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Aunt Jane's Nieces #2
Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad
The follow-up to Aunt Jane's Nieces , Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad is the second in the series of ten novels that Wizard of Oz creator L. Frank Baum penned for young adults at the dawn of the twentieth century. This entry follows the travels of wacky baron John Merrick as he takes his three nieces on a grand tour of Europe.
372 pages, Paperback
Published April 3, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
March 30, 2011
With the fabulous success of his Wizard of Oz books, L. Frank Baum finally found himself financially well off. He and his wife Maud used their new wealth to take a trip overseas. On 7 April 1906 they were witnesses to a major eruption of Vesuvius. This experience becomes the background for Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad which takes the characters to this same event and makes the novel interesting reading. Baum portrays the three young girls and their Uncle John as nationalistic Americans, extremely proud of their culture and values, who are always making comparisons with how much worse Europeans are in all they say and do. This adds humor to the story which is basically an adventure tale that centers around the mysterious men they meet in their travels. Filled with detail from Baum's own travels, the book ends up being a cautionary tale for Americans traveling abroad.
Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad is available online through the usual sources: Google Books, Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg, even audio thru LibriVox. I have to warn though that Baum's treatment of other nationalities and classes can be off-putting to modern sensibilities.
Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad is available online through the usual sources: Google Books, Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg, even audio thru LibriVox. I have to warn though that Baum's treatment of other nationalities and classes can be off-putting to modern sensibilities.
March 18, 2017
John Merrick neemt zijn 3 nichtjes Patsy, Beth en Louise mee op een reis naar Europa. Na een aangename overtocht met de stoomboot komen ze aan in Napels, waar hun avonturen beginnen. Aan boord hebben ze graaf Ferralti ontmoet, die 'toevallig' hetzelfde reisplan heeft als zij, en zich dus voortdurend in hun buurt bevind. Al gauw blijkt dat hij niet is wie hij voorgeeft te zijn, en het valt op dat hij steeds het gezelschap van Louise zoekt. Wanneer ze in Sicilië zijn, wordt oom John gevangen genomen door Il Duca, een gangster, en ook Ferralti is diens slachtoffer. Uiteindelijk loopt alles toch goed af, en kan het gezelschap zijn tocht doorheen Europa verder zetten.
Heel leuk vervolg op het eerste deel, en ik heb de indruk dat het gezelschap steeds meer uitgebreid wordt. Waarschijnlijk zullen er meer personages een rol komen de spelen in de volgende delen. Aangename literatuur, alhoewel ouderwets, maar daar hou ik wel van.
Heel leuk vervolg op het eerste deel, en ik heb de indruk dat het gezelschap steeds meer uitgebreid wordt. Waarschijnlijk zullen er meer personages een rol komen de spelen in de volgende delen. Aangename literatuur, alhoewel ouderwets, maar daar hou ik wel van.
October 5, 2025
eponymous-ey sentence:
p16: It was now that Uncle John proved a modern fairy godfather to Aunt Jane's nieces--who were likewise his own nieces.
Time of their lives, indeed.
p16: It was now that Uncle John proved a modern fairy godfather to Aunt Jane's nieces--who were likewise his own nieces.
Time of their lives, indeed.
October 3, 2019
What started off with plodding detail, finally got interesting when the entourage arrived in Europe just in time to see Vesuvius erupt. Though Uncle John is a lovely character, I cringed at his American attitude to inconvenience and ways of life that were different.
When they left the area of Vesuvius, they settled to sightseeing. The travelogue to follow was a bit disheartening to think that the rest may be so also. But there was a very swift change when they decided to go to Sicily.
All the naivety of the group, such as wandering the hills alone, is exposed and they have to discover what to do after one of the group is kidnapped. They meet up with their friends from the summer at Aunt Jane’s. Together they try to find a solution. The story is quite intriguing as one follows their actions in dealing with brigands, learning more than one lesson before the end.
The readers are okay. However, at times there is a big difference in the volume of the recordings, which means adjusting the sound fairly frequently.
When they left the area of Vesuvius, they settled to sightseeing. The travelogue to follow was a bit disheartening to think that the rest may be so also. But there was a very swift change when they decided to go to Sicily.
All the naivety of the group, such as wandering the hills alone, is exposed and they have to discover what to do after one of the group is kidnapped. They meet up with their friends from the summer at Aunt Jane’s. Together they try to find a solution. The story is quite intriguing as one follows their actions in dealing with brigands, learning more than one lesson before the end.
The readers are okay. However, at times there is a big difference in the volume of the recordings, which means adjusting the sound fairly frequently.
December 28, 2013
I gave this a three because the description of the 1906 eruption of Mt Vesuvius (or more to the point, the description of the ash fall in Naples) was very good. For the rest, it was amusing, but more of a literary curiosity than anything else. The series really should be called Uncle John's nieces since after the first in the series Aunt Jane is completely out of it. The male characters, despite the title, are the most fully realized, though Baum does not entirely neglect the female characters. The traveling party spends about a third of the book dealing with the volcanic eruption and most of the remainder dealing with brigands in Sicily (who live in a secret valley, entered only by moving a secret mechanism to dislodge a large boulder hiding the entrance). A small amount of time is spent dealing with petty thieves and minor swindlers, but the party remains in good spirits and manages to see lots of cathedrals and old masters before they go home.
April 20, 2023
2.5 stars, Metaphorosis Reviews
Summary
Wealthy uncle John Merrick decides to take his three nieces to Europe - the first foreign journey for all of them. Starting with a volcanic eruption, it soon turns more exciting than any of them could have expected.
Review
I give credit to L. Frank Baum for writing books in which girls have a leading active role (even if not quite what one would hope for over 100 years later). They’re plucky and cute, but also talented and intelligent, and each with distinct personalities. If Uncle John is a little over-genial, I found it fairly easy to forgive.
As Baum notes in the introduction, he drew on his own personal experience to render the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. While his American protagonists are largely concerned with its effect on their own trip, he does give the local characters a chance to express that it’s a little more devastating to them. There’s a fair element of travelogue to the book.
It is, in general, a very American book, if in a well intentioned way. The protagonists succeed because of American ingenuity and derring-do, and the America first tone doesn’t sit quite as well now as it would have back then. To his credit again, Baum doesn’t let the Americans win all the struggles. In fact, the thing that sat least well with me was his description of Tato – a key figure who, while at one point described as roughly the age of the nieces (so, mid-teens), is in virtually all cases treated as a child of perhaps eight or nine. That and one completely unnecessary and jarring use of a slur that doesn’t feel as if it would have fit well even when the book was published.
All in all, harmless, if dated, girls’ adventure.
Summary
Wealthy uncle John Merrick decides to take his three nieces to Europe - the first foreign journey for all of them. Starting with a volcanic eruption, it soon turns more exciting than any of them could have expected.
Review
I give credit to L. Frank Baum for writing books in which girls have a leading active role (even if not quite what one would hope for over 100 years later). They’re plucky and cute, but also talented and intelligent, and each with distinct personalities. If Uncle John is a little over-genial, I found it fairly easy to forgive.
As Baum notes in the introduction, he drew on his own personal experience to render the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. While his American protagonists are largely concerned with its effect on their own trip, he does give the local characters a chance to express that it’s a little more devastating to them. There’s a fair element of travelogue to the book.
It is, in general, a very American book, if in a well intentioned way. The protagonists succeed because of American ingenuity and derring-do, and the America first tone doesn’t sit quite as well now as it would have back then. To his credit again, Baum doesn’t let the Americans win all the struggles. In fact, the thing that sat least well with me was his description of Tato – a key figure who, while at one point described as roughly the age of the nieces (so, mid-teens), is in virtually all cases treated as a child of perhaps eight or nine. That and one completely unnecessary and jarring use of a slur that doesn’t feel as if it would have fit well even when the book was published.
All in all, harmless, if dated, girls’ adventure.
July 6, 2023
I'll give it an extra star since I didn't read the first part. My mom was listening to it and so I got curious and read the rest. The characters were interesting but didn't feel super believable to me. The characters kept saying things like "this wouldn't happen in America" which was kind of annoying. The character Tato was not consistent. The beginning of the book treated her like a small child who is held on her father's lap and can also be carried by her grandmother in one scene. Yet later you find out she is in her mid-teens. It did say she was small for her age but a well-cared for 15-year-old is going to be bigger than that. Other than that the character was pretty believable until the plot twist at the end which shows her as a calculating fully functional adult instead of the innocent child wanting a different life which is universally depicted throughout the rest of the book including in a private scene where only her father and grandmother were known to be listening. But if course the author had to come back to the prejudices of his day that "born a brigand, always a brigand."
Overall it's a creative story and I enjoyed it, except for the ending which was jarring and inconsistent with no foreshadowing.
Overall it's a creative story and I enjoyed it, except for the ending which was jarring and inconsistent with no foreshadowing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 12, 2018
An old fashioned story about girls written by Frank L Baum under a woman's pen name. Enjoyable.
July 18, 2020
Popsugar 2020: A book by a journalist.
August 15, 2021
An odd and clunky plot, but the female main characters remain interesting enough that I finished it.
February 8, 2025
Baum Free #16
Aunt Jane's Nieces #2
Second book in the series sees the young biddies go abroad as the title suggests and well adventure ensues.
Average yarn.
Aunt Jane's Nieces #2
Second book in the series sees the young biddies go abroad as the title suggests and well adventure ensues.
Average yarn.
March 10, 2012
Picture it… Sicily 1907… a few wealthy Americans go on a pleasure cruise and wind up awash in the ashes of an active volcano before reaching their hotel. They meet colourful dandies of suspicious virtue and become entangled in the bizarre local hierarchy of law and mafia; A mafia which seems to hold hostage various well-to-do’s the better to force them to buy antiques of no consequence. Aunt Jane’s Nieces, who might as well have been called Uncle John’s Nieces instead, show wit and wily dexterity to save Uncle John with the help of the redoubtable Tato. (Tato, not Toto… though Tato inhabits elements of another character from the Oz series called Tip…)
I'd like to give this a cross between 2 and 3 stars because I kept going from neat to meh...
I'd like to give this a cross between 2 and 3 stars because I kept going from neat to meh...
April 24, 2009
a cute story.
October 17, 2012
Very enjoyable reading. Loved the description of places traveled and their adventures with the Mafia. Was surprised that the Mafia was around in 1908!
Read
June 3, 2013
June 4, 2013
Ok, so now I know that Edith Van Dyne was a pen name of L. Frank Baum. This has a great story about Taormino Siciliy in it.
June 24, 2013
Good fun!
January 5, 2015
Okay but not as fun as the others in the series. Apart from the character of tato - I would have liked more of that character.
March 16, 2015
Pleasant reading.
March 26, 2012
Absolutely loved this - love Beth's character especially. Will post a longer review later
June 25, 2012
Aunt Jane's Niece travel to Europe with their uncle.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews