Diverging Roads

by Rose Wilder Lane

Diverging Roads is a novel written by Rose Wilder Lane, the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the author of the Little House on the Prairie series. The book was first published in 1919 and is set in the early 1900s.The story follows the life of two sisters, Laura and Beth, who are raised in a small town in the Midwest. Laura is practical and hardworking, while Beth is more carefree and adventurous. As they grow older, their paths diverge, with Laura staying in their hometown to marry and raise a family, while Beth travels the world, seeking adventure and new experiences.The novel explores themes of family, love, and the choices we make in life. It also touches on the changing roles of women in society during this time period.Diverging Roads is a well-written and engaging novel that offers a glimpse into the lives of women in the early 1900s. It is a must-read for fans of historical fiction and those interested in the works of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

Genres: Fiction

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1919

About the author

Rose Wilder Lane (December 5, 1886, De Smet, Dakota Territory – October 30, 1968, Danbury, Connecticut) was an American journalist, travel writer, novelist, and political theorist. She is noted (with Ayn Rand and Isabel Paterson) as one of the founding mothers of the American libertarian movement.

Reviews

[Jina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick, easy, and entertaining. I picked this book up because of my current crush on Ron Paul (and it's public domain status). It is "fiction", but based on the little I know about RWL, I'd say it is more memoir-in-disguise, and as such it is a fascinating glimpse into her closets (skeletons, dirty laundry, and all). A story of self-discovery and self-reliance from one of the mothers of the Libertarian movement in the dawn of her career.

[Annarino K · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Contains Spoilers) I read this book as a lifelong fan of the Little House books. This one is written in a much different style but follows Rose's pattern of writing thinly veiled accounts from her own life. Where the children's books gave us an idealized, optimistic view of American pioneer life, Diverging Roads is a reflection of young "Helen's" (Rose) grown-up years in northern California. The book is remarkable for its historical perspective of a young lady living on her own terms at the turn of the 20th century, a time when conservative views of women's rights were changing dramatically.

We join her as she leaves her small town roots behind for a bit larger but still backward locale, Sacramento, and endures condescension and sexual harassment in the effort to support herself.

She moves to a more progressive setting in San Francisco where she works double shifts as a telegrapher until joining the party scene and falling in love with the dashing, alcoholic, spoiled, immature, and irresponsible "Gilbert," clearly her real husband, Gillette Lane. We learn some of the details she endures in attempting to establish a life with this man and his foolhardy get-rich-quick schemes. He talks a big talk about taking great care of his wife and supporting her in splendor, but it becomes clear he is a terrible spendthrift who is in fact unable to make money or manage what he has in a reasonable manner. She tries to take care of him in her naive adoration while he pulls her farther into debt and other legal problems. One day, however, she snaps out of her haze, grasps that she is just another victim of this silly man, and digs down into the practical character forged through the childhood she wanted to leave behind.

Helen gets to work in real estate out of pure necessity. Her husband owes the real estate firm a lot of money, so she takes over his work to earn the commissions needed to buy out his debt. He has abandoned her at this point, but she manages to straighten out his affairs and find her own success. Years later he resurfaces, demanding that they reconcile, and in typical selfish form, accuses her of coldness when she refuses his overtures and files for divorce. She considers returning to her childhood friend and first love, Paul (likely the real life Paul Cooley) but her friendships with like-minded women, coupled with opportunities for foreign travel, lead her on another road.

The title, Diverging Roads, may come from Robert Frost's famous poem, "The Road Not Taken," which was published just two years before this novel. Like the narrator of the poem, she "took the road less traveled by," i.e. an unusual choice for a woman to remain unmarried in those times. In fact historical accounts of Rose's life show that she had additional male suitors as she aged, and she continued to make the choice to remain independent. Aside from Gilette being a rather worthless human being, Rose lost her only baby while married to him. The whole unpleasant experience may have soured her on the idea of being tied to another person with their unpredictable foibles. Or, in her ability to overcome, she may simply have found her character more suited to independence.

[Ginger Pedersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite an unexpected book that can be read through many different lenses. It starts with the country girl leaving home, wishing for a different life, but her heart still with her high school sweetheart. The book evolves away from its romantic themes into a woman finding herself and her life's work through trying to salvage her marriage. Near the end of the book where she realizes the strength to be had from friendship that would remain a lifelong theme for Rose.
It takes place in early 20th century California, and you get a genuine vibe for the era - roller towels, land schemers, boom times, and crushed dreams.
It is, in a sense, a memoir of Rose's own early life and career, written when she was about 30 and her first published novel. She had written biographies of Henry Ford and Charlie Chaplin, but this sent her career squarely into the world of fiction.
Her mother's later literary career with the "Little House" books unfortunately so overshadowed Rose's literary career that she is rather overlooked today. She has a certain frankness to her storytelling, and her descriptive prose and attention to small details make her writing engaging and real.
I love 1920s writing, where everything is "awfully" something. It is also a feminist work in disguise, how the protagonist Helen manages to outwit the men around her and make her way in a man's world. You root for her, but you also see her deep flaws.
I liked seeing a glimpse of places that were at that time all farmland, her taking the dusty Cupertino Road near San Jose, selling worthless land to unsuspecting dreamers.
Read it for the history, read it for the romance, read it to learn about Rose.
Look for the free epub - it's out there.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty fast read, about a girl (apparently semi-biographical) who has to go her own way after having to fend for herself while her husband was gone, only to discover that she changed on the way. I did not think much of this pretty simple story, although the whole of it did make some kind of impression as it had something to tell - kind of a feminist book, but from a libertarian. My interest is mainly her Rose Wilder Lanes nonfiction, but I decided to give at least one of her novels a go.

[Lauri · Rating 4 out of 5]

The age old question - how much is autobiography and how much is story?

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is such a pity that Rose Wilder Lane's novels failed to achieve the longevity of the books she helped her mother write. Diverging Roads, her first, semi-autobiographical novel might seem a little old-fashioned now, but it is a truly remarkable story of a young woman's journey toward independence at the start of the 20th century.

Diverging Roads covers a period of just under ten years, from approximately 1905 to 1914. After graduating from high school, the heroine, Helen, leaves her small home town in northern California and moves to Sacramento to become a telegraph operator. Her sweetheart, Paul, is already working as a telegraph operator at a rural railroad station and she hopes someday the two of them might manage a station together. Paul, however, objects to Helen's working and insists on delaying marriage until he can earn enough to support her and his widowed mother.

Helen, meanwhile, lives a hand-to-mouth existence working at a job that doesn't pay enough to cover room and board, while coping with chauvinism, sexual harassment, and loneliness. She makes an imprudent marriage with a flashy, alcoholic speculator who makes and loses several fortunes in get-rich-quick schemes. He eventually abandons her, forcing her to strike out on her own again, this time as a real estate saleswoman.

The first half of the novel is sort of a quaint coming-of-age tale, a story of a naive girl making her way in the big city. The second half, when Helen comes into her independence as a working woman, is where it really gets interesting. One hundred years on, some things have changed--women have gained the right to vote, is has become the norm for women to have working lives, and most of us can have both a job and a family if we so choose--yet many elements of Helen's (and Rose's) story still resonate today. Men (and women) constantly underestimate her abilities. Competing against boastful, self-promoting men, she succeeds in business by listening and forming relationships, but as soon as she makes a few sales, her male colleagues try to take the credit and claim the profits. And oh, the "mansplaining!"

This isn't solely a book about oppression, though. It is also, in the end, a story about sisterhood and the value of female friendship, and in that, too, it is timeless.

[Jaime K · Rating 4 out of 5]

To me, as someone who has read almost all the Little House (and the accompanying) books and some additional information, it was obvious that this is a fictionalized account of Rose's time in California.
And it is a fantastic look on American life in those days.

Paul and Helen grow up together but don't profess their feelings for each other until they've nearly graduated. While they talk of marriage, Paul works to be a telegraph operator and Helen's parents fall on hard times. Paul ends up moving elsewhere to a better-paid position and Helen goes to school in Sacramento to learn to telegraph as well. Paul is not happy to know of a woman - particularly HIS woman - working and makes his views known.

Helen ends up lodging with an, erm, "woman for hire" (not that she's stated as such but the large hints and Helen's reaction at the revelation makes me know she is one). Even though she's whisked away by a "good" woman, Helen somewhat has a reputation because of the first association, and is likely why she gets her first job. At first she enjoys working, especially because she's able to help out her family (and hopes to help her future family with Paul), but after a move to San Francisco, she realizes she doesn't particularly like to work.

In S.F., life is a whirl of activity. Helen gets caught up with her new friend Louise and the young woman's momma. Paul and Helen realize they've begun to drift apart; not only because of Helen's behaviors and interests, but also because Paul does not want a working wife. Helen meets Gilbert Kennedy and realizes some downsides to marriage (especially for that time) - especially to a man like Kennedy. He's verbally & emotionally abusive, immature, and a waste of money and space.

Helen struggles desperately to "keep" her husband by helping to sell land to get them out of debt. But he disappears and she works as a sales-woman. Oddly enough, she keeps running into Paul. Through this part of Helen's life, Rose bring in some of the history about World War I, which was interesting to read, especially from the eyes of a modern woman before 1920.

After some time, Helen realizes that she is not content to be idle and finds a job writing. She also finds friendship in a group of like-minded independent woman. The end is a fascinating parallel to Rose's life.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Young Helen wants nothing more than to marry her childhood sweetheart, Paul. But, life gets in the way and always their marriage plans are delayed. As the years pass, Helen is forced to make her own way and she grows into a strong, independent woman. Although she still loves Paul, she realizes that her life has changed her, that she is no longer the naive country girl of her youth.

Diverging Roads is a fascinating, insightful look into what I believe is a fictionalized account of Rose Wilder Lane's life. I admit I had a tough time with some of the blatant sexism. When Helen's boyfriend quips, "You're pretty smart for a girl," I wanted to smack him, but I know that is how Americans thought of women then and, sadly, how some cultures and some ignorant men still think of women.

Any woman whose life hasn't quite turned out like she planned will be able to relate to this story. We all want certain things, or at least we think we do, but often times our well laid plans go astray and we find ourselves in places we never dreamed about. And, maybe that's as it should be.

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book so much that I read it in one sitting. I guess you might describe the story as a fictional account of one woman's struggle to accept her need for independence juxtaposed with societal expectations. Since the setting was early 1900s, women did not receive equal pay, their societal value was narrowly defined, and there were few female job opportunities. What originally drew me to the book was my discovery that Rose Wilder Lane was the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder. With a bit of googling I discovered many interesting facts about her life, which then led me to conclude that details in the book were similar to her actual life. The story may seem old fashioned describing bygone norms of behavior, but that is what provided its value. After all, Jane Eyre books are absolutely wonderful in spite of their old-fashioned context; and this story is absolutely charming, as well as highly descriptive of what it was like for an independent-minded woman in the early 1900s.

[Alexia Wells · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is a sobering reminder of how it was stifled the women in America were and how far we have come. It is rather sad to think this author was the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder because the tone of her tale is bleaker in contrast to her mother's tales. The writing may not be stellar but it is valuable to read for the insight.

[Sam Bell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can definitely understand where the idea that Rose wrote the Little House books came from. That being said, Laura had the better story.

[Lorraine Herbon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seemed to me to be pretty autobiographical, but a wonderful read.

[Meg Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in a really beautiful, somewhat flowery style, it's the story of a young woman finding herself. it feels like such a different story than anyone would tell today, and the antithesis of current "chick lit."