all well?! If only I knew.

But I guess that's what imaginations are for.

A Story from 1834

Today I went to a booksale that the public library was holding and I came across several books that I just had to buy. One of my absolute favorites was this book that I found in the "Better Books" section for $10 (today was 50% off day!).

It's called "The Works of Laurence Sterne, in One Volume: with A Life of the Author, Written by Himself" and was published in 1834.

1834.

This is officially the oldest book I own.

In the front of the book, Thomas, the presumed owner of the book, wrote his name and the date "5th April 1837". The day he bought it? I love the old ink and his amazing handwriting.

One of the parts of the book that struck me as particularly interesting is that the images in the body of the text were glued in!

There was only one image in the main body of the text, but I did come across pages like this that made me think that perhaps it was where more pictures were originally but have fallen out over the years. I can only guess, though.

There were also three scraps of paper that I can only assume are bookmarks.

They were stuck in the middle of the book, so does that mean the reader never went back to finish?

At first I thought this one was a very old piece of ribbon until I turned it over and saw that it was a strip of newspaper.

And, lastly, in the back cover of the book, someone has written "See Eclectic Magazine, Sept. 1864." No clue as to why it's there, but I love it.

It's quite worn, but it has a history and such character. It will definitely get a place of honor on my bookshelves!

Books Galore

So, somebody let me loose at a library book sale.

Not too bad, though. 46 books for about $27! (The lady went a little easy on me, I think, because I bought so many.)

But each book I buy goes through a special process before I put it up on my bookshelves.

How I Do It:

1. Remove plastic and barcodes

When I buy books from the library, 90% of them have a barcode sticker, a plastic jacket cover, or both. I remove them.

Like this book, for instance, had a barcode sticker across the top. Stickers are pretty hard to get off without leaving a mark, but at least all that was on this cover is a couple of white marks (on her hair and in the words) but it's better than the sticker.

This time, I didn't have any books with plastic covers, but if I did they would certainly be gone. They annoy me to no end.

2. Clean the covers

Lots of dust and whatnot accumulates on book covers (especially on the old ones like I bought).

See?

I got all sorts of dust and smudges off this book (unfortunately there's nothing I can do about scratches).

I clean with an ever so slightly damp paper towel (and a smidgen of soap, if needed). This is what the paper towel looked like...

...after cleaning these books:

By the time I finished, I had gone through two more!

I had to be careful, though, because certain books (older with fabric-y covers) have to be cleaned sparingly. If not, the ink will start to come off!

3. De-scent-ify

Some books are smelly. Mostly it's cigarette smoke (gross), but other scents can really stink up a library. I haven't perfected a method of stink removal, but a pretty effective way are dryer sheets!

Cut/rip them into strips and insert them inbetween pages. It works pretty well, though some smell may linger.

And then the book goes on the shelf, dryer sheets and all, to await the end of time...or the end of their smell.

So far I've got four books currently undergoing treatment.

4. Flip through the pages

I cannot say how many hidden treasures I've found in books. Some of the coolest things are left between the pages. Like...

Newspaper clippings! When I bought this book, I had no idea that the lady who had owned it before me had stored several articles she had clipped from newspapers. They ranged from wedding announcements to recipes, all forgotten in a book called "Domestic Science; Principles and Application".

This is a copy of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" that, upon looking through the pages, has uncut pages! Not all of them are uncut, but a lot are and I just about died when I saw them. So cool!!

Letters! In a book about writing letters! Ironic, huh?

I can't begin to count how many inscriptions I've come across. I like finding them because it means that the book really meant something to the previous owner.

And the list goes on and on, including:

-Boarding passes

-Bookmarks

-Photographs

-Lottery tickets

And finally, they're ready to be catalogued and arranged on a bookshelf.

Happy reading!