The Shuttle (novel)

Last updated

The Shuttle
Author Frances Hodgson Burnett
LanguageEnglish
Published1907

The Shuttle is a 1907 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. One of Burnett's longer and more complicated books for adults, it deals with themes of intermarriages between wealthy American heiresses and impoverished British nobles.

Contents

Plot summary

Sir Nigel Anstruthers comes to New York in search of an heiress, as he no longer has enough money to keep up his estate, Stornham Court. He marries the pretty and cosseted Rosalie Vanderpoel, the daughter of an American millionaire. But on their return to England, Nigel and his mother control and isolate Rosalie from her family. Many years later, Rosalie's now-grown up sister Bettina, who has spent a decade wondering why Rosy has lost contact with the family, arrives at Stornham Court to investigate. She discovers Rosalie and her son Ughtred, physically and emotionally fragile, living in the ruined estate. Bettina, who is both beautiful and made of considerably stronger stuff than her sister, begins to restore both Rosalie's health and spirits and the building and grounds of Stornham Court in Nigel's absence. Bettina, as an attractive heiress, attracts the attention of the local gentry and re-integrates her sister into society, while also gaining the respect of the villagers by her insistence that repairs be done by local workers.

Bettina also makes the acquaintance of another impoverished English nobleman, Lord Mount Dunstan, who has considerably more pride and spirit than Sir Nigel and has no intention of marrying an American heiress to restore his estate, but who is not well-respected in the neighborhood due to his disreputable late father and brother. Mount Dunstan regains the respect of the neighborhood due to a chance encounter with an American typewriter salesman on holiday, G. Seldon, and because he opens his estate to workers afflicted by typhoid fever. When Sir Nigel returns home to discover Rosalie and Ughtred in improved health and spirits, the estate nearly restored, and Betty responsible for it all, he tries to conceal his ill-will but has never been particularly good at self-control. In a final confrontation, Nigel attempts to bully Bettina into leaving Rosalie at Stornham Court, this time with more of her father's money, but she hides from him and eventually returns with Mount Dunstan, who she had believed dead of typhus. Mount Dunstan whips Sir Nigel "like a dog," and the latter eventually suffers a fit and dies, while Bettina and Mount Dunstan overcome their pride and confess their love for each other.

Major themes

The title of the book refers to ships passing back and forth across the Atlantic and creating alliances between England and America like the weaving of a shuttle: "As Americans discovered Europe, that continent discovered America. American beauties began to appear in English drawing-rooms and Continental salons... What could be more a matter of course than that American women, being aided by adoring fathers sumptuously to ship themselves to other lands, should begin to rule these lands also?" [1] Burnett made the transatlantic voyage thirty-three times, which was a lot for the era. [2]

Marriages between English aristocrats and American heiresses were common and of considerable public interest at the time. Some of the best known of these alliances was between Jennie Jerome and Lord Randolph Churchill, who were the parents of Winston Churchill, and between Consuelo Vanderbilt and the 9th Duke of Marlborough in 1895. Burnett would have read the gossip around the marriage of the Marlboroughs and other sources, such as Titled Americans: A list of American ladies who have married foreigners of rank, which included: ‘A carefully compiled List of Peers Who are Supposed to be eager to lay their coronets, and incidentally their hearts, at the feet of the all-conquering American Girl.’ [3]

The building and grounds of ‘Stornham Court’ were modelled after Great Maytham Hall, near Rolvenden in Kent, which had a beautiful garden that Bettina starts restoring in The Shuttle and which also inspired the titular garden of The Secret Garden . [4]

Angelica Shirley Carpenter writes in In the Garden, Essays in Honor of Frances Hodgson Burnett that Burnett's depiction of Sir Nigel's abuse of Rosalie mirrors the abuse that Burnett herself suffered at the hands of her second husband Stephen: "All the classic signs of abuse, which were not so well-known in Frances's lifetime, are catalogued in The Shuttle. Sir Nigel isolates Rosalie from her family and friends, refusing to let her parents see her when they visit England. Stephen tried this with Frances too." [5]

Publication history

Burnett began writing The Shuttle in 1900, but did not finish it until several years later. In the meantime, she wrote several other books, including The Making of a Marchioness and its sequel The Methods of Lady Walderhurst. Both The Shuttle and The Making of a Marchioness were republished in 2007 by Persephone Books. [6]

The Shuttle is on the Publishers Weekly list of bestselling novels in the United States for 1907 and 1908.

The Shuttle was made into a silent film of the same title in 1918 by Margaret Turnbull and Harvey Thew, and featured Constance Talmadge as Bettina Vanderpoel, Edith Johnson as Rosalie Vanderpoel, Edwin B. Tilton as Reuben Vanderpoel, Helen Dunbar as Mrs. Vanderpoel, George A. McDaniel as Sir Nigel Anstruthers, Albert Roscoe as Lord Mount Dunstan, Thomas Persse as Penzance, Edward Peil Sr. as Ughtred Anstruthers, and Casson Ferguson as G. Selden. It was directed by Rollin S. Sturgeon for Select Pictures. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frances Hodgson Burnett</span> British novelist and playwright (1849–1924)

Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett was a British-American novelist and playwright. She is best known for the three children's novels Little Lord Fauntleroy, A Little Princess (1905), and The Secret Garden (1911).

<i>The Secret Garden</i> 1911 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Secret Garden is a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett first published in book form in 1911, after serialisation in The American Magazine. Set in England, it is one of Burnett's most popular novels and is seen as a classic of English children's literature. Some of Burnett's other popular novels include Little Lord Fauntleroy, The Lost Prince and A Little Princess. Several stage and film adaptations have been made of The Secret Garden. The American edition was published by the Frederick A. Stokes Company with illustrations by Maria Louise Kirk and the British edition by Heinemann with illustrations by Charles Heath Robinson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winfield House</span> Official residence of the US ambassador to the UK in London

Winfield House is an English townhouse in Regent's Park, central London and the official residence of the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom. The grounds are 12 acres (4.9 ha), the largest private garden in London save for that of Buckingham Palace.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Athelhampton</span> Hamlet in Dorset, England

Athelhampton is a settlement and civil parish in Dorset, England, situated approximately 5 miles (8 km) east of Dorchester. It consists of a manor house and a former Church of England parish church. Dorset County Council's 2013 mid-year estimate of the population of the civil parish is 30.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edith Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry</span> English noble

Edith Helen Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry, DBE was a noted and influential society hostess in the United Kingdom between World War I and World War II, a friend of the first Labour prime minister, Ramsay MacDonald. She was a noted gardener and a writer and editor of the works of others.

The Gough-Calthorpe family is descended from ancient and notable families who both held lands in the area around Birmingham, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arlington Court</span> Country house in Devon

Arlington Court is a neoclassical style country house built 1820–23, situated in the parish of Arlington, next to the parish church of St James, 5+1⁄4 miles NE of Barnstaple, north Devon, England. It is a Grade II* listed building. The park and gardens are Grade II* registered on the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Stewart</span> Historic residence in Northern Ireland

Mount Stewart is a 19th-century house and garden in County Down, Northern Ireland, owned by the National Trust. Situated on the east shore of Strangford Lough, a few miles outside the town of Newtownards and near Greyabbey, it was the Irish seat of the Stewart family, Marquesses of Londonderry. Prominently associated with the 2nd Marquess, Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, Britain's Foreign Secretary at the Congress of Vienna and with the 7th Marquess, Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, the former Air Minister who at Mount Stewart attempted private diplomacy with Hitler's Germany, the house and its contents reflect the history of the family's leading role in social and political life in Britain and Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clearwell</span> Human settlement in England

Clearwell is a village and former ancient manor in the Forest of Dean, West Gloucestershire, England. A recent survey indicated that the population of Clearwell is approximately 350.

Persephone Books is an independent publisher based in Bath, England. Founded in 1999 by Nicola Beauman, Persephone Books reprints works largely by women writers of the late 19th and 20th century, though a few books by men are included. The catalogue includes fiction and non-fiction. Most books have a grey dustjacket and endpaper using a contemporaneous design, with a matching bookmark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Maytham Hall</span> English country house

Great Maytham Hall, near Rolvenden, Kent, England, is a Grade II* listed country house. The gardens are famous for providing the inspiration for The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lissan House</span> House in Cookstown, County Tyrone

Lissan House is a historic house and tourist attraction in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, that was the seat of the Staples baronets. Lissan lies nestled at the foot of the Sperrin Mountains amid ancient woodland near the historic market town of Cookstown.

<i>The Secret Garden</i> (1949 film) 1949 American drama film

The Secret Garden is a 1949 American drama film. It is the second screen adaptation of the classic 1911 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The first was a silent version released in 1919. The screenplay by Robert Ardrey was directed by Fred M. Wilcox. It centers on a young orphan who is thrust into the dark and mysterious lives of her widowed uncle and his disabled son when she comes to live with them in their isolated country house in Yorkshire, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reginald Bathurst Birch</span> English-American artist and illustrator

Reginald Bathurst Birch was an English-American artist and illustrator. He was best known for his depiction of the titular hero of Frances Hodgson Burnett's 1886 novel Little Lord Fauntleroy, which started a craze in juvenile fashion. While his illustrated corpus has eclipsed his other work, he was also an accomplished painter of portraits and landscapes.

Burnett is a Scottish surname. It is derived from a nickname from the Old French burnete, brunette, which is a diminutive of brun meaning "brown", "dark brown". Another proposed origin of the name is from burnete, a high quality wool cloth originally dyed to a dark brown colour.

<i>The Forgotten Garden</i>

The Forgotten Garden is a 2008 novel written by Australian author Kate Morton, driven by the mystery of why a 4-year-old child is found abandoned on an Australian wharf in 1913.

Sarah Hollis Andrews is a former English child actress, best known for playing the role of Mary Lennox in the British television adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden, and now continuing her career using the name Holly Hamilton.

<i>The Secret Garden</i> (1919 film) 1919 American film

The Secret Garden is a lost 1919 American drama silent film directed by Gustav von Seyffertitz and written by Frances Hodgson Burnett and Marion Fairfax. The film stars Lila Lee, Spottiswoode Aitken, Clarence Geldart, Richard Rosson, Fay Holderness and Ann Malone. The film was released on January 12, 1919, by Paramount Pictures.

The Making of a Marchioness is a 1901 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, followed by a sequel, The Methods of Lady Walderhurst. Subsequent editions published the two books together, either under the original name The Making of a Marchioness or as Emily Fox-Seton. The collected version was republished by Persephone Books in 2007, and it was then adapted for radio and television.

<i>The Shuttle</i> (film) 1918 American film

The Shuttle is a 1918 American silent romance film directed by Rollin S. Sturgeon and starring Constance Talmadge, Alan Roscoe and Edith Johnson. The film is an adaptation of the novel of the same title by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It concerns two American sisters, one of whom is married into an English family.

References

  1. ↑ Burnett, Frances Hodgson (1907). The Shuttle.
  2. ↑ "Persephone Books" . Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  3. ↑ "Persephone Books" . Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  4. ↑ "Persephone Books" . Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  5. ↑ Carpenter, Angelica Shirley (2006). In the Garden: Essays in Honor of Frances Hodgson Burnett. pp. 102–103. ISBN   9780810852884.
  6. ↑ "Persephone Books" . Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  7. ↑ "The Silent Film Still Archive" . Retrieved 8 March 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.