A Girl of the Limberlost (Limberlost #2) by Gene Stratton-Porter

Anne was a big proponent of A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter as it was one of her favorites when she was growing up, so that's how this ended up on my reading list. 

First published in 1906, this book is all about Elnora. She grows up in Indiana's Limberlost Swamp with a neglectful and abusive mother, but she perseveres and goes to school where she is a genius at everything and a savant at playing the violin. Once she graduates, things get harder for her as she has been paying for school by collecting specimens from a dwindling swamp and those specimens are getting harder to find. 

If I had read this when I was a tween/teen, I think I would have loved it. The idea that Elnora is independent and can make her own way in the world would have really resonated with me. 

But as an adult, all I could think about was how this is definitely a great example of why capitalism is terrible and destroy the environment. I was also a bit dicey on the whole ending part in which Elnora gives up all her ambitions to be a wife and mother. Oh, well. It's not for me of today, it's for me of yesteryear! 3/5 stars

Line of note:

In one sickening sweep there rushed into the heart of the woman a full realization of the width of the gulf that separated her from her child. Lately many things had pointed toward it...
"We are nearer strangers to each other than we are with any of the neighbours," she muttered. (page 159)

I sometimes think about how the people we live with don't always know us best. 

Thing I looked up:

ripe red haws (page 116) - any of several American hawthorns 

Hat mentions: 

43 hat mentions in this book! So many! Books from a different time have so many more hats than modern ones do. My favorite:

On her head was a large, wide, drooping-brimmed black hat, with immense floating black plumes, while on the brim, and among the laces on her breast, glowed velvety, deep red roses. (page 309)