HOLIDAY HOUSE

by Sinclair

A Victorian tale in which two children seek adventure while under the watchful eye of their nanny. A reprint of the first children's book to show the amusing side of misconduct.

Genres: Childrens, 19th Century

354 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1839

Reviews

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not what I was expecting. I feel a little shell shocked.
Prepare for spoilers.
The first half (maybe a little over half) was a series of short stories of a brother and sister, Harry and Laura, getting into the most ridiculous scrapes you can imagine. They are a pair of troublesome children who get into more trouble than any child really would. The stories almost always end with them being beaten by the nursery villain of Mrs. Crabtree (yes, really), and the children sorrowfully repentant and wailing something to the extent of "Why weren't we good? We're so much happier when we're good!"

Also, their older brother is reminiscent of MacDonald's Diamond (or maybe the other way around) in that he is the perfect child. He's perfectly behaved, perfect at school, and perfectly Christian.

So the first half is really pretty dull, although not without its entertaining moments. The first half of the book I give like three stars and say read it to any aged child.

THEN

Frank goes away, blah blah blah for a few more chapters, Frank gets sick and is shipped back to London! Here the narrator suddenly develops a personality! There are some really funny moments on the ship when Harry and Laura are going to see Frank in London. It's lovely! But it only lasts for(I think) one chapter.

THEN!

Well this has taken a turn...

The book takes a very sudden turn from being light-hearted and ridiculous to dealing very closely with death. Sinclair was just like:

From here on it's almost all told from Laura's perspective and as she realizes her brother is going to die, "Laura felt as if she had grown old in a moment." In reference to his own coming death Frank tells Laura "perhaps I may escape a multitude of sorrows, but how gladly would I have shared all yours." For days after this Frank is told to utter feverish cries of "God have mercy upon my soul."
In the face of death, Laura forgets her own fears. Having tasted real fear, thunder is no longer a frightening thing.
Frank's death is very long and painful, interposed with moments of delirium and moments of Christian comfort, mostly told from Laura's perspective as she watches her brother slowly die. The narrator explains that "her pale countenance might almost have been mistaken for a corpse, but for the expression of living agony in her eye."

There is a moment when Frank falls into a hallucination in which he is left alone and he asks for his siblings, even though they are standing nearby. Laura manages to assure him she is there, and then he falls into unconsciousness, but says her name many times in his sleep. Frank dies just before sunrise, after weeks of sickness and pain, and to Harry and Laura "the brilliant dawn of morning seemed like a mockery of their distress."

Laura goes off to the darkness of her room, unable even to cry, but sits in "vacant abstraction" and reminds herself that her brother is dead.

And just in case that wasn't enough, when they bury the brother, the long-absent father who essentially abandoned his children for the good of his health becomes ill and bed-ridden. Harry and Laura then get to play the part of trying to fill the void of their perfect brother for a father who has never really known them.

Harry and Laura are described as seeming older now that they have experienced life's "realities,- they had felt its trials,- they had learned the importance of religion,- they had learned the frailty of all earthly joy,- and they had received, amidst tears and sorrows, the last injunction of a dying brother, to 'call upon the Lord while He is near, and seek Him while he may yet be found'."
So from that turning point to here I give the book five stars but don't read it to small children. Unless you hate them, in which case, might as well. You want to start that angst early, right?

THEN!

The book ends with Laura explaining to her uncle that Mrs. Crabtree's beatings and the uncle's own kindness could not manage to teach her and Harry some lesson so "God Himself... laid His hand upon us" to "bring me to my right mind."

And that's it, folks. Does the father get better? Who knows. How did the grandmother handle the news of Frank's death? Use your imagination. What lesson did they learn? Not really sure, as before hand the lesson seemed to be that children should behave, while the lesson actually learned was "life is very hard." What seemed to happen is that the author got lost in telling a story (at last) and then felt obliged to tag on a moral ending that would tie it in to the rest of the mess.
I give this last part of the book one star, because I don't really know what's going on. Did God kill Frank to punish the other two? What lesson was I supposed to take away from that? Did the father actually get his sorry ass out of bed and take care of his remaining children? That's a piece of information I would really like to have.
So anyway, I figure all of that averages out to about three(ish) stars, so that's what I gave it.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great fun! Could feel myself being Improved page by page. Shame the Kindle edition is missing the last part of the last quoted verse

[Gem K · Rating 4 out of 5]

The children of Victorian Scotland must’ve been traumatised no end by that ending

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the earliest (1839) realistic novels written for children in English. It more similar to adult sentimental novels of the 19th century than to the moralistic/cautionary tales that were what was mainly written for children at this time. In contrast to those "Goofus and Gallant" type stories, Holiday House depicts basically good children who do wrong and/or foolish things, and usually feel bad afterwards, but sometimes only because they didn't get away with it.

Laura and Harry and their "scrapes" are still fun to read about, thanks to Catherine Sinclair's lively dialogue and descriptions. I think her attitudes toward children and grownups are more similar to E. Nesbit than to any other 19th century children's author. The book is hard to find a copy of, but you can read it at
http://books.google.com/books?id=9gQn...

[Alison Forde · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written in 1830 this is often described as being the first book for children where mischief is expected and celebrated by the author, and in the first half of the book there are amusing episodes of naughtiness and fun being poked at the strictures placed on Victorian upper/middle class children. However the book also carries a rather heavy handed evangelical message more typical of writing for the time. It is debatable whether the author lost her nerve in writing the "fun" book it first appears to be or whether the episodes of naughtiness are there to emphasize the reform of the children as they age and are tamed by good example and grief in the death of a pious brother.

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Of its time, so it was interesting to read as a historical document.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story of a typical upper-class Victorian family in England, originally written in 1839.

[Yousra Bushehri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda weird...but it was seriously entertaining.

[Janelle]

Dnf. Some of the Librivox narrators weren’t to my taste.