Gene Stratton-Porter

Books like Gene Stratton-Porter's A Girl of the Limberlost and Jean Webster's Daddy-Long-Legs are America's answer to the books of Lucy Maud Montgomery. If Stratton-Porter's heroine is a little too saintly and the conflict (particularly in the second half of the book) is a little too melodramatic, who cares? This is an American girl classic, with a poor-but-plucky heroine (Elnora) who pulls herself up by her dusty bootstraps and achieves an air of grace and dignity through self-education and a close affinity with the great outdoors, while Elnora's snotty, wealthy tormentor (the vixenish Edith, who has a fancy European education and no appreciation for nature) falls flat on her face. Literally!

Well... she swoons. Twice.

Aftertaste:
None.

Availability:
Libraries and online bookstores.

Other Recommendations:
Daddy-Long-Legs and Dear Enemy, by Jean Webster

Anything by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Website:
http://www.genestrattonporter.net/ -