Mary Mark Ockerbloom (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} merrigold) wrote,@ 2006-10-06 21:00:00 |
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Melbourne House, Daisy, Daisy in the Field
I am happy to announce the 'Daisy' trilogy, by Susan Warner (1819-1885).
They were contributed to the Celebration by Daniel Fromont. Many thanks!
"Melbourne House"
London: Ward, Lock & Co., Ltd., 1907.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/wo
"Daisy"
London: Ward, Lock & Co., Ltd., n.d.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/wo
"Daisy in the Field"
London: Frederick Warne and Co., n.d.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/wo
Born in New York City, Susan and Anna Warner moved to a residence on Constitution Island, opposite West Point, in 1834. The family intended to live on the island only during the summer but after financial reverses affected their father's fortune, they had to sell their home in New York City. In order to support themselves and their father, Susan and Anna Warner began to write. They spent winters on the mainland at friend's houses, and in the summer lived on the island, doing their own gardening and cooking, and teaching Sunday School to the cadets at West Point. The Warner's property was eventually donated it to the Military Academy, and the sisters are buried, according to their wishes, near the Cadets' monument in the West Point cemetery. Echoes of Susan Warner's life appear in the Daisy books: her religious belief, her experience of both wealth and poverty, her love of West Point, and the anguish of the civil war.
Daisy is the daughter of wealthy Southern parents, much of whose income derives from her mother's plantation, 'Magnolia.' She grows up at one of her father's properties in Virginia, 'Melbourne House.' Daisy is a delicate child, who has been 'protected' from any form of teaching, religious or otherwise. The first book begins when she is introduced to Christianity, around age seven. By the end of the books, Daisy is in her early twenties. In between, the Civil War has rocked the United States of America to its foundations; Daisy's family has been torn apart; and Daisy's religious and political beliefs have been repeatedly tested.
The greatest strength of the books, to me, is their depiction of both South and North before and during the American Civil War. The conflict between the States is foreshadowed in the first book, "Melbourne House". Brilliantly, the writer shows us that the relationship between Daisy and her frighteningly self-involved mother is truly one of slavery: "Her kiss had been affectionate, her care was motherly; but with all that there was not a turn of her hand nor a tone of her calm voice, that did not imply and express absolute possession, perfect control. That Daisy was a little piece of property belonging to her in sole right, with which she did and would do precisely what it might please her, with very little concern how or whether it might please Daisy." Daisy's conflict with her mother emerges because of Daisy's religious convictions, but for her mother it is clearly a conflict of authority. At one point Mrs. Randolph tells her husband, chillingly, "I would as lief not have a child as not have her mind me. She shall do what I bid her, if she dies for it." When Mrs. Randolph demands of Daisy's doctor "Are you not, in part at least, a Southerner?" future battle lines are clearly indicated: Southern pride faces Yankee determination.
The second book, "Daisy", explicitly contrasts South and North. Daisy is under the direction of surrogate parents: her aunt Gary in the South, Dr. Sandford in the North. With Aunt Gary, Daisy goes to live on the plantation she will someday inherit from her mother. There she learns first-hand that slavery exists, the abuses it involves, and that it is the foundation of her parents' fortune. "The right and the wrong, were the two things that presented themselves to my view; and oh, my sorrow and heartbreak was, that papa was in the wrong. I could not believe it, and yet I could not get rid of it. There were oppressors and oppressed in the world; and he was one of the oppressors." In the second half of the book, Daisy is taken away from Magnolia, and sent to a boarding school in the North. In school in New York, and in visits to Washington and West Point, Daisy learns a great deal about herself and the world. She also learns to understand and love the spirit and determination of the North. By the end of this book, she is no longer a child, she is a young woman, if only seventeen.
In the third book, "Daisy in the Field", the field is one of battle. The conflicts over religion, authority, and politics that were developed through the first two books must now be faced directly. The Northern and Southern states are openly at war. Daisy is returned to her family, ardent supporters of the South, when her heart and soul are with the North. She too is on a battlefield, an emotional and spiritual one. But she is no longer a little child: she has a voice in her own affairs when she chooses to use it, and a will as strong as her mother's when she chooses to assert it. Where she has been sent North or South at the direction of others in the first two books, Daisy now begins to direct both herself and others, to the Holy Land, to a Washington hospital for wounded soldiers, inevitably, to Heaven. Always, her deepest struggle is to follow, not her own will, but that of God. Her goal is to give herself into His hands, and live the life that He intends. "I could always pray; and I could be quiet and trust; and I could be full of faith, hope and love; and anybody with those is not unhappy."
I am happy to announce the 'Daisy' trilogy, by Susan Warner (1819-1885).
They were contributed to the Celebration by Daniel Fromont. Many thanks!
"Melbourne House"
London: Ward, Lock & Co., Ltd., 1907.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/wo
"Daisy"
London: Ward, Lock & Co., Ltd., n.d.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/wo
"Daisy in the Field"
London: Frederick Warne and Co., n.d.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/wo
Born in New York City, Susan and Anna Warner moved to a residence on Constitution Island, opposite West Point, in 1834. The family intended to live on the island only during the summer but after financial reverses affected their father's fortune, they had to sell their home in New York City. In order to support themselves and their father, Susan and Anna Warner began to write. They spent winters on the mainland at friend's houses, and in the summer lived on the island, doing their own gardening and cooking, and teaching Sunday School to the cadets at West Point. The Warner's property was eventually donated it to the Military Academy, and the sisters are buried, according to their wishes, near the Cadets' monument in the West Point cemetery. Echoes of Susan Warner's life appear in the Daisy books: her religious belief, her experience of both wealth and poverty, her love of West Point, and the anguish of the civil war.
Daisy is the daughter of wealthy Southern parents, much of whose income derives from her mother's plantation, 'Magnolia.' She grows up at one of her father's properties in Virginia, 'Melbourne House.' Daisy is a delicate child, who has been 'protected' from any form of teaching, religious or otherwise. The first book begins when she is introduced to Christianity, around age seven. By the end of the books, Daisy is in her early twenties. In between, the Civil War has rocked the United States of America to its foundations; Daisy's family has been torn apart; and Daisy's religious and political beliefs have been repeatedly tested.
The greatest strength of the books, to me, is their depiction of both South and North before and during the American Civil War. The conflict between the States is foreshadowed in the first book, "Melbourne House". Brilliantly, the writer shows us that the relationship between Daisy and her frighteningly self-involved mother is truly one of slavery: "Her kiss had been affectionate, her care was motherly; but with all that there was not a turn of her hand nor a tone of her calm voice, that did not imply and express absolute possession, perfect control. That Daisy was a little piece of property belonging to her in sole right, with which she did and would do precisely what it might please her, with very little concern how or whether it might please Daisy." Daisy's conflict with her mother emerges because of Daisy's religious convictions, but for her mother it is clearly a conflict of authority. At one point Mrs. Randolph tells her husband, chillingly, "I would as lief not have a child as not have her mind me. She shall do what I bid her, if she dies for it." When Mrs. Randolph demands of Daisy's doctor "Are you not, in part at least, a Southerner?" future battle lines are clearly indicated: Southern pride faces Yankee determination.
The second book, "Daisy", explicitly contrasts South and North. Daisy is under the direction of surrogate parents: her aunt Gary in the South, Dr. Sandford in the North. With Aunt Gary, Daisy goes to live on the plantation she will someday inherit from her mother. There she learns first-hand that slavery exists, the abuses it involves, and that it is the foundation of her parents' fortune. "The right and the wrong, were the two things that presented themselves to my view; and oh, my sorrow and heartbreak was, that papa was in the wrong. I could not believe it, and yet I could not get rid of it. There were oppressors and oppressed in the world; and he was one of the oppressors." In the second half of the book, Daisy is taken away from Magnolia, and sent to a boarding school in the North. In school in New York, and in visits to Washington and West Point, Daisy learns a great deal about herself and the world. She also learns to understand and love the spirit and determination of the North. By the end of this book, she is no longer a child, she is a young woman, if only seventeen.
In the third book, "Daisy in the Field", the field is one of battle. The conflicts over religion, authority, and politics that were developed through the first two books must now be faced directly. The Northern and Southern states are openly at war. Daisy is returned to her family, ardent supporters of the South, when her heart and soul are with the North. She too is on a battlefield, an emotional and spiritual one. But she is no longer a little child: she has a voice in her own affairs when she chooses to use it, and a will as strong as her mother's when she chooses to assert it. Where she has been sent North or South at the direction of others in the first two books, Daisy now begins to direct both herself and others, to the Holy Land, to a Washington hospital for wounded soldiers, inevitably, to Heaven. Always, her deepest struggle is to follow, not her own will, but that of God. Her goal is to give herself into His hands, and live the life that He intends. "I could always pray; and I could be quiet and trust; and I could be full of faith, hope and love; and anybody with those is not unhappy."
