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Elizabeth Hobart at Exeter Hall
This book is part of the TREDITION CLASSICS series. The creators of this series are united by passion for literature and driven by the intention of making all public domain books available in printed format again - worldwide. At tredition we believe that a great book never goes out of style. Several mostly non-profit literature projects provide content to tredition. To support their good work, tredition donates a portion of the proceeds from each sold copy. As a reader of a TREDITION CLASSICS book, you support our mission to save many of the amazing works of world literature from oblivion.
188 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1907
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February 22, 2019
Elizabeth Hobart, the daughter of a mine superintendent, comes to Exeter Hall in this American girls' school story, first published in 1907. Having been raised all her life in Bitumen, an isolated mining village where she and her family were the only middle-class residents, Elizabeth had been educated at home, and had no experience mixing with other girls of her own age. After a period of adjustment however, she finds herself becoming one of the leading lights of the Middlers (AKA junior students): arranging a midnight "spread" in her room, befriending the school outcast and sticking by her, and speaking up in a meeting of the Young Women's Christian Association, to express her disapproval of the idea of ostracizing girls who have done something wrong. Unused to the ways of school, and of school examinations, and having always been treated with trust and respect in her own home, she is shocked and outraged at the idea of instructors remaining in the classroom during examinations in order to prevent cheating, and she initiates a movement for reform, eventually convincing both fellow pupils and the principal, Dr. Morgan, that school policy should be changed. When the time comes for the Senior Exercises, Elizabeth leads a daring and well-planned Middler prank to rob the outgoing class of their glory, concluding her first year at Exeter Hall with excitement and fun.
As a school story, I would say that Elizabeth Hobart at Exeter Hall was fairly engaging. It contains many of the themes and motifs - the new girl who makes good, the midnight feast, the schoolgirl pranks, and the rivalry between the classes - common in school stories, but also manages to offer its own take on issues of social inclusion and schoolgirl "policing." The idea of ostracism as a punishment for a girl who does wrong - in British school stories, I believe this is described as "sending someone to Coventry" - is challenged here, and is shown to be both short-sighted and wrong. As Elizabeth argues on more than one occasion, ostracism does not help the wrong-doer to reform, or offer support if she is trying to do better. Given that this is so, the reasons for adopting it, whether it be to make the girl suffer, or to demonstrate the superiority of her tormenters, are unworthy, and the action is cruel. The narrative supports this conclusion through Elizabeth's friendship with Nora O'Day, a student who is known to have cheated on an examination the previous year, and who is either ignored or treated coldly by her fellows as a consequence. It is interesting to note that the strongest proponent for outright ostracism in the story, Landis Stoner, is eventually revealed as a plagiarist, while the girls who simply react with reserve to Nora (at least at first), are guilty of no such misconduct. More importantly, it is Elizabeth's friendship with Nora - a friendship built on her acceptance of Nora, despite her past wrongdoing, and her determined inclusion of her in all social activities - that ends up being the salvation of Elizabeth's own father, involved in a bitter strike that has been brewing in the background during most of the story, and which comes to a head toward the conclusion of the book.
Unfortunately, this subplot involving The Kettle Creek Mining Company, and the disgruntled miners whose passions are stirred to a frenzy by publican Dennis O'Day (father to Nora), really detracts from the overall appeal of Elizabeth Hobart at Exeter Hall, which could have stood very well on its own as a school story. The events at Bitumen read like a distraction from the real narrative, and are presented in such a ludicrously biased fashion, that it is difficult to take them seriously. The idea that the mines were a fairly benign work place, and that the miners had little to complain of - that they only considered striking because O'Day manipulated them into it - is laughable. It's the classic conservative manta about a few "bad apples" ruining the bunch, and outside "instigators" being behind any social unrest - as if people working a dangerous, poorly-paid job would have little reason to resent their employers, otherwise - joined to the author's evident beliefs about alcohol. Judging from plot elements of Jean K. Baird's The Honor Girl , published the same year as this, the author had a strong belief in temperance, so it stands to reason that she would make her instigator a liquor dealer. But the notion that a mining strike could be called into being by a publican who resented his liquor license being threatened, and as easily delayed by that same publican, when his daughter threatened to leave him, is simply beyond belief! As is the author's notion that the innocent miners - almost all immigrants from other countries - were unfamiliar with such ideas before setting foot on American shores: "They had heard the war-cry between capital and labor dinned into their ears since the day they set foot upon American soil. It meant nothing to them that their teachers were always men like O'Day, who, while lining their own pockets with the laborers' earnings, cry out against the men who are getting more, though lawfully."
With the caveat that it contains some laughably bizarre notions of class and labor unrest, I would recommend this one to readers looking for early American examples of the school story. The elements of the plot set at Exeter Hall itself are fairly engaging, if the reader can get past the ugliness of some of the ideas put forth in the mining sections.
As a school story, I would say that Elizabeth Hobart at Exeter Hall was fairly engaging. It contains many of the themes and motifs - the new girl who makes good, the midnight feast, the schoolgirl pranks, and the rivalry between the classes - common in school stories, but also manages to offer its own take on issues of social inclusion and schoolgirl "policing." The idea of ostracism as a punishment for a girl who does wrong - in British school stories, I believe this is described as "sending someone to Coventry" - is challenged here, and is shown to be both short-sighted and wrong. As Elizabeth argues on more than one occasion, ostracism does not help the wrong-doer to reform, or offer support if she is trying to do better. Given that this is so, the reasons for adopting it, whether it be to make the girl suffer, or to demonstrate the superiority of her tormenters, are unworthy, and the action is cruel. The narrative supports this conclusion through Elizabeth's friendship with Nora O'Day, a student who is known to have cheated on an examination the previous year, and who is either ignored or treated coldly by her fellows as a consequence. It is interesting to note that the strongest proponent for outright ostracism in the story, Landis Stoner, is eventually revealed as a plagiarist, while the girls who simply react with reserve to Nora (at least at first), are guilty of no such misconduct. More importantly, it is Elizabeth's friendship with Nora - a friendship built on her acceptance of Nora, despite her past wrongdoing, and her determined inclusion of her in all social activities - that ends up being the salvation of Elizabeth's own father, involved in a bitter strike that has been brewing in the background during most of the story, and which comes to a head toward the conclusion of the book.
Unfortunately, this subplot involving The Kettle Creek Mining Company, and the disgruntled miners whose passions are stirred to a frenzy by publican Dennis O'Day (father to Nora), really detracts from the overall appeal of Elizabeth Hobart at Exeter Hall, which could have stood very well on its own as a school story. The events at Bitumen read like a distraction from the real narrative, and are presented in such a ludicrously biased fashion, that it is difficult to take them seriously. The idea that the mines were a fairly benign work place, and that the miners had little to complain of - that they only considered striking because O'Day manipulated them into it - is laughable. It's the classic conservative manta about a few "bad apples" ruining the bunch, and outside "instigators" being behind any social unrest - as if people working a dangerous, poorly-paid job would have little reason to resent their employers, otherwise - joined to the author's evident beliefs about alcohol. Judging from plot elements of Jean K. Baird's The Honor Girl , published the same year as this, the author had a strong belief in temperance, so it stands to reason that she would make her instigator a liquor dealer. But the notion that a mining strike could be called into being by a publican who resented his liquor license being threatened, and as easily delayed by that same publican, when his daughter threatened to leave him, is simply beyond belief! As is the author's notion that the innocent miners - almost all immigrants from other countries - were unfamiliar with such ideas before setting foot on American shores: "They had heard the war-cry between capital and labor dinned into their ears since the day they set foot upon American soil. It meant nothing to them that their teachers were always men like O'Day, who, while lining their own pockets with the laborers' earnings, cry out against the men who are getting more, though lawfully."
With the caveat that it contains some laughably bizarre notions of class and labor unrest, I would recommend this one to readers looking for early American examples of the school story. The elements of the plot set at Exeter Hall itself are fairly engaging, if the reader can get past the ugliness of some of the ideas put forth in the mining sections.
April 25, 2011
Not great. It was hard to find and follow any particular thread of plot through the whole story; it breaks up its stories in an odd way. The ending was unexpected, not because it was a clever twist, but because I didn't expect it to end by that point - it felt very much an unfinished story.
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