As a kid, I hated bugs. I feared many of them. But for some reason, in junior high, I fell in love with Gene Stratton-Porter’s A Girl of the Limberlost. I recently remembered how I’d re-read my favorite scenes aloud, imagining myself as the lead girl. But for the life of me I couldn’t remember anything else about it, so I decided a re-read was in order.
The book was written in 1909, and is a companion to Freckles, which I have not read. This caused some confusion because the character of Freckles and his wife Angel are regularly referred to as if the reader already knows them, but otherwise it’s not a prerequisite to read it. This volume focuses on Elnora Comstalk, a teen intent on enrolling in the local high school after a lifetime of homeschooling under her difficult mother Kathleen. Elnora’s father drowned on the Limberlost swamp by their property the day Kathleen gave birth to Elnora, and this has soured Kathleen toward her child. She is penny-pinching and dismissive of her daughter’s desire for schooling, so Elnora shows up her first day in an ugly, outdated calico dress, is the laughing-stock of her class, and is further humiliated to learn she’ll have to pay for her books and enrollment. Luckily, Elnora has some friendly neighbors (Wesley and Margaret) who fill in as kinder parental figures. They insist on funding some of Elnora’s needs. But Elnora is proud, and when she learns that a few locals will buy moths and other specimens from the Limberlost, she’s thrilled. She’s a bit of a naturalist herself and has been collecting moths and other goodies her whole life. This is how Elnora raises herself, as she navigates the rocky relationship with her mother, and the other everyday concerns of a girl coming-of-age.
The book is cute, though I’m not sure why I was so wild about it. I expect, as a teen experiencing some mild bullying, that I appreciated Elnora’s fortitude – she is extremely likeable, and very good at turning a bad situation around. I expect I also enjoyed the romantic elements that come later, when she meets a young man named Phillip who’s recovering in the country after a bout of tuberculosis and is a bit of a naturalist himself. The romance is actually super-annoying as an adult (they’re very back-and-forth about it), though there are a couple of moderately steamy scenes that probably flared my hormones.
The scene that hit me the hardest (in terms of feels and recollection) is when Elnora finally confronts her mother over the years of emotional abuse she’s endured. It’s very satisfying, and a turning point for them both.
I read into the history of the book a little more this time around. I can understand why it’s such a classic in Indiana, especially as the Limberlost is essentially gone now. The book is a love letter to the swamp and its creatures (though interestingly, every character is always trying to talk Kathleen into selling off her land for drilling, which is why the damn place was eventually demolished). The book suffers from some moments of racial insensitivity (there are zero people of color in the book, but indigenous folk are mentioned as curiosities – Elnora sells arrowheads to a local banker who collects them) and animal abuse presented as humor, blech. I won’t be revisiting this one, but it was interesting to review it as an adult.