'Pollyanna of the Orange Blossoms' by Harriet Lummis Smith

MY THOUGHTS: 

Tragically, the beloved original author Eleanor H. Porter died of tuberculosis five years after the publication of Pollyanna Grows Up in 1915. Her two Pollyanna books had been selling so wonderfully well, the publishers knew when they were onto a good thing. They enlisted the help of Harriet Lummis Smith to take up the slack and keep the stories coming where Porter had left off. Smith made such a smooth transition of this one in 1924 that I love it as much as Porter's books, if not more. 

It starts with a wedding and move to a tiny apartment in New York City. Jimmy gets a job with an engineering firm there, and he and Pollyanna are excited to be living in the Big Apple of the pre-WW1 era (not that they realise at the start that this is their point in history, of course). Young and inexperienced, they are winging it a bit, but course correction always sets in because they have what it takes to go the distance; genuine love and devotion for each other. Indeed, Smith makes this fabulous pair easy to cheer on. We are told, 'the rapture of their first nest making was one that could never be duplicated.' 

Male dominance was rife in the early twentieth century. Pollyanna and her new neighbour, Judith, introduce themselves to each other as, 'Mrs James Pendleton' and 'Mrs Russell Thayer.' You can't get much more patriarchal than that. Women generally didn't aspire to work outside the home, and if they did it wasn't by choice, as we see through the plight of poor Lizzie, the single mother who did a spot of domestic cleaning to make ends meet. Although Judith sometimes bristles about being a drudge, Pollyanna loves the lifestyle. For her, their apartment is her creative canvas and being free to shape it all day is the gladdest thing ever. 

I don't feel inclined to hiss and boo at the blokes though. They didn't have it easy, no doubt about that. Jimmy works 5.5 days a week! I was astonished to see him head off to the office on Saturday mornings to work half days and it set me googling. It seems the 40 hour work week with its two day weekend wasn't introduced until the 1940s, although forward-thinking Henry Ford had inaugurated it in his own factories way earlier. I feel our boy Jimmy was hard done by, although he and Pollyanna certainly never complained. They were delighted that he got to knock off at 1pm on Saturdays and have a free afternoon for city excursions. It's a lesson in perspective for me.  

The story introduces the catastrophising, negatively-skewed Judith as a fun foil and contrast to Pollyanna. She makes mountains out of molehills, stores up grievances, sulks over supposed insults and slips into perpetual black moods. The big question is whether or not Judith can make a go of Pollyanna's glad game when she hears about it. It's fun seeing her put it to the test, because I've admittedly had my share of Judith moments. She comes to understand that a decisive attitude to enjoy life is ninety percent of the battle won.

I'm sure Porter would have been more than happy with the direction in which Smith took the characters she invented. Smith obviously immersed herself in Porter's two books and stays true to every single character. Aunt Polly is as imperious and austere as ever, and Jamie Carew, now an author, is still his touchy, high maintenance self. One of my favourite incidents in this novel occurs when Jamie and Sadie are expected for afternoon tea and Pollyanna and Jimmy must defuse a few household catastrophes in the lead-up.

World War One breaks into Jimmy and Pollyanna's domestic bliss, and I noticed just a touch of foreshadowing. Now I'm going to get a bit plot-spoilerish because it raises an interesting question. Read on if you dare. 

Was it commendable for Pollyanna not to tell Jimmy she was pregnant before he answered the call of duty and sailed off to serve in France? The story leaves no doubt that we're supposed to take secrecy as a heroic sacrifice on her part, to make it easier for him to do his patriotic duty. Yet arguably, especially from a more modern perspective, he should have been told anyway! Pollyanna's spur-of-the-moment decision to keep her pregnancy secret from Jimmy is controlling and manipulative, however well-intended, because she denies him the possibility of response. They are co-parents and just because she carries the baby, he deserves not to be kept in the dark. I see both points of view, and I guess that because patriotic readers of 1924 who had recently come through the war were the target audience, we're being coerced to verge to their side and consider Pollyanna a great heroine for her silence. 

Okay, spoiler over.

I feel we are in capable hands with Harriet Lummis Smith, and look forward to more Pollyanna tales from her. Next up will be Pollyanna's Jewels.

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