Aunt Jane's Nieces at Millville

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Aunt Jane's Nieces at Millville
AuntJanesNiecesAtMillville.jpg
First edition
Author L. Frank Baum
(as "Edith Van Dyne")
IllustratorEmile A. Nelson
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Young adult fiction
Detective fiction
Satire
Comedy
Publisher Reilly & Britton
Publication date
1908
Media typePrint (hardcover)
Pages306 pp.
Preceded by Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad  
Followed by Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work  

Aunt Jane's Nieces at Millville is a 1908 young adult novel [1] written by L. Frank Baum, famous as the creator of the Land of Oz. It is the third volume in "the successful Aunt Jane Series," [2] following Aunt Jane's Nieces and Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad . These books for adolescent girls constituted the second greatest success of Baum's literary career, after the Oz books. Like the other books in the series, the Millville volume was released under the pen name "Edith Van Dyne," one of Baum's multiple pseudonyms.

Young adult fiction (YA) is a category of fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age. While the genre is targeted to teenagers, approximately half of YA readers are adults.

L. Frank Baum Childrens writer

Lyman Frank Baum was an American author chiefly famous for his children's books, particularly The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its sequels. He wrote 14 novels in the Oz series, plus 41 other novels, 83 short stories, over 200 poems, and at least 42 scripts. He made numerous attempts to bring his works to the stage and the nascent medium of film; the 1939 adaptation of the first Oz book would become a landmark of 20th-century cinema. His works anticipated such century-later commonplaces as television, augmented reality, laptop computers, wireless telephones, women in high-risk and action-heavy occupations, and the ubiquity of advertising on clothing.

Land of Oz Fantasy land created by L. Frank Baum

The Land of Oz is a magical country first introduced in the classic children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900).

Contents

Genre

Novels for adolescent readers can take many specific forms: after the family inheritance drama of Aunt Jane's Nieces and the travel adventure of Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad, Baum cast his third book as a small-town drama with a bucolic atmosphere, in which a traditional society is contrasted with the world of the nouveau-riche rising business class. In this, the book resembles Baum's earlier novel Annabel (1906). In the view of Baum biographer Katharine Rogers, "the substance" of the Millville book "is humor at the expense of the local yokels." [3]

<i>Annabel</i> (Baum novel) 1906 juvenile novel written by L. Frank Baum

Annabel: A Novel for Young Folk is a 1906 juvenile novel written by L. Frank Baum, the author famous for his series of books on the Land of Oz. The book was issued under the pen name "Suzanne Metcalf," one of Baum's various pseudonyms. Annabel was one of Baum's first efforts to write a novel for adolescent girls – who soon became one of his most important audiences.

The novel has other aspects too, however. Baum would spend much of the last decade of his writing career working in the girl-detective vein [4] — in his books The Daring Twins and Phoebe Daring (1911–12) and in the first five books of the Mary Louise series (1916–20). Yet he made his first ventures in the genre in some of the Aunt Jane books, notably here in the third book of the series. His handling of the detective genre here is satiric, though; the three cousins are influenced in their detecting effort by the novels they have read – and their efforts are soon shown to be misguided and erroneous. (The plot does eventually resolve itself as something of a detective story, as the Merrick clan solves a mystery involving the fate of key supporting characters. The plot features a locked cabinet with a secret compartment – with another secret compartment inside that.)

<i>The Daring Twins</i> book by L. Frank Baum

The Daring Twins: A Story for Young Folk is a mystery novel for juvenile readers, written by L. Frank Baum, author of the Oz books. It was first published in 1911, and was intended as the opening installment in a series of similar books.

<i>Phoebe Daring</i> book by L. Frank Baum

Phoebe Daring: A Story for Young Folk is a mystery novel for juvenile readers, written by L. Frank Baum, the author of the Oz books. Published in 1912, it was a sequel to the previous year's The Daring Twins, and the second and final installment in a proposed series of similar books. Phoebe Daring was illustrated by Joseph Pierre Nuyttens, the artist who illustrated Baum's The Flying Girl, Annabel, and The Flying Girl and Her Chum in the same period. Hungry Tiger Press announced that they would reprint the book as Unjustly Accused! in the back of their 2006 reprint of the first book as The Secret of the Lost Fortune.

The Bluebird Books is a series of novels popular with teenage girls in the 1910s and 1920s. The series was begun by L. Frank Baum using his Edith Van Dyne pseudonym, then continued by at least three others, all using the same pseudonym. Baum wrote the first four books in the series, possibly with help from his son, Harry Neal Baum, on the third. The fifth book is based on a fragment by Baum and written by an unknown author. The last five books were written by Emma Speed Sampson. The origin of the title is uncertain, but the books were all published in hardcover with blue cloth.

Baum spreads his gentle and genial satire to other targets too, even to the popular fiction of his era. One character is a habitual reader of the "paper-covered novels" of the day, including one specific title, The Angel Maniac's Revenge. [5]

Synopsis

Aunt Jane's Nieces at Millville picks up the story of the three cousins, Patsy Doyle, Beth De Graf, and Louise Merrick, soon after their return from Europe in Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad. As in that earlier book, their benign and eccentric millionaire Uncle John devotes much of his fortune to helping others – an effort managed by Patsy's father, Major Doyle. These efforts do not always yield fiscally sound results: in one case, Merrick and Doyle loaned a few thousand dollars to a young inventor named Joseph Wegg for a patent he was developing – but Wegg lost a patent lawsuit, and Merrick now owns the collateral on Wegg's loan, a farm in a remote region of upper New York State. In his capricious way, Merrick decides to take his nieces to the farm to escape the city's heat during the approaching summer; he arranges for a real-estate agent to get the farmhouse in good order and ships crates of furnishings to the place, sight unseen.

Merrick and his three nieces come north, and find the farmhouse a surprisingly appealing place. The local inhabitants of a tiny village in the northern foothills of the Adirondack Mountains are naturally interested in the new residents; they call Merrick "the nabob." The girls quickly become fascinated by the family of the previous owner. Joe Wegg's father had been a retired sea captain, and something of a recluse; his close friend Will Thompson went mad when Captain Wegg died, and both of their fortunes mysteriously disappeared. The girls meet and become friends with Thompson's daughter Ethel, the local schoolteacher. Also, the cousins (with Louise in the lead; she takes a more prominent role in this book than in the previous volumes) decide that Captain Wegg was murdered and robbed, and set about in search of suspects.

Adirondack Mountains Mountain range in northern New York state, USA

The Adirondack Mountains form a massif in northeastern New York, United States. Its boundaries correspond to the boundaries of Adirondack Park. The mountains form a roughly circular dome, about 160 miles (260 km) in diameter and about 1 mile (1,600 m) high. The current relief owes much to glaciation.

They pry into the local past with limited results; but matters begin to clear when Joe Wegg returns home to convalesce from a car accident. The girls are dispirited to learn that there was no murder and no robbery. It is Uncle John who unravels a genuine mystery, as to the fate to the Wegg and Thompson fortunes. He recovers a missing deed that ensures that Joe Wegg and Ethel Thompson can marry in comfort and security.

City and country

As Rogers observed, Baum pokes fun at some of the small-minded habits of small-town people in this book. The real-estate agent is a comic stereotype of village crudity, pettiness, and envy; and one chapter is devoted to a bumpkin's inept attempt at finding a rich wife among the cousins. [6] Yet Baum's view of urban and rural manners does not lean wholly one way. Baum approvingly contrasts the relative moral innocence or "simplicity" of the country with the "guile" of the city; and the three cousins are praised because they are "so simple," without being "cityfied" or "stuck up." [7]

(The Aunt Jane's Nieces books have been studied for the light they cast on the "Progressive dilemma" of adapting "rural ideals to a complex urban society.") [8]

Commonalities

Elements of Baum's other books, and also of his biography, turn up in Aunt Jane's Nieces at Millville. The Wegg farm's servant Tom Hucks is described as

"A tall man, much bent at the shoulder and limping in one leg from an old hurt aggravated by rheumatism. His form was as gnarled as the tree-trunks in the apple orchard, and twisted almost as fantastically." [9]

Readers of the Oz books will recognize him as a precursor of Dr. Pipt in The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1913). The Millville book repeatedly mentions Plymouth Rock poultry; Baum was a devotee of Hamburg poultry, and published a book on the subject in 1896.

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<i>Aunt Janes Nieces Abroad</i> book by L. Frank Baum

Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad is a young adult novel written by L. Frank Baum, famous as the creator of the Land of Oz. It was the second volume in the ten-novel series Aunt Jane's Nieces, which was, after the Oz books, the second greatest success of Baum's literary career. Like the other books in the series, the novel appeared under the pen name "Edith Van Dyne," one of Baum's multiple pseudonyms.

<i>Aunt Janes Nieces in Society</i> book by L. Frank Baum

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<i>Aunt Janes Nieces and Uncle John</i> book by L. Frank Baum

Aunt Jane's Nieces and Uncle John is a young adult novel written by L. Frank Baum, famous as the creator of the Land of Oz. It is the sixth volume in the ten-book series Aunt Jane's Nieces, Baum's greatest commercial success after the Oz books themselves. Like the other books in the series, this sixth volume was issued under the pen name "Edith Van Dyne," one of Baum's multiple pseudonyms.

<i>Aunt Janes Nieces at Work</i> book by L. Frank Baum

Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work is a 1909 young adult novel, written by L. Frank Baum, famous as the creator of the Land of Oz. It is the fourth volume in the ten-book series Aunt Jane's Nieces, which was the greatest success of Baum's literary career after the Oz books themselves. Like the other books in the series, it was issued under the pen name "Edith Van Dyne," one of Baum's multiple pseudonyms.

<i>Aunt Janes Nieces in the Red Cross</i> book by L. Frank Baum

Aunt Jane's Nieces in the Red Cross is a 1915 young adult novel written by L. Frank Baum, famous as the creator of the Land of Oz. It is the tenth and final volume in Baum's Aunt Jane's Nieces series of books for adolescent girls — the second greatest success of his publishing career, after the Oz books themselves. As with all the previous books in the series, Aunt Jane's Nieces in the Red Cross was released under the pen name "Edith Van Dyne," one of Baum's various pseudonyms.

This is complete bibliography by American children's writer L. Frank Baum.

References

  1. ↑ "Edith Van Dyne," Aunt Jane's Nieces at Millville, Chicago, Reilly & Britton, 1908.
  2. ↑ Bookseller & Stationer, Vol. 24, Toronto, Maclean Publishing, 1908; p. 61.
  3. ↑ Katharine M. Rogers, L. Frank Baum, Creator of Oz: A Biography, New York, St. Martin's Press, 2002; p. 154.
  4. ↑ Bobbie Ann Mason, The Girl Sleuth, Athens, GA, University of Georgia Press, 1995.
  5. ↑ Aunt Jane's Nieces at Millville, pp. 233, 236.
  6. ↑ Aunt Jane's Nieces at Millville, pp. 231-9.
  7. ↑ Aunt Jane's Nieces at Millville, pp. 230, 234-5.
  8. ↑ Fred Erisman, "L. Frank Baum and the Progressive Dilemma," American Quarterly, Vol. 20 No. 3 (Autumn 1968), pp. 616-23.
  9. ↑ Aunt Jane's Nieces at Millville, p. 52.
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