Lisa Vale

The Vale Family #2

by Olive Higgins Prouty

Lisa Vale, sister-in-law of Charlotte Vale of Now, Voyager has a life of her own. Married to Charlotte's brother Rupert, Lisa also has a dear companion in Barry Firth. Her older daughter, Fabia, wants to marry a man below her social station--Grandmother Vale is about to expire from that one. After all, the young doctor sometimes uses bad grammar and butters an entire slice of bread before eating it. I am still reading this book, but it is marvelously entertaining. Charlotte makes a couple appearances in her pre-Camille days.

Genres: Fiction

404 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1938

About the author

Though Olive Higgins Prouty is primarily remembered as a romance novelist, she was also a poet, writing her poetry whenever and wherever she could. Her poems were never published during her lifetime, as they were much more intimate writings than the novels she wrote professionally. Perhaps because she could put more of herself into her poetry than in her novels, Prouty’s poems are powerful and emotional, revealing ideas radical for the time in which they were written. Her children, Richard Prouty and Jane Chapin, published her poems in a very limited release in 1997.

Prouty was born in Worcester in 1882 to Katherine Chapin and Milton Prince Higgins, who would raise one of Worcester’s most prominent, and one of Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s most important, families. The Higgins family residence was at the corner of West Street and Salisbury Street, where WPI’s Goddard Hall now stands. Prouty spent most of her childhood deeply connected to WPI as her father was superintendent of the Washburn shops and supervised its very construction. Milton and Katherine Higgins had four children in total, all of whom would go on to make generous contributions to WPI, including Higgins Laboratories, Higgins House, Sanford Riley Hall, a scholarship, and a library fund. Milton Higgins was not only prominent in the development of WPI, but he was also an entrepreneur, buying the Norton Emery Wheel Co. with George Alden in 1885 and serving as its president until his death in 1912.

Prouty’s mother was also an active member of the growing Worcester community. Katherine was the superintendent of the Sunday school at the First Congregational Church and insisted upon Olive joining the church at age thirteen. Katherine was also the founder of the Parent Teachers Association, having spoken in many states for the PTA throughout her lifetime.

Prouty was close to her parents despite their busy professional lives, and speaks of her time in Worcester and at WPI with great fondness. Though she had an early interest in rhyme, Prouty did not have much early success at school, and the anxiety that resulted was a precursor to nervous troubles that would come later in her life.

Nevertheless, Olive Higgins graduated from Smith College in 1904 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature and returned to Worcester determined to start a writing career. Prouty feared that her marriage to Lewis Prouty would hinder her attempts to write professionally, but Lewis turned out to be supportive and introduced Olive to the editor who would publish her first stories. The Proutys moved to Brookline, Massachusetts soon after their marriage in June, 1907.

Prouty’s first novel Bobbie, General Manager was published in 1913. She tried to keep up with her writing, but by 1920 Prouty was feeling more and more torn between her writing and her duties to her family. As the Proutys were quite prosperous, Olive had trouble balancing the social obligations that came with prosperity with her family obligations and still having time to write. When her third daughter Anne died in 1919, she decided to devote herself to the care of her children.

Prouty’s youngest daughter Olivia was very dear to her, possibly more so than her other two surviving children. In both her published and unpublished works, she rarely mentioned Richard or Jane, but she wrote quite a bit about Olivia. Olivia’s death in 1923 of encephalitis devastated Prouty, and the nervous breakdown that resulted led her to spend some time at the Riggs Foundation in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Her psychiatrist, Dr. Austen Fox Riggs, encouraged her to treat her writing professionally, and Prouty was immeasurably grateful for the new freedom that afforded her.

Stella Dallas, one of Prouty’s most famous works, was published around this time. It was eventually made into a play in 1924, then a radio serial, and then its first movie incarnation in 1925. In 1937 it was remade with Barbara Stanwyck, and Be

Reviews

[Eden Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Visit JetBlackDragonfly (The Man Who Read Too Much) at www.edenthompson.ca/blog

Lisa Vale is part of a five novel series about the wealthy Boston Vale family created by Olive Higgins Prouty. The most famous of these was Now Voyager, starring the suppressed mouse of the family, poor Aunt Charlotte. With psychological help from Dr. Jaquith, she transforms from ugly duckling into a society leader, well portrayed in one of my favourite films starring Bette Davis.

Lisa is married to Charlotte's brother Rupert, a rigid husband and strict father. Though satisfied in her marriage, we learn early on that her heart completely belongs to his business acquaintance, Barry Firth - and his in return. Both married, they do nothing about it except send coded messages about mundane things, knowing the other acknowledges the thought. An example to her children, Lisa would never have an affair.
A good deal of the novel was tied up with Lisa'a daughter Fabia, a spoiled princess who wants to be married to Dan, a young doctor with eyes only for medicine. The other portion dealt with her son, nicknamed 'Windy', whose young adventures catch him in a blackmail scheme that Lisa extricates him from, followed by a crippling attack of infantile paralyses. I was hoping for Lisa to be the central figure, and my patience was amply rewarded in the last third of the novel, when it's revealed the family has lost their finances. Behind Rupert's back, Barry and Lisa design a plot which saves the family. Much like Now, Voyager, their unspoken bond shows benefit, as they both unselfishly put the other first.

Not yet a butterfly, Aunt Charlotte makes appearances, as does Dr. Jaquith, strict Grandmother Vale, and Lisa's younger son Murray and older daughter June. Murray was the star of another Prouty novel Home Port, where they all made appearances. I find it interesting to meet the family at different points in time, and from different perspectives. There are two others in the series to read - Fabia, starring the youngest daughter, and White Fawn, about Fabia and Dan's relationship. A fan of the family and it's characters, it was great to visit with them and their friends, like Renee Beauchamp, who certainly deserves her own novel.

This is a novel I have looked for a long time. Luckily, I found an original 1938 hardcover for the bargain price of $8.
Olive Higgins Prouty also wrote the classic Stella Dallas.

[Michael Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lord, this was a good book. Did you know this book was before NOW, VOYAGER! NOW, VOYAGER is a sequel to LISA VALE!

I really wished that I had read them in order, because I would have enjoyed NOW, VOYAGER even more than I did.

This book centers around Lisa Vale, who befriend Charlotte, from NOW, VOYAGER. Lisa marries her brother, Robert Vale. Lisa and Charlotte met in College.

It’s a great story of how people overcome, what Mother’s will do to help their sons, and of Love Lost.

I didn’t want the book to end.

It was truly a Great Read!

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a while to remember what White Fawn was about, but this is so much of a direct continuation that it's easy to get caught up on the Vales. I'm more sympathetic to Lisa's unhappiness than Fabia's but liked that neither of their relationships are fully resolved at the end. Will probably skip over to Home Port instead of rereading Now, Voyager.

"Well, even so, you can't change Dan's way of loving you, Fabia, dear. And I wonder if you can change your way of wanting to be loved. Dan will always hurt you in little ways, I'm afraid. You and he don't speak the same 'act-language.' You've seen the advertisement, 'Say it with flowers,' haven't you? Well, trite as it is, and sentimental too, flowers - any little such observance - please you deeply.
. . . Love has so many different expressions."

[Elfgiva · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting read for anyone interested in society people between the wars. This is the same author who wrote Now Voyager>. It was made into a movie starring Bette Davis. Her charater is Charlotte Vale and shows up in Lisa Vale>, the story of her sister-in-law.