What do you think?
Rate this book
Poveste de dragoste
Doctor Richard (Dick) Cameron finds redemption through devotion.
216 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1913
1 person is currently reading
50 people want to read
About the author
Florence L. Barclay
113 books46 followersShe was born Florence Louisa Charlesworth in Limpsfield, Surrey, England, the daughter of the local Anglican rector. One of three girls, she was a sister to Maud Ballington Booth, the Salvation Army leader and co-founder of the Volunteers of America. When Florence was seven years old, the family moved to Limehouse in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
In 1881, Florence Charlesworth married the Rev. Charles W. Barclay and honeymooned in the Holy Land, where, in Shechem, they reportedly discovered Jacob's Well, the place where, according to the Gospel of St John, Jesus met the woman of Samaria (John 4-5). Florence Barclay and her husband settled in Hertford Heath, in Hertfordshire, where she fulfilled the duties of a rector's wife. She became the mother of eight children. In her early forties health problems left her bedridden for a time and she passed the hours by writing what became her first romance novel titled The Wheels of Time. Her next novel, The Rosary, a story of undying love, was published in 1909 and its success eventually resulted in its being translated into eight languages and made into five motion pictures, also in several languages. According to the New York Times, the novel was the No.1 bestselling novel of 1910 in the United States. The enduring popularity of the book was such that more than twenty-five years later, Sunday Circle magazine serialized the story and in 1926 the prominent French playwright Alexandre Bisson adapted the book as a three-act play for the Parisian stage.
Florence Barclay wrote eleven books in all, including a work of non-fiction. Her novel The Mistress of Shenstone (1910) was made into a silent film of the same title in 1921. Her short story Under the Mulberry Tree appeared in the special issue called "The Spring Romance Number" of the Ladies Home Journal of 11 May 1911.
Florence Barclay died in 1921 at the age of fifty-eight. The Life of Florence Barclay: a study in personality was published anonymously that year by G. P. Putnam's Sons "by one of Her Daughters.
In 1881, Florence Charlesworth married the Rev. Charles W. Barclay and honeymooned in the Holy Land, where, in Shechem, they reportedly discovered Jacob's Well, the place where, according to the Gospel of St John, Jesus met the woman of Samaria (John 4-5). Florence Barclay and her husband settled in Hertford Heath, in Hertfordshire, where she fulfilled the duties of a rector's wife. She became the mother of eight children. In her early forties health problems left her bedridden for a time and she passed the hours by writing what became her first romance novel titled The Wheels of Time. Her next novel, The Rosary, a story of undying love, was published in 1909 and its success eventually resulted in its being translated into eight languages and made into five motion pictures, also in several languages. According to the New York Times, the novel was the No.1 bestselling novel of 1910 in the United States. The enduring popularity of the book was such that more than twenty-five years later, Sunday Circle magazine serialized the story and in 1926 the prominent French playwright Alexandre Bisson adapted the book as a three-act play for the Parisian stage.
Florence Barclay wrote eleven books in all, including a work of non-fiction. Her novel The Mistress of Shenstone (1910) was made into a silent film of the same title in 1921. Her short story Under the Mulberry Tree appeared in the special issue called "The Spring Romance Number" of the Ladies Home Journal of 11 May 1911.
Florence Barclay died in 1921 at the age of fifty-eight. The Life of Florence Barclay: a study in personality was published anonymously that year by G. P. Putnam's Sons "by one of Her Daughters.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 5, 2017
I picked up this book second-hand, expecting only a romance in Barclay's usual style (emotionally intense, the One Man finds his One Woman and wins her after great difficulties and misunderstandings etc, Christian elements and possible references to reincarnation). While it had many of the usual elements, it turned out to be primarily a conversion story, in which an older woman shows the love of Christ to an agnostic young man. And yet it was an absorbing novel. It was beautiful, better than any of the other books I've read by Barclay.
January 30, 2021
My 90-year old mother-in-law discovered this book in a yard sale box and was so delighted with the story that she asked me to read it for a discussion, otherwise I wouldn't have known about the story (and probably wouldn't have read it if I had known).
Written in 1913, the novel is the story of a child, Dick, who looses his faith in god after his mother dies from longing for his father who is away expanding the British Empire in India. After Dick's mother dies, he is left with his aunt and uncle who are horrid. Getting into mischief as six year old boys tend to do, Dick is severely disciplined and decides to abandon the bible and forsake god. He grows up to become a doctor and encounters the elderly "Little White Lady" near death while passing a church. She has a terminal illness, but on that day Dick saves her life and they develop a friendship. Being a devout Christian, the Little White Lady fears for his godless soul but sees he is an excellent physician and believes him to be a good man.
The story contains the Christian sensibilities of the time and a negative view of atheists. Initially I was bored with the puritan beginning and the bible references throughout, but the story gets more interesting as the Little White Lady tells her own story and more is revealed about Dick's character. There are a few surprises, but the ending is predictable.
As far as books of the early 20th century go, this one was an easy read but the conversion aspects are not for everyone.
Written in 1913, the novel is the story of a child, Dick, who looses his faith in god after his mother dies from longing for his father who is away expanding the British Empire in India. After Dick's mother dies, he is left with his aunt and uncle who are horrid. Getting into mischief as six year old boys tend to do, Dick is severely disciplined and decides to abandon the bible and forsake god. He grows up to become a doctor and encounters the elderly "Little White Lady" near death while passing a church. She has a terminal illness, but on that day Dick saves her life and they develop a friendship. Being a devout Christian, the Little White Lady fears for his godless soul but sees he is an excellent physician and believes him to be a good man.
The story contains the Christian sensibilities of the time and a negative view of atheists. Initially I was bored with the puritan beginning and the bible references throughout, but the story gets more interesting as the Little White Lady tells her own story and more is revealed about Dick's character. There are a few surprises, but the ending is predictable.
As far as books of the early 20th century go, this one was an easy read but the conversion aspects are not for everyone.
August 6, 2016
O poveste foarte interesantă, care merită citită. Îmi făcusem o părere despre stilul lui Barclay după ce am citit "Viaţa mea îţi aparţine", dar îmi dau seama că a fost greşită.
Mi-a plăcut mult povestea de dragoste dintre Dick şi doamna Herriot. Meh, finalul a fost foarte previzibil şi trist, dar asta e.
Mi-a plăcut mult povestea de dragoste dintre Dick şi doamna Herriot. Meh, finalul a fost foarte previzibil şi trist, dar asta e.
June 11, 2011
When I read this book as a teenager I never grasped it. How could you write a romance with an old dying lady as the heroine? But having read it as an almost old lady myself I now see depths in it my teenage mind never could fathom. Now I find it a beautiful story, a description of love divine and a character well worth striving to be like. The story of doctor Dick with his disappointments, ambitions and failings is very well done as his way home is touching.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews