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Penelope's Experiences
Penelope's Progress
"Edina, Scotia's darling seat! All hail thy palaces and towers!" Edinburgh, April, 189-. 22, Breadalbane Terrace. We have traveled together before, Salemina, Francesca, and I, and we know the very worst there is to know about one another. After this point has been reached, it is as if a triangular marriage had taken place, and, with the honeymoon comfortably over, we slip along in thoroughly friendly fashion. I use no warmer word than "friendly" because, in the first place, the highest tides of feeling do not visit the coast of triangular alliances; and because, in the second place, "friendly" is a word capable of putting to the blush many a more passionate and endearing one.
96 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1898
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75 people want to read
About the author
Kate Douglas Wiggin
402 books163 followersKate Douglas Smith Wiggin
Kate Douglas Wiggin, nee Smith (1856-1923) was an American children's author and educator. She was born in Philadelphia, and was of Welsh descent. She started the first free kindergarten in San Francisco in 1878 (the "Silver Street Free Kindergarten"). With her sister in the 1880s she also established a training school for kindergarten teachers. Her best known books are The Story of Pasty (1883), The Birds' Christmas Carol (1886), Polly Oliver's Problem (1893), A Cathedral Courtship (1893), The Village Watchtoer (1896), Marm Lisa (1897) and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1903).
Kate Douglas Wiggin, nee Smith (1856-1923) was an American children's author and educator. She was born in Philadelphia, and was of Welsh descent. She started the first free kindergarten in San Francisco in 1878 (the "Silver Street Free Kindergarten"). With her sister in the 1880s she also established a training school for kindergarten teachers. Her best known books are The Story of Pasty (1883), The Birds' Christmas Carol (1886), Polly Oliver's Problem (1893), A Cathedral Courtship (1893), The Village Watchtoer (1896), Marm Lisa (1897) and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1903).
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 8, 2014
Penelope, Selemina and Francesca are in Scotland, taking Edinborough by storm. There's plenty of scope for their romatic imaginations, new people to meet and new places to explore. Penelope's fiance will follow as soon as he can from Paris to visit with his beloved Penelope. Francesca continues to incur the enmity of a clergyman named Ronald MacDonald. She's so patriotic that his bias against America gets her goat every time.
This story starts off very amusing. Penelope's antics made me cringe a bit. She tries too hard to be a local but it's all in good fun. This section is followed by several chapters on religion which I found boring. I skipped a lot of that part. The story really picks up once they get to the country. There are plemty of quirky characters in Scotland to make the story amusing. I did not like the excessive quoting of Scottish ballads. I also didn't like all the dialect in the story. It made the dialogue hard to follow at times.
I would recommeend this book to fans of Anne Shirley. It reminded me a lot of one of Maud's books with all the local color and poetry. Not surprising, since PEI was home to many people of Scottish heritge including Maud Montgomery and her husband Ewan McDonald. I think Anne would recognize Penelope as a kindred spirit.
This story starts off very amusing. Penelope's antics made me cringe a bit. She tries too hard to be a local but it's all in good fun. This section is followed by several chapters on religion which I found boring. I skipped a lot of that part. The story really picks up once they get to the country. There are plemty of quirky characters in Scotland to make the story amusing. I did not like the excessive quoting of Scottish ballads. I also didn't like all the dialect in the story. It made the dialogue hard to follow at times.
I would recommeend this book to fans of Anne Shirley. It reminded me a lot of one of Maud's books with all the local color and poetry. Not surprising, since PEI was home to many people of Scottish heritge including Maud Montgomery and her husband Ewan McDonald. I think Anne would recognize Penelope as a kindred spirit.
January 7, 2015
This is the delightful sequel to Penelope's Experiences in England, and I downloaded it with squeals of delight onto my Kindle (my first Gutenburg download) The Squeals were entirely justified, as it is as lovely as the first volume (making allowance for the excess of Scots dialect which does become a little 'much') Penelope, Francesca and Salemina, three single (although P is now engaged) American women, travel to Scotland to continue their adventures in Great Britain. They enchant, and are enchanted by, Edinburgh society, and settle into a quaint country cottage where their doings and those of the villagers are described to the reader with lightness and wit. The episode of 'playing Sir Patrick Spens' is especially good.
The modern reader must approach these books with 21st century prejudices packed away and entirely forgotten. I cannot pretend that they are progressive, groundbreaking or brave in any way. But they are well-observed, funny and very much of their time (1890s-1900s) The three friends inhabit a world very like that of the adults in Lewis Carroll's 'Sylvie and Bruno', or the parents of Nesbit's Five Children. They are a social class above the Three Men in a Boat, although they might have dared to take tea with them, and would have had a jolly time. I can imagine them visiting the tea garden on the river kept by Mr Polly's 'plump woman' - and they would certainly have been amused at the sign for 'omlets'.
In short, these are little glimpses into a lost world - it's like reading the lives of the people that read the advertisements in The Illustrated London News. Although she tells her story with mirth and an eye for the ridiculous, the heroine's life is serious and real to the narrator, and it is this complete lack of anything arch or false that makes it a joy to read, and the characters such pleasant company.
The modern reader must approach these books with 21st century prejudices packed away and entirely forgotten. I cannot pretend that they are progressive, groundbreaking or brave in any way. But they are well-observed, funny and very much of their time (1890s-1900s) The three friends inhabit a world very like that of the adults in Lewis Carroll's 'Sylvie and Bruno', or the parents of Nesbit's Five Children. They are a social class above the Three Men in a Boat, although they might have dared to take tea with them, and would have had a jolly time. I can imagine them visiting the tea garden on the river kept by Mr Polly's 'plump woman' - and they would certainly have been amused at the sign for 'omlets'.
In short, these are little glimpses into a lost world - it's like reading the lives of the people that read the advertisements in The Illustrated London News. Although she tells her story with mirth and an eye for the ridiculous, the heroine's life is serious and real to the narrator, and it is this complete lack of anything arch or false that makes it a joy to read, and the characters such pleasant company.
June 17, 2023
The sequel to Penelope’s Experiences in England. Penelope and her friends Francesca and Salemina experience Scotland, first in Edinburgh and then in the countryside. In Edinburgh Francesca meets Ronald Macdonald, a handsome Scottish clergyman with whom she argues constantly, she and the reverend Macdonald can’t get on at all - no prizes for guessing how that turns out. Penelope and her friends are endearing characters and it is interesting to read about their adventures. The book ends with the celebration of Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee. A very pleasant book.
August 10, 2015
It must say something about me that I found this book, with its dueling lovers, to be the only decent romance of the three books I've read by the author. Just as sweet as the other two, verging on saccharine , but still enjoyable and very nice to float along with Penelope.
October 8, 2020
It was one of worst books I have read
I hated that mention of people who were in the book knocking an international marriage. Both of my grandparents were international married, but they were also American. The book was awful.
I hated that mention of people who were in the book knocking an international marriage. Both of my grandparents were international married, but they were also American. The book was awful.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews