Elsie Dinsmore, Violet Travilla and the Millie Keith Series

[Adelheid]

This is sad... no one has posted anything in this sub forum.

I have long been a fan of the Elsie Dinsmore series. But I first read the abridged version. I always had the preconceived biasness for unabridged books. But in this case, having read the abridged versions first, I judge it to be a lot (actually, HEAPSSSSS!!!) better than the original written by Miss Finley. I was never more surprised in my life.

I can refer to the website of the Elsie, Violet and Millie Series. It is really, really good. They have some snippets of the books (btw, the books are handsomely bound. Hardcover, with the heroines themselves on the front.) I love it!

But, .... I will leave the website to do the talking. It's a must visit. And a wonderful present for any girl. no matter how old. It's one of those timeless classics.

[RJbibliophil]

Oh Adelheid! I have read the first 7 Elsie books of that particular press, first 2 Millie, and have greatly enjoyed the wonderful website! I have read many places that these are better than the original, I too tend to avoid abridged books.

I really enjoyed the books I have read, and look forward to reading the rest, though I am not excited about the "laylie" books. They are really sentimental, and I cried for Elsie while reading her first two books. They are a can't put down quality book.

[RJbibliophil]

I finally got my hands on Elsie book 8. I have also seen other reprints in a catalog where they just updated the language a little, but I think the Mission City Press books must be best.

[Adelheid]

Ah yes! I so agree with you! I've read all the Elsie books but I only own the first 8. I also own Millie book 4 (Millie's Faithful heart). I chose it because it mentions about her meeting Elsie. She fetches Elsie together with her Uncle, Senior Dinsmore, from the Louisiana Plantation to Roselands. I have also read the 2nd book of Millie. (btw, Millie bo 3 and 4 are about her on a visit to Roselands to recover from the sickness she caught in bk 2.

I would love to own all of the books someday. Violet Travilla included. I've not read any of those bks, but I will someday. Yeah, I'm not as excited about the Laylie books too, because they are not written by the same author. But I will give it a try. Laylie is the slave girl that Millie helps to bring to freedom in bk 4.

I'm glad to find another Martha Finley fan!

[RJbibliophil]

Great! I have some friends who own the first seven Elsie books, and all the Millie books, and I had told them a library in our system that had book 8, but they didn't want to get it because they had seen in a Violet book in a bookstore that Edward Travilla died, but now I have good news for them!

I finished book 8 yesterday, I really liked it because of so many of the realatives coming to Christ. I just learned a little about the connection to the Keiths, but I've already read the first 2 Millie.

I guess what I really like about the series is that they are really well written, excellent charactors, good storielines, plenty of twists, turns, joy, and sadness all interwoven with the truth.

[Adelheid]

Truth and Integrity. The storyline is really nothing fantastic, but I love to read the story, because of the truth, and because you can relate with the characters in a way.

Also I like reading about that particular time period, about all the rich and what they did. And the Elsie and Violet books tells the story in a Biblical way, which is absolutely wonderful. You know, these books make great presents for any girl! They look great, are not too expensive (depends on where you get them) and the contents of the book are 'safe'. Any parent would love it too!

[RJbibliophil]

I have heard a lot of adults say they love the books too. I agree that Elsie and the other charactors are so real. The storyline is strong enough to pull you. The thing I don't like is, at the end of the book, something happens. And in the beginning of the next book, they usually make it seem like no big deal, with the exception of Millie 1-2, that was a marvelous tie.

I really enjoy historical fiction.

[thevintagepiper]

I love the Elsie Dinsmore series! I have not read many of the others, but I adore Elsie. It has been a long time since I read them, but I remember crying quite a bit throughout them, and getting very caught up in the story!
The abridgement is amazing...except for these books and The Princess Bride, I have never really enjoyed an abridgement. Like y'all said, these ones are great!

[Mary Sue]

I have a strange question here. Has anyone actually read the ORIGINAL Elsie series? I did, as a kid. And a few years back I set out to collect it again, searching through used and antiquarian bookshops. As of now, I own all 28 volumes in the old-fashioned maroon covers that I remember. They evoke nostalgia for my younger self, the little girl that used to spend hours poring over Elsie's long history. To me it was a never-ending saga with all the excitement and melodrama that I craved.

In many ways the original series was a soap opera. There was Elsie's seemingly hopeless love for papa in book 1 and how, against all the odds, she finally won him over. There was her "death" and miraculous resurrection---a supernatural event, no less!----in book 2. Then in book 3, there were Elsie's suitors: poor Herbert, who died of a broken heart when she wouldn't have him; and treacherous, insincere Egerton, who nearly broke ELSIE'S heart.
In book 4 there was her marriage to the much older Mr. Travilla, which as a child I considered unnatural and kind of "icky." Followed her near death experience on the honeymoon, when a rejected suitor tried to murder the newlyweds. By book 5 it was the Reconstruction Era, with Elsie under attack from the Ku Klux Klan and...well, you get the idea. One sensational happening after another. No wonder that, as a kid, I loved the series. And---I'm ashamed to admit---not for the piety of our little heroine, nor for the good Christian message that she conveyed. Quite honestly I was---and still am--- fascinated by the utter perverseness of Elsie Dinsmore.

PERVERSENESS? How so? Well, if you don't believe me, read the original books. Unless I miss my guess, you'll be shocked. First and foremost, there's the racism. Elsie's slaves are denigrated, de-humanized, and made to appear as half-witted children. I can remember one passage in particular in which she was teaching the way of salvation to the younger ones, and she ended her sermon by promising them that "they wouldn't be Negroes in heaven"(!) For sheer offensiveness, it's pretty hard to top that.

And then there was Elsie's religious bigotry. For all her sweetness and love, she had zero tolerance for anyone who thought differently. And since, within the context of the story, our saintly heroine was always right, no one could ever win an argument with her. My word, how Elsie hated, and I mean HATED, the Roman Catholic Church! To her it was all "ignorance and superstition," with evil Popists lying in wait to imprison Protestants in dungeons and torture chambers. She actually went mad for awhile, when papa threatened to put her in a seminary. And similarly she disliked Mormonism, calling it "a lustful, wicked pretense of a religion." Not very tolerant, our Elsie, and by today's standards not very politically correct!

But the worst thing about Elsie was the incestuous subtext. All suggestion of this has been expunged, thankfully, in the modern revisions. But in the original series, Horace Dinsmore was besotted with his daughter, and she with him. The "love scenes" between them went pretty far. I can recall all manner of inappropriate behavior: papa coaxing Elsie to a seat upon his knee, papa "fondling" her incessantly, papa pressing kisses on the ruby lips. And in later books of the series, this father-daughter weirdness became a family tradition, carried on by the "next generational" Captain Raymond and HIS daughter, Lulu. As a child I recognized that "something wasn't right" about these Oedipal scenes, although I didn't understand psychology and therefore couldn't put a name to it. But at one point, I said to myself, "Elsie can never get married, because she's already in love----with her father!" Looking back, I still marvel that Martha Finley
---sweet, innocent Sunday school teacher---could have written such an erotic subtext without even realizing it.

And today I have mixed feelings about Elsie. Being an adult now, with a sense of humor, I can reread these monstrous little books and...well, laugh. But a child? NO CHILD SHOULD EVER BE GIVEN THE ORIGINALS. The originals do NOT covey a wholesome message. I'll collect them as mementoes of the past, I'll even be amused by their purple prose and melodrama...but I'd never give them to a child of mine to read.

[thevintagepiper]

My word, I never heard that before! I only read the revised versions, and those, a couple years ago.
What I did not like about the revised (or any) version is that Elsie was almost too perfect. It's not very encouraging to your Christian walk to read of a girl who gets it right outwardly every time.

[Mary Sue]

I agree, Elsie is almost too perfect. Too good to be true. But at least in the revised editions she comes across as genuine and consistent. In the originals, she's a mass of contradictions. She owns slaves and sees absolutely nothing wrong with that, she has unacknowledged incestuous feelings for her own father, but She'd DIE rather than sing a non-religious song on Sunday! Even for a nineteenth century girl, that's a bit much.

[RJbibliophil]

I have heard that in the revisions, all the charactors are made to seem less perfect, which is a good thing. In the revisions, she even has plans to free her slaves.

One thing that is a little different is that they split the first original into two separate books, but the storyline is still the same.

You tell of the suspense. The suspense is still there. But at the heart, it is the love of Elsie that keeps us coming back for more. The suspense makes it interesting, and keeps us loving Elsie.

[Mary Sue]

I need to read the revised books. They sound a whole lot better than the originals! If you take out the incest and the bigotry, it's a essentially a wonderful storyline. And Elsie, minus the hypocritical and contradictory traits that Martha Finley gave her, could potentially be a shining moral example. Once those traits were eliminated, she WOULD BE all about love.

And wouldn't the series make a great TV show? It really would, if done properly. I remember the "Anne of Green Gables" series, followed by "Avonlea", not to mention all the mileage that we got out of "Little House on the Prairie." If someone were to do a mini series of "Elsie," you'd have it all. History, period-piece drama, and a sweet, loving, morally centered heeroine that EVERYONE could root for.

[thevintagepiper]

yes! That would be lovely.

[RJbibliophil]

In the revisions, Elsie eventually has a slight abolitionist way of thinking, that the slaves should be free, and not to be prejudiced against the northeners.