Nature's Serial Story: The Works of E. P. Roe

by Edward Payson Roe

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1922 Edition.

482 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1885

About the author

Reverend Edward Payson Roe (1838-1888) was an American novelist born in Moodna, Orange County, New York. He studied at Williams College and at Auburn Theological Seminary. In 1862 he became chaplain of the Second New York Cavalry, U.S. V., and in 1864 chaplain of Hampton Hospital, in Virginia. In 1866-74 he was pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Highland Falls, New York. In 1874 he moved to Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, where he devoted himself to the writing of fiction and to horticulture. During the American Civil War he wrote weekly letters to the New York Evangelist, and subsequently lectured on the war and wrote for periodicals. Amongst his works are Barriers Burned Away (1872), What Can She Do? (1873), Opening a Chestnut Burr (1874), Near to Nature's Heart (1876), A Face Illumined (1878), Success with Small Fruits (1880), A Day of Fate (1880), Without a Home (1881), An Unexpected Result (1883), His Sombre Rivals (1884), A Young Girl's Wooing (1884), An Original Belle (1885), He Fell in Love with His Wife (1886), Driven Back to Eden (1886) and The Earth Trembled (1887).

Reviews

[Elizabeth S]

You know those books you adore even though you don't really have a reasonable reason to be obsessed with? The kind of book that you want to talk about to all your friends even though they would think you are crazy. Yea, that happens to me a lot.
Basically this story is about a family in the country in upstate New York. It is an idealized place that clearly only exists in the world of people like E. P. Roe who spend half the book describing nature. It shows my love of the book that this doesn't particularly bother me. It also doesn't bother me that it is completely unrealistic and idealized portrait of country life.
The heroine Amy appears at start as a ward of the family having come all the way from England. The family, including the twenty something boys, are all expecting a kid of about 12. Well, she turns out to be eighteen and extremely pretty. Amy is almost perfect and the whole family is in love with her. Amy isn't an annoying person though because she is still human and has fears and insecurities just like normal people. In fact Amy is the type of girl you probably would want to hang out with.
Then there is the boys. The oldest is Leonard and he is already married with a couple of kids. Then Webb comes next and he is scientific and nerdy and all kinds of awesome. I mean who can resist a guy who is described as strong, smart, kind and adorably awkward. The youngest Burt is impulsive, silly but ultimately a nice guy. Both of the brothers are pretty much in love with Amy.
This is the kind of book that you know exactly how it's going to end from chapter 3. You know the moment Amy blushes when Webb gives her a kiss (not a romantic one but a friendly one) that she is going to end up with him. Even if it takes Amy the whole book to figure out that he isn't her brother in real life (Roe seems to love to make grown people pretend to be brother and sister mostly so he can overcome the social problems of unattached young people.) and she is in love with him. Roe makes this worse by constantly reminding the reader that she is just a child until she seems like Sleeping Beauty. Nevertheless the astute reader clearly picks up evidence of attraction and love much sooner than the characters in question and maybe even the author.
I think that their love story is one of the most natural and sweet in fiction. They are meant to be together. Amy even enjoys science and is one of the few people that find reading "boring" scientific books interesting. Amy helps Webb to see the beauty in life and nature. She transforms his life. They understand each other in a deep way.
I love the scene where Amy is staring at him while he cuts down trees and she is clearly checking him out even though she doesn't know what she is doing. Then the whole family have a picnic and it is so beautifully described I want to be there. Neither Webb or Amy is aware of their feelings for each other and the subtle tension is what makes the story lovely. Then there is the scene in the rose garden which is so perfect that is seems almost impossible she doesn't suspect the truth. The lightening scene is also beautifully passionate and symbolic. The ending is also mostly perfect and I love it. Roe even uses Webb as a mouthpiece to indicate that he wasn't adverse to the idea of evolution (that must have horrified Victorian audiences and still would be pretty shocking today) and Webb is also clearly a tree hugger.
I realize this review is gushy and that nobody else can properly understand why I am so in love with this book. It reminds me of The Harvester by Gene Stratton Porter.