Bread Into Roses

by Kathleen Thompson Norris

This is a 1937 First Edition hardback Bread Into Roses. The book is yellowish in color with a print design.

Genres: Fiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1936

About the author

Educated at the University of California, Kathleen married Charles Gilman Norris, brother of the late Benjamin Franklin Norris, Junior, in 1909. She was a prolific author, producing over 80 novels in addition to numerous short stories and articles. Norris was a regular contributor to leading magazines such as Atlantic and Ladies' Home Journal. Her first novel, Lost Sunrise, appeared in 1909 and was immediately popular. By the end of her career her books had sold over ten million copies and made her the highest paid female author of her day.

Reviews

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the fourth Norris book I've read recently, and I'm struck by how they all seem to be variations on a theme. Each book in its way is an exploration of themes such as marriage, infidelity, divorce, wealth, society life. In Shadow Marriage, a widow marries into fabulous wealth and finds society—and her marriage—to be empty. It's definitely the darkest of the three since the wife is essentially abused (not physically, but mentally) and never breaks fully free, nor manages to rescue her children from the toxic influence of her husband's family and wealth. In Second Hand Wife, a working-class girl falls in love with a wealthy—and married—man and eventually finds that society life is not as wonderful as she imagined. In this case, the heroine is the other woman who must wait for the first wife to agree to step aside. To ensure that divorce, the husband agrees to far too steep a price essentially sacrificing his child's happiness, and problems with the divorce make the ending somewhat ambiguous. It's more hopeful than Shadow Marriage but there's no guarantee of a happily-ever-after. In Heartbroken Melody, the heroine is once again the other woman, but in this case, the wife refuses to step aside. Broken and alone, the heroine finds herself through writing (writers writing about writers: my least favorite trope, but well-handled in this case) and eventually has another chance at happiness. And with this book, Bread Into Roses, the poor girl marries into wealth—again finds society life is not conducive to healthy relationships—and eventually finds her marriage threatened by a younger woman. That made for an interesting contrast to Second Hand Wife but is similar in that, in both cases, the rival woman is far less worthy than Norris' heroine. (Of course!) Also in both cases, there is a problem with the Reno divorce. So either that was a common problem then, or Norris found it to be a convenient plot device.

Another common thread to all three books is how wealthy parents ignore their children. I found it hard to forgive the women in each book for the way they allowed social demands to interfere with raising their children (or step-children, in some cases). My modern sensibilities make it hard for me to understand how any mother—or step-mother for that matter—could consent to pack a five-year-old off to boarding school. And then ignore his clear pleas to rescue him. Horrifying.

Aside from that, though, I think my favorite part of these books is the exploration of what a purposeful life is. I love that all Norris' characters (well, all her good characters) are people who read, who think, who look for ways to help others, and I love that all her heroines grow as people throughout the novels.

[Linda Gaines · Rating 3 out of 5]

I pulled this novel from about 100 years ago off my book shelf of old books I'd bought because of their covers. This was interesting and gave some insight to the early 20th century and life among rich people then. The protagonist isn't always admirable but she is well described by Norris ( who I guess wrote many novels). The issue of divorce was fairly new then and what happens with that doesn't seem possible.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love old books is all I can say.!