A Few Recent e-Books

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Although I knew the basic premise I had not read this classic mainly because the characters sounded so unpleasant. I was right. They are, however, very creepily intriguing, which kept me reading through the end although my hatred of the Lord Henry character and his despoilment of initially innocent Dorian (although to me he sounds "wet" right from the beginning) made it pretty hard. It got easier once Dorian started having pangs of conscience about the horrible things he was doing in the name of hedonism and I actively cheered when he finally stabbed the corrupt portrait and died.

Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill by Alice Emerson
First in a series of girls' stories started in the nine-teens following the adventures of young orphan Ruth Fielding, who goes to live with her unfriendly and miserly uncle Jabez at the Red Mill in your stereotypical series novel small town. Uncle Jabez is such a humorless old wretch Ruth would not have survived save for the friendship of brother and sister Tom and Helen Hamilton, the friendly housekeeper, and an handicapped girl named Mercy who initially is as unpleasant as her name is sweet. Unlike most of these novels, Uncle Jabez never really "reforms," but he does mellow enough to allow for a happy ending. Also by Alice Emerson, Ruth Fielding at Snow Camp, third in the series, wherein Ruth, Tom, Helen, and other assorted classmates go up to a mountain cabin for their winter school vacation, accompanied by a runaway boy Ruth found trapped near the Red Mill. The mystery of "Fred" is only part of the adventure, which includes a blizzard, the girls lost in the woods, and a marauding panther. Really non-PC for the modern set: the boys {gasp} hunt and Ruth is forced to use a gun! All good fun.

Betty Gordon in Washington by Alice Emerson
Ms. Emerson must have specialized in orphans in unhappy homes. In the first volume of the series (not read yet), Betty's guardian, kindly Uncle Dick, unwittingly leaves her with the Peabodys on rundown Bramble Farm while he finishes business, not knowing not-so-kindly owner Mr. Peabody is an absent-minded, selfish martinet (his wife is pleasant, at least) who taunts Betty and verbally and physically abuses his poorhouse farmhand, Bob. In this outing, Bob finally calls it quits and follows a clue in finding his family to get away from the farmer, while Betty lights out for Washington DC to join her Uncle Dick, where she accidentally makes friends with a fun-loving family due to a misunderstanding at the depot. Betty's life gets a bit exciting in the last half of the book with all sorts of improbable accidents, but at least the reprehensible Peabody is gone from her life.

Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling
One of those boys' books I never read as a child. Kipling's parable about a spoiled rich boy who learns to be a man after he falls off a cruise liner and is picked up by a working fishing boat vividly brings to life the hard life of the commercial fisherman and survival upon the ocean. I've never seen the movie, which I understand beefed up the Manuel character due to Spencer Tracy's portrayal. The book is a character vehicle rather than a star vehicle and you are truly happy when Harvey returns to his parents, not a brat but a self-sufficient young man.

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 3:22:00 PM

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