A Rose of a Hundred Leaves

by Amelia E. Barr

A love story first published in 1891 by the British American novelist whose many other works include "Jan Vedder's Wife," "Friend Olivia" and "The Bow of Orange Ribbon."

238 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1891

About the author

Amelia Edith Barr, née Huddleston, was an English American novelist. (See also under Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr.)

In 1850 she married William Barr, and four years later they immigrated to the United States and settled in Galveston, Texas where her husband and three of their six children died of yellow fever in 1867. With her three remaining daughters, Mrs. Barr moved to Ridgewood,New Jersey in 1868. She came there to tutor the three sons of a prominent citizen, William Libby, and opened a school in a small house. This structure still stands at the southwest corner of Van Dien and Linwood Avenues.

Amelia Barr did not like Ridgewood and did not remain there for very long. She left shortly after selling a story to a magazine.[Caldwell,William A.,et al.,"The History of a Village, Ridgewood,N.J.," State Tercentenary Committee, c. 1964, p. 32] In 1869, she moved to New York City where she began to write for religious periodicals and to publish a series of semi-historical tales and novels.

By 1891, when she achieved greater success, she and her daughters moved up the Hudson River to Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York, where they renovated a house on the slopes of Storm King Mountain and named it Cherry Croft. The name has been applied to that period of her career, the most productive and successful. She remained there until moving in with her daughter Lilly in White Plains in her last years.

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

An old-fashioned romance, with a charm of olden days and a beauty of character in the heroine. The path of love is not easy for Aspatria Anneys or her brothers. She proves herself a woman worthy of being won, however; she does not sell herself cheaply in any way.

I love this author!

[Mela · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is something between a sweet historical romance and a fairy-tale. It was a pleasurable reading. And I was really surprised how it went on (not all the time, but novels in style of fairy-tale are rather predictable, so every surprise is... a nice surprise ;-) ).

There was a moment when I thought it would be even better, but an author chose to end up in a simpler way. I think it was waste of a good concept and story. What I mean is that Aspatria understood eventually motives and feelings of Ulfar and in my opinion after so much work she did I expected she would give him some kind of a lesson. For me it was too easy for him.

Nonetheless, I like it. I would like it 3.5 star but I can't give it 4. I can't forgive this hesitation between a simple (although really sweet) fairy-tale love and a good psychological story with a moral. I don't mind mixing genres but in this book I felt rather an indecision than a smooth mixing.

But still, if you search for a short novel with a charming love with obstacles you can honestly try it.

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet old-fashioned love story.

[Nurhazlinda Mazlan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too quick of an ending!

Great storyline in that era and the vocabulary was precise. A good short piece. Although I had wish the ending wasn't abrupt yet this would be a great TV series