Aunt Jane's Nieces in Society

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Aunt Jane's Nieces in Society
AuntJanesNiecesInSociety.jpg
First edition
Author L. Frank Baum
(as "Edith Van Dyne")
IllustratorEmile A. Nelson
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Young adult fiction
Crime fiction
Satire
Publisher Reilly & Britton
Publication date
1910
Media typePrint (hardcover)
Pages264 pp.
Preceded by Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work  
Followed by Aunt Jane's Nieces and Uncle John  

Aunt Jane's Nieces in Society is a young adult novel written by L. Frank Baum, famous as the creator of the Land of Oz. First published in 1910, the book is the fifth volume in the Aunt Jane's Nieces series, which was the second-greatest success of Baum's literary career, after the Oz books themselves.

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

The novel carries forward the continuing story of the three cousins, Louise Merrick, Beth De Graf, and Patsy Doyle, and their relatives and friends. Like the other books in the series, it was released under the pen name "Edith Van Dyne," one of Baum's multiple pseudonyms. [1]

Theme

The book "develops a favorite theme of Baum's, the emptiness and artificiality of fashionable life." [2] Throughout Baum's literary canon, but most notably in the Oz books and the Aunt Jane's Nieces series, Baum stresses the fundamental values of simplicity and naturalness as opposed to "sophistication." [3]

Characters in the book express pronounced skepticism about the pretensions of high society. Patsy argues that "all decent folks" are members of society – and when another character calls this "communism," Patsy agrees, "Perhaps so." She continues,

...certain classes have leagued together and excluded themselves from their fellows, admitting only those of their own ilk. The people didn't put them on their pedestals – they put themselves there. Yet the people bow down and worship these social gods and seem glad to have them. [4]

Beth's initial attitude is so negative that her cousin Louise calls her a "rank socialist." [5]

Synopsis

The story begins with a scene between the cousins' patron, Uncle John, and his sister-in-law, Louise's mother. Mrs. Merrick insists that the girls are suffering a disadvantage in not being active in "Fashionable Society." Though Uncle John knows that his sister-in-law is a vain and foolish woman, her criticism hits him in his most vulnerable spot; he cannot stand to think that his beloved nieces are lacking any of the good things in life. Uncle John capitalizes on a business contact with Hedrik Von Taer, a fixture of the Four Hundred, the social elite of New York City. The broker asks his daughter Diana Von Taer to sponsor the nieces' debut; Diana, well aware of John Merrick's millions and his importance to her father's business, agrees, as long as the girls are not "impossible."

Diana calls on the cousins individually; she is struck with Louise's sweetness and classic femininity, Patsy's liveliness, and Beth's beauty (though Diana and Beth dislike each other cordially on first acquaintance), and finds them at least marginally acceptable. Diana sponsors their debut, and all goes well; the cousins are accepted into the social whirl, and are soon managing the flower booth at the year's biggest charity ball.

Complications arise with the appearance of Arthur Weldon, the on-again off-again suitor of Louise from previous books. Arthur has been keeping company with Diana Von Taer, but once he sees Louise again his passion for her re-awakens – which arouses Diana's jealousy. Diana solicits her cousin Charles Connoldy Mershone, a ne'er-do-well and social black sheep, to pay court to Louise as a way to disrupt her romance with Arthur.

Diana doesn't anticipate that Mershone will actually fall in love with Louise – but he does. When Louise rejects him for the virtuous Arthur, Mershone goes to the extreme of abducting the young woman and keeping her at Diana's country house (in East Orange, New Jersey, then a rural backwater). Louise's absence impels her family and Arthur to call in the police and hire private detectives – one in particular, Quintus Fogerty, "the best man in all New York." Mershone is the obvious suspect in Louise's disappearance, but he is too crafty to reveal the missing girl's location. The affair allows the novel to take a look at a harsher and uglier side of contemporaneous social world.

East Orange, New Jersey City in Essex County, New Jersey, U.S.

East Orange is a city in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census the city's population was 64,270, reflecting a decline of 5,554 (−8.0%) from the 69,824 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn declined by 3,728 (−5.1%) from the 73,552 counted in the 1990 Census. The city was the state's 20th most-populous municipality in 2010, after having been the state's 14th most-populous municipality in 2000.

Louise is initially shocked and disoriented by her abduction; but after five days she recovers enough to stage an escape. During an "old fashioned snowstorm" she climbs out a window and down a trellis. She is eventually overcome by the storm, but is rescued by a passing farm couple. Arthur Weldon discovers Louise at the farmer's house, where they are joyfully re-united.

Louise's family decides not to prosecute the repentant Mershone, to avoid a newspaper scandal and to eschew the "doubtful satisfaction" of revenge. The story concludes with the very fashionable wedding of Arthur Weldon and Louise Merrick. In the end, even Beth has modified her attitudes toward the social world:

"Society," announced Beth, complacently, "is an excellent thing in the abstract. It has its black sheep, of course; but I think no more than any other established class of humanity."

"Dear me!" cried Uncle John; "you once denounced society."

"That," said she, "was before I knew anything at all about it." [6]

The detective

Baum introduces the character of the private detective Quintus Fogerty in this book; the character re-appears in a later volume of the series, Aunt Jane's Nieces on Vacation . Fogerty serves the "purpose of extricating the girls when necessary" [7] from plot difficulties. Critic Fred Erisman has judged Baum's use of this "real world" character as a tacit admission that the genial milieu of his gentler characters, the cousins and their family, cannot accommodate the darker elements of American society. [8]

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<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 in Society, Chicago, Reilly & Britton, 1910.
  2. Katharine M. Rogers, L. Frank Baum, Creator of Oz: A Biography, New York, St. Martin's Press, 2002; p. 154.
  3. Fred Erisman, "L. Frank Baum and the Progressive Dilemma," American Quarterly, Vol. 20 No. 3 (Autumn 1968), pp. 616-23.
  4. Aunt Jane's Nieces in Society, pp. 57-8.
  5. Aunt Jane's Nieces in Society, p. 68.
  6. Aunt Jane's Nieces in Society, p. 264.
  7. Raylyn Moore, Wonderful Wizard, Marvelous Land, Bowling Green, OH, Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1974; p. 213.
  8. Erisman, pp. 621-2.