My Daughter, Nicola

by Ruth M. Arthur, Fermin Rocker (Illustrator)

Nicola, a young Swiss girl from a mountain village is overjoyed when her father returns from Berne to live, and decides to prove to him that she is as courageous as any boy by climbing into the disused mine shafts in the side of the mountain.

Genres: Fiction

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Working name of UK writer Ruth Mabel Arthur Huggins, long active as a children's author, her career beginning with Friendly Stories (collection, 1932). Most of her early work, like the Brownie sequence -- The Crooked Brownie (1936), The Crooked Brownie in Town (1942) and The Crooked Brownie at the Seaside (1942) -- is for younger children, but with Dragon Summer (1962) and A Candle in her Room (1966) she began to write the haunting fantasy-tinged adolescent novels for which she became best known. Often featuring first-person narratives spanning multiple generations filled with echoes of centuries past.

Reviews

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Convinced that her father did not love her because she was not born a boy, young Nicola Juler dreamed of the day when she could prove to him that daughters were as good as sons. Mostly content with her life in a small village - lying at the feet of "the most magnificent mountain in the whole of Switzerland," Nicola's days were filled with school during the winter, and caring for the dairy cows in the high pastures during the summer. But just as the Mountain was always there, a sort-of personality in its own right, so too was Nicola's conviction that her father's approval might be won through some act of daring. It was during one of her stays at the high-pasture summer-camp that the idea came to Nicola to climb down into the Mountain itself, into the old, long-abandoned mines....

Although this early novel by Ruth M. Arthur is one of the few in which she does not employ some supernatural element (to my knowledge, the other is The Little Dark Thorn ), it does address some of the themes to which she would return in her later novels. The complicated workings of families - simultaneously joyful and pained - are handled with the sensitivity and humor that would become a hallmark of Arthur's work. The importance of compassion and tolerance, exemplified in this instance by Nicola's friendship with the Italian "other" Carlotta, is a theme the author revisited in later books as well. In sum: well-worth reading - the ending provides real emotional satisfaction. It is a shame that this author remains out-of-print.

Another note: although almost all of Arthur's novels were illustrated by the excellent Margery Gill, this was the exception, with black and white drawings by Fermin Rocker.

[Capn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first Ruth M. Arthur book, and I have to say that I am impressed. She absolutely nailed Zermatt (presumed location - it isn't actually named, nor is the Matterhorn, but the illustrations fix it firmly), the cultural practices and practicalities and even the nuances of the xenophobic view of the poor Italian settlers. All the names are accurately Swiss (unlike most of Mabel Esther Allan's stories set here, for example), and she even touched on the cow fighting and the practical reasons why it is a tradition upheld to this day.

It's a short, simplistic story, about a scrappy young pugilist with something to prove (namely, that she's as tough and as capable as any boy, in spite of her diminuitive size and the gender norms of the era, set some few generations in the past). Nicola manages to pack a lot into her first-person narrative (it's a scant 128 pages, Armada paperback), and while there isn't much depth to the story (unsurprisingly), it still makes for a ripping adventurous yarn that I'm sure gave adolescents serious wanderlust when it was published in 1966 (and again by Armada in 1970). There is a brief visit to Berne/Bern as well, which was delightful.

The author's dedication reads, "For Sal, because she loves Switzerland". So do I, Sal, so do I. And I especially enjoyed the time I spent in Zermatt. And this took me right back.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slight story of a young girl who sets out to prove to her indifferent father that she is as good as any son in carrying on the family name and traits. Interesting details of life in a Swiss village (farming, mountain climbing, moving to a "summer village" to herd cows, etc.).

[Jossalyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

love this author. discovered her when I had the ambition to read all the titles in the children's section of the library and started at A.

[Melody · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remembered liking this better than I actually did. It's awfully slight as far as stories go. I do love the way Arthur brings a certain mannered formality to her stories, and this one's no exception. The plot, though, was lacking. Nicola, for no discernible reason, decides that the way to win her father's love is to find an entrance into the abandoned mine on the mountain. An odd little story.

[Kathryn]

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