Elsie Dinsmore (the Original) Synopsis

[Terrie]

I was a timid child, so I was astounded when the even-more-abused Jane Eyre mouthed off to her Evil Aunt.

Yeah, Elsie spends all her time crying--but in the face of such abuse, what the fuck else is she supposed to do? Mouth off and get decked?

The Elsie books contain something that I've often noticed in the worst of Southern pop fiction: All-Evil™ characters, and overwrought interpersonal conflict.

Sara Crewe from A Little Princess seemed to manage without crying every three seconds.

[Trynn]

Crying on abusive situations is normal, however, Elsie doesn't just cry when abused, she cries when... Well, when a hat drops. "Oh no! My papa doesn't keep the sabbath, waaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

[Kate11]

OT, but my grandmother owns a 1896 edition of the first book in the series. The inside cover page says that it's a limited edition 1 of 1,000!

[DGayle]

Sara Crewe from A Little Princess seemed to manage without crying every three seconds.

Yes! She was treated so much worse that living in Elsie's shoes would have meant having shoes. And food. And a warm place to sleep. And food that didn't require imagining. It would also mean having shoes. And Sarah's parents were dead, and she had no other family. Miss Minchin was mean and abusing physically to her, and would have thrown her to the streets if it wouldn't look bad on the school. Elsie had a reason to hope, and she had family, even mean, and she didn't risk hunger or homelessness. Sarah didn't cry at the drop of a hat. She cried rarely, and then made herself go on with life and try to find silver linings when there weren't any. Elsie cried more than Mary Anne Spier, then cried because she was crying, then cried some more.

[nickelodeon]

Princess Sara makes a good contrast to Elsie, since I think their authors were going for similar characters but the difference in their talents and capacities for good taste sets them quite far apart. Compare Sara and Captain Crewe's hugs and kisses vs Elsie's makeouts with Papa (for when someone tries to argue that snogging your daddy was normal 19th century kid stuff)-- plus scenes where Sara talks about religion vs Elsie's sermons-- plus the scenes where both girls talk back to their elders with varying results.

[Trynn]

Elsie's papa is physically abusive, just not to elsie. In one of the Mildred books, there is a scene where Elsie's little brother is asked to get Horace the newspaper. He refuses, so horASS wips him until he agrees to get it.

Elsie steps in and tries to stop the abuse, and is then punished by being treated as an outcast from the family for at least a day. As in, the family isn't allowed to even look at her.

The only reason borax never whipped elsie is because she was such a compliant child, and even then, she almost got whipped because Arthur set her up.

I ordered the modern Elsie books from the library. I'll start them when they get here.

[Lady Grass Lake]

I got the first book from Amazon, for my Kindle, I believe it's probably the unabridged original version. The cover reminds me of the Grace Livingston Hill books, two colors, no photos, and it was free, as well as book two which I am NOT going to read.

OMG I want to beat her father. After completely ignoring her existence for 8 years he comes home and take "control" of her life. Telling her what she can eat, no hot bread, no meat except for dinner, no coffee, no candy, and then limits what she can eat by putting the food on her plate. After getting through 80% of this book, I'll stick it out to the end. So many villans, the step grandmother, the horrible 2nd son, Elsie's uncle who is still in the schoolroom, who has his mother deluded, and is cruel to Elsie in many ways. The wicked baby aunt ENNA (her father's youngest sibling) who is allowed to break Elsie's beloved doll with no consequences, can demand Elsie tell her a fairy story and gets evil mommy/step grandma involved. The governness Miss day is allowed to treat Elsie horribly,\. Father Horace end up with her literally tethered to his side, on his knee, punishes her by making her sit next to his chair doing nothing while he read a book. No one calls him out on how he treats her because he is her father.

There is a lot of crap about this beautiful little 8 year old who can converse and hold the attention of a room full of men, all of whom want to fondle and pet her. I think the original intent was she sits on their laps and they stroke her hand or her hair, but after reading fondle and pet about 100 times, it just makes you wonder if it was manhandling.

Racism abounds, there is her dear Mammy Chloe who was her mother's nurse/mammy, she speaks in typical slave lingo yessm, massa, 'dem. Evil uncle steals his father's pocket watch, and Elsie tries to talk him into returning it, of course it gets broken, and he lies and says a slave did it and bribes/bullies his younger siblings into backing up his story. Said slave is seconds from having to be whipped to within an inch of his life to teach him a lesson, then sent to work on the plantation instead of being a house Nword.

I swear Steve Maxwell must have read these books and turned it into a how to manual to raise his family. Total control, children must obey all orders immediately with no questions. Bad reports from teachers require severe punisment, young children sent to bed mid-afternoon with only a single glass of water and dry bread, and are punished if they don't eat it. Elsie is made to choke down every crumb. Daddy decides if she can go outside, out of a room, even into a meadow because of "DANGER." He forbids to her to go into a meadow. She forgets and runs after an arrow shot by another child. She is so UPSET she disobeyed she immediately goes to daddy and confesses and is punished. Next day he takes her out on the veranda and the servants show her the body of a HUGE SNAKE - a DEADLY Rattle snake that they found in the meadow Elsie got the arrow out of. This is why she should obey without question everything her father orders, because SNAKE/DIE/HORROR he is trying to keep her "safe."

The book is 50% treat Elsie like crap but she maintains her "sweet compliant self" and 50% how Jesus is #1 in her life and she must obey him over her father, who does not view this very happily. I can see why fundies love these, no matter what, the parent is always right and the child is to totally obey or there are consequences. Lots of bible stores, parables, scripture and prayer, lots and lots of prayer. It's like the fundie handbook.

[DGayle]

LGL, that's the best summary I've read of these books. The only thing that immediately comes to my mind that isn't there is the piano scene. That scene upset me greatly.

The book is 50% treat Elsie like crap but she maintains her "sweet compliant self" and 50% how Jesus is #1 in her life and she must obey him over her father, who does not view this very happily.

That gets to me. It's like a fundy parent's dream! Treat a kid like crap and they put up with it, or Jesus comes first even when the kid gets in trouble, and then you have an excuse to beat. Basically it guarantees a kid is going to be treated like shit in Elsie's house.