Family Pride Or, Purified by Suffering

by Mary Jane Holmes

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: Classics

415 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1867

About the author

Mary Jane Holmes (a.k.a. Mary J. Holmes) was a bestselling and prolific American author who wrote 39 popular novels, as well as short stories. Her first novel sold 250,000 copies; and she had total sales of 2 million books in her lifetime, second only to Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Mary Jane Holmes, nee Hawes (1825-1907) was an American author who wrote many popular novels. Holmes was born in Brookfield, Massachusetts. At age 13 she taught in a school. She married Daniel Holmes and they settled in Versailles, Kentucky. In 1854 she wrote her first novel, Tempest and Sunshine. The theme for most of her novels was domestic life. Other works include: The English Orphans; or, A Home in the New World (1855), 'Lena Rivers (1856), Homestead on the Hillside (1856), Meadow Brook (1857), Dora Deane; or, The East India Uncle (1859), Cousin Maude (1860), Rosamond Maude (1860), Darkness and Daylight (1864), Hugh Worthington (1865), Family Pride; or, Purified by Suffering (1867), Ethelyn's Mistake (1869), Edna Browning; or, The Leighton Homestead (1872), West Lawn (1874), Edith Lyle's Secret (1876), Forrest House (1879), Christmas Stories (1885), Bessie's Fortune (1885), Tracy Park (1886), Gretchen (1887), Paul Ralston (1897), The Cromptons (1899) and Bad Hugh (1900).

Portraying domestic life in small town and rural settings, she examined gender relationships, as well as those of class and race. She also dealt with slavery and the American Civil War, with a strong sense of moral justice. Her popular work was excluded from most 19th-century literary histories, but she has received recognition and reappraisal since the late 20th century.

Reviews

[Alonzo Church · Rating 4 out of 5]

Victorian fiction was designed to be read aloud. Accordingly, when time constraints interfere with my reading, I am grateful to the people at LibriVox whose volunteers read aloud a lot of old forgotten public domain books, and put the results out on the internet.

This one is the tale of a young beautiful country maiden, who captivates the hard heart of a young man of society. Naturally, he wants to make our heroine a queen of New York society. Her new family, you see, is a frosty lot dedicated to their undeserved sense of Family Pride. Unfortunately, the young cad has a Secret that threatens to come back from the dead and upset everyone’s plans. The result does cause a lot of fainting and attacks of brain fever. When characters have a fever attack, they start telling some home truths (instead of the usual 19th century stylized good manners) that keep the plot moving along.

Stuff like this is easy to mock, but makes for decently compelling listening on the Ohio Turnpike. My main complaint is that story peters out about two thirds of the way through, but the book continues gamely until all the nice people secure a good marriage. The Civil War thunders in the background, but feels more like a plot device. Still, this is a lot of fun and as enjoyable (and more plausible) as a page turner where a Jack Reacher type wipes out 100 or so people in pursuit of justice.

[Kate_Nagy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got my copy of this splendid little Victorian melodrama from the local library's freebie shelf. I only picked it up because it looked old, but when I idly opened it a couple of days later, I was immediately engrossed and ended up devouring it at one sitting. It has everything your heart could desire: an unsophisticated but sweet and beautiful heroine; her saintly, long-suffering older sister; the Doctor Next Door who Pines In Vain for the heroine; the caddish husband; and a woman of mystery whose very existence threatens pretty much everything for everybody, but she's not a bad sort, for all that. All that and the Civil War, too!

Mid-19th century women's fiction gets kind of a bad rap -- it's sentimental, maudlin, implausible, and focused on, well, girl stuff. All true! But it took some serious craft to produce "Family Pride," and the fact that a hundred and fifty years after it was written it still has the power to enchant -- well, that says something, doesn't it?

[JoAnn Stearns · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally captivating!

This is the second or third book I've read that was written by Mary Jane Holmes. I love this author. I love reading something that has been written so long ago. She truly writes from one who lived and witnessed the tumultuous times during and after the civil war. This fact only adds to the validity of the story. Speaking of the story itself, she is a great storyteller. This book kept me interested and turning pages until the very end. The characters were so intimately detailed and complex, I couldn't put the book down. The ending was happy and so satisfying! In today's world where there is so much turmoil , unrest, and unhappiness, a Cinderella story is the perfect distraction. I will definitely return for more of Mary Jane's wonderful stories written so long ago.