The Blue Window

by Temple Bailey

1926. Temple Bailey was an American novelist and short-story writer. The Blue Window Hildegarde had always known that her mother was different from the others, but she had not known why. She had thought it might be because, before her father died, her mother had had an easy time. And Aunt Catherine and Aunt Olivia had never had an easy time. They had worked hard, as girls, on the farm, and they worked hard now. Aunt Olivia, to be sure, had been married, but she had worked hard for her husband, and when he left her a widow, she made her home with Aunt Catherine and kept on working.

Genres: Romance

340 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1926

About the author

Known as "Queen of the Romantic Novel", Irene Temple Bailey was born in Petersburg, Virginia. Her childhood was spent in Washington, D.C., and she attended a girls' school in Richmond, Virginia. In the early 1900s, she had her fiction published in national magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, Cavalier Magazine, Cosmopolitan, American Magazine, McClure's, Woman's Home Companion, Good Housekeeping, and McCall's.

Her success with short stories inspired her to try her hand at books, and her first novel, Judy, was published in 1907. She eventually wrote over 25 best-selling books and became one of the most successful authors of her time. Later she also ventured into screenwriting; in 1914 she wrote the screenplay for the Vitagraph Studios film Auntie.

Temple Bailey is probably most famous for her short story, "A Parable of Motherhood."

Source: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1...

Reviews

[Thomas Zemsky]

I think a strong theme in this book is that things are not always what they seem.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a lovely book! I adored the character of Crispin. Hildegard was somewhat of a mystery to me at times, but she came out all right in the end. All the characters were wonderful and her descriptions were as fantastic as ever. I really loved the parts where she talked about George Washington. This is a great book all around!

[Sheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do I love this book for what it is, or for what it means to me? I'm not sure, although it's very readable either way. It's mostly the coming-of-age story of Hildegarde, and, secondarily, of her friend Sally, and I couldn't tell you which of them is my favorite. Their gentleman friend Merry, although full adult at the beginning of the story, also has some growing up to do, and even Crispin, who comes to maturity but in one sense changes the least, struggles now and then. All of them want to cling to what's real and good, even though they don't all believe in it, and they don't always know how to recognize it.

My grandfather gave this book to my grandmother when they were courting, which is very apt, somehow. Both of them had wonderful mothers, grounded women with sound moral sense, like Hildegard's mother Elizabeth, who dies before the book starts but whose shadow is over the whole. And they both knew what it was to have someone close who fails you (sometimes they failed each other!), and yet to love them anyhow, and how difficult it can be sometimes to find that narrow road where you are both true to yourself and true to that love.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lovely book from an articulate female writer. It was interesting to unfold the story from a strong female perspective (including voting, which was still relatively new at the time of the story) without losing femininity.

[Karen Andes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet love story

[Magda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread this after the death of my friend's mother, and it was especially poignant, as Anne stood for the same beautiful ideals as Elizabeth in the book.

[Morag · Rating 2 out of 5]

Temple Bailey usually delivers, but this one really left me wanting. Definitely not my favorite.

[Lizz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is actually a re-read of a book I loved when I was young. My grandmother had all of Temple Bailey's books and I devoured them.

[Hanna]

Carol spoiled the ending for me in her diary, but I still want to read it. XD