Rita

The Margaret Series #4

by Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards, Etheldred B. Barry (Illustrator)

Half-Cuban Rita Montford, not the most sympathetic character in The Three Margarets, ultimately comes into her own when she returns to Cuba, which is in the midst of great unrest. She learns her brother has become a revolutionary, and sets off for the mountains to find him, eventually maturing enough to become useful to the cause - and to fall in love.

246 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1900

About the author

Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards (27 February, 1850 – 14 January, 1943) was an American writer. She often published as Laura E. Richards & wrote more than 90 books including biographies, poetry, and several for children.

Her father was Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, an abolitionist and the founder of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind. She was named after his famous deaf-blind pupil Laura Bridgman. Her mother Julia Ward Howe wrote the words to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".

Reviews

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Margarita de San Real Montfort, the half-Cuban, half-American young woman first introduced in Three Margarets , which told the story of three very different cousins, all with the same name, who became good friends during a visit to the ancestral family home in New York - the story of the eldest Margaret is continued in Margaret Montfort , while that of the youngest can be found in Peggy - returns in this fourth book in Laura E. Richards' series, finding herself caught up in the tumultuous events of the Cuban War of Independence, and the resultant Spanish-American War. Running away from her step-mother, a staunch Spanish loyalist and a pious Catholic who wishes to retire with her to the convent of the White Sisters, Rita, herself a passionate Cuban nationalist and a Protestant, sets out for the mountain stronghold where her brother Carlos is an officer with the rebels under General Sevillo. Many adventures follow, as Rita spends time in the rebel camp, where she learns to conquer her fear of blood, and nurse the wounded; and then in the home of local Pacificos (non-combatant) Don Annunzio, and his Vermont-born wife Marm Prudence, where she meets the famous rebel leader (and fellow half-American) "Captain Jack" Delmonte, in hiding while his wounds heal. When she and Captain Jack must flee from the Spaniards (described here as "Gringos"), they meet up with another Montfort wandering about Cuba...

I enjoyed Rita far more than I expected to, given the fact that its eponymous heroine was not my favorite character, in Three Margarets . It was every bit as melodramatic as I'd expected, after discussing it with an online friend, and I was conscious throughout of the stereotypes employed by Richards - the Cubans are often depicted as overly emotional, and rather childlike, and the Spaniards as pillaging beasts - but the story itself was entertaining, and had the added benefit of being rather interesting, from a historical perspective. Published in 1900, shortly after the Spanish-American War, when feeling in the United States would still have been very high with regard to Cuba, it struck me as highly propagandistic in nature. There seemed to be quite a few Americans and half-Americans running around in Richards' fictional Cuba - perhaps to elicit sympathy and fellow feeling for that country, from American readers? - and the scene in which Rita and Jack are pinned down behind the fallen Aquila, with the murderous Spaniards advancing upon them, and he tells her that "It shall be as it would with my own sister. I know these men; they shall not touch you alive," reminded me of nothing so much as the (overblown) Olivette Incident, in which it was reported that a "refined" young woman, aboard an American steamer, was strip-searched by Spanish officers. When a troop of Rough Riders comes around the bend, and Rita cries out: "Help! America, help!" it is clear that America's role is being explicitly defined and celebrated (two years after the events of the war) as one of savior.

Fascinating stuff! As someone whose grandfather fought in the Spanish-American War, someone who is well aware of the role of "yellow journalism" in fomenting that conflict (it is said to be one of the first conflicts driven by the media), I think a study of its depiction in the children's literature of the day would be of great value. I'll have to see if I can find other works published around this time, with a similar theme. In any case, I'm glad to have read Rita, both for its historical interest, and as an installment of an ongoing series I am enjoying. Recommended to anyone who read and enjoyed the first three books in The Margaret Series, and to anyone looking for children's novels set during the Spanish-American War.

[Danada · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadly I just don't care for Rita as much -- too melodramatic I think. She made a great transformation in this book though, from a flighty, spoiled child to a thoughtful, caring, giving young woman.

[Jennifer Booth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not for me

A mix of western and sappy romance was too little for action. It was not me it was to far too boring

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating fourth book in this series. While Peggy, book three, was in the style of a "schoolgirl" novel, this book was written in a romantic thriller type of novel with epistolary sections. There were quite intriguing elements to this story, beginning with the categorization of the Spaniard colonial inhabitants as the "gringos" who were oppressing the true Cubans. Rita considers herself a Cuban, even though her father was American and her mother a Spaniard. She has romantic ideas of fighting for her country, but learns the reality of war very quickly and becomes involved in the cause in ways that help her mature and evolve, making the novel something of a coming-of-age story. Rita is still an entitled and overly excitable character given to dramatic exaggeration, but it is part of her charm, and Richards certainly knows how to plot an exciting tale. Richards includes historical elements of the Cuba Libra movement and the American Rough Riders who helped the Cuban revolutionaries, and does not shy away from the more realistic aspects of war. I am quite impressed with Richards's mixing of literary styles and genres, and her use of contemporary historical elements. Looking forward to the last two books in this series.