Is Lady Edith the Mary Ingalls of Britain?

Like millions of others, I am caught up in watching Downton Abbey. Some time in Season 2, I heard about this fabulous period show on PBS and had to check it out. I loved it so much, I watched the episodes I missed on the PBS website, continued through to the end of the second season, and eagerly anticipated the start of Season 3 on January 6th.

With Lady Mary and Lady Sybil both married, the attention suddenly falls to Edith in the second episode. The middle, and often forgotten, child of Lord and Lady Grantham, is excited to finally be in the limelight. As she prepares for her wedding to Sir Anthony Strallan, it seems like the sun has finally shone on her.

But just like Mary Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie seemed to be a magnet for tragedy, Lady Edith never seems to get what she wants. The creator of Downton Abbey is also the series writer, Julian Fellowes. I'm truly beginning to think he dislikes Edith, because how much bad stuff can happen to one character? With Mary Ingalls it was numerous health conditions, going blind (historically accurate), and losing two babies. With Lady Edith, not only does love seem to elude her, she's always looking for it in the wrong places. Not to mention that she's overly snarky. She despises Lady Mary enough to try and ruin her reputation, and can't even manage to be kind to Mary on her wedding day, rambling something about her older sister getting a man with good looks and position before slipping out of the room. Some might wonder if she deserves what she gets. After all, she did once try to get between a man and his wife.

One also has to wonder if Lady Edith will ever be happy for long, or if like Mary Ingalls, her happy times will be clouded over by horrible tragedies that her mother tells her will make her stronger.

Depressing LHOP Christmas Episodes?

At one of the Little House on the Prairie forums I belong to, we got into the discussion about the lack of Christmas episodes. The show aired back when annual Christmas episodes were not the norm, so that's not surprising. Considering the locations where the show was filmed, it's also understandable that more episodes didn't have snow. One forum member made a comment that most of the Christmas episodes, ones where you would expect to see snow, are depressing. My immediate thought was to refute what she said. But in thinking more about it, she's not really wrong. Let's take a look at the Christmas episodes or scenes.

The first time we see the Ingalls celebrate Christmas is in their log cabin in Kansas. Mr. Edwards crosses the river to deliver presents for Santa Claus. The entire episode is a dramatic one, and at the end, the Ingalls family will be forced to pack up their belongings and move because the government has redrawn boundaries and the farm is now in Indian territory.

The Christmas scenes in the Pilot are probably some of the sweetest Christmas scenes we see. Mary is the good girl patiently waiting to take down her stocking, while Laura can barely control the urge to peek inside.  When a snow-covered Mr. Edwards arrives, little Carrie calls him Santa. Ma, who didn't like Mr. Edwards, finally sees there are some redeeming qualities to the gruff man who frequents saloons.

By the time we see an Ingalls Christmas again, the family has moved to Walnut Grove and is living on the banks of Plum Creek. This is an exciting time, as family members secretly work on presents for each other. Laura is perplexed on what to give Ma, but when she learns what she truly wants--a stove--she makes a deal with Mr. Oleson to buy it for her. Unaware of Laura's plan, Pa is making a saddle for Laura's pony, Bunny. He's also working hard to refurbish a set of wheels for a customer of Mr. Oleson's so that he can buy the stove for Caroline.

It doesn't take long for this happy, exciting time to become sad. The deal Laura makes with Mr. Oleson involves selling Bunny to him so he can give his daughter, Nellie, the pony that she has always admired. It breaks Laura's heart, and when Caroline discovers what Laura has done, she is saddened to know what her daughter gave up.

With Laura giving a stove to Ma, Charles now has no gift for his wife. Oh, and in case I didn't mention it, Charles didn't get a gift from his wife either. Seems Mary and Caroline liked the same bolt of fabric so much that they both made Pa a shirt from it. Rather than disappoint Mary, she tucks hers away.

Overall, the episode reminds us to focus on family, not gifts, so it's classic Little House on the Prairie. Definitely a great episode, but the loss of Bunny makes it a bummer; even if it is temporary, as Laura gets Bunny back in a future episode.

Much of season three is filled with dramatic episodes. So it should come as no surprise that this Christmas episode is filled with angst and tragedy. The school is turned into a hospital on Christmas Eve, when a quick-moving blizzard catches the school children unaware on their way home. Miss Beadle is filled with guilt, having allowed the children to head home early because of the flurries.

The men in town set off in groups to round up the children. Mr. McGinnis foolhardily ventures out in only a light coat and dies while searching for his son, a tragedy that could have been avoided if he had only taken one of the warmer coats Mr. Oleson offered him. To this day, I still feel like kicking him in the shins for refusing the coat.

Most of the children have been accounted for except the Ingalls girls and Carl and Alicia Edwards. When Charles and Isaiah Edwards find the girls in an abandoned shed, they go their separate ways--Charles back to the school and Isaiah continuing to search for his children.

By morning, the storm is over and Charles rallies the men to prepare to go out and find Isaiah and his family.  The door bursts open and Isaiah and his children enter to the hugs and rejoicing of all, especially his wife, Grace, who has been at the school helping Doc Baker care for the others. When Charles turns around, he spies Mrs. McGinnis and her son glumly looking on. He walks to the pulpit, where he reads the Christmas story from the Bible. Even the music for this episode drips depressing, though the Bible story is the perfect reminder of the ultimate sacrifice made for us.

It will be season eight before another Christmas episode occurs. All the stops were pulled out for this one. Special music fills this happy episode where family members share stories of Christmases past while snowbound at the Ingalls homestead. Mary and Adam Kendall, who had moved to New York so Adam could find work at his father's old law firm, return to spend Christmas with the family and Hester Sue. Caroline tells of a special Christmas where she came to accept Papa Holbrook. Almanzo shares the Christmas that he almost stopped believing in Santa Claus. Laura shares the story of Christmas in Kansas, and Hester Sue tells a story of life as a black child during the early years of the Civil War, when her Papa made a surprise delivery as Santa Claus.

I'm fairly certain the real pioneers wouldn't be too happy about having that much snow, but it made for a fun episode. This one remains my favorite.

When the series was cancelled, they ran three post-series movies, which included a Christmas one titled, "Bless All the Dear Children." Almanzo, Laura, Rose, and Isaiah Edwards travel to Mankato to shop for Christmas. John Carter gives Almanzo money so he can shop for his family too. While there, Rose is kidnapped by a distraught woman who has recently lost a baby. They also run into a orphan boy named Samuel, who hides away in their wagon and ends up helping search for Rose.

In Walnut Grove, Jenny spends time with Mr. Montague and the Carters, hoping and praying for Rose's return. Jason Carter is concerned about making enough money to buy his mother a special gift, and John Carter isn't sure what kind of Christmas it will be if the Wilders don't find Rose and return in time, while Mr. Montague is determined not to give in to the commercialization of Christmas by putting up a tree and buying gifts.

I'm not fond of episodes that take place outside of Walnut Grove anyway, but this one especially bugs me because of the modern theme of the commercialization of Christmas running through it, which required other residents of the town to be more focused on gifts, and the absence of Harriet Oleson, who was in the hospital and unable to be home, but still managed to send Nancy a mountain of presents.

This has always been my least favorite Christmas episode. The ending is too sappy, even by LHOP standards, and I don't buy that it was so warm in Minnesota in December that everyone is walking around without coats on and some have their sleeves rolled up. What does make this episode special, and what makes it classic Little House, is how everything turns out okay--Rose is found, Samuel gets a home with the couple who lost their child, and Mr. Montague plays Santa and delivers presents to Jenny and the Carters--and the theme that family and friends are the most important gifts of all.

Now that we've run down all the Christmas episodes, what's your verdict? Too much angst? Just the right mix? Do the messages of the happier episodes outweigh the drama and tragedy in the others?

Little House, Long Shadow Book Discussion - Chapter 5

After focusing her attention on the Little House books in the classroom, author Anita Clair Fellman turns her attention to readers at home. She quotes many fan letters to Wilder where readers shared how much the Little House books meant to them. She goes on to discuss, like she did in the previous chapter, about activities based upon the books that readers partake in. This chapter goes a bit further, adding in the evolution of the Laura Ingalls Wilder and Almanzo Wilder home sites and the annual events dedicated to Wilder's legacy.

This chapter gets into a larger discussion about the Little House on the Prairie television show from the 70s and 80s, its role in renewing interest in the books, and the desire to learn more about the real life of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Chapter 5 briefly revisits how Native Americans are portrayed in the books, and how Wilder's books helped create a mythical, romantic idea of the settling of the West. One Native American reader found how Indians were depicted so disturbing that he wouldn't read them to his children, knowing he would need to interrupt the story to provide "editorial asides."

Fellman indicates by examples that non-white readers had a harder time relating to Laura and her family than their white counterparts, and how relating to Laura makes a powerful connection for readers, which creates a special place in their hearts for Wilder's books. This chapter also discusses the appeal of the Little House books to homeschooling families.

As this chapter proves, fans love the books for a variety of reasons.

My thoughts: This is probably my favorite chapter from the book so far. While we owned the entire Little House series, it wasn't until Michael Landon brought Wilder's books to life on the small screen that I had any interest in learning more. And at that time, I preferred the television show to the books. I tried reading Little House on the Prairie and couldn't finish it. As a young adult, I would sit down with the Little House books again, starting at the beginning, and then reading the rest of the books before moving on to Donald Zochert's Laura to learn more about Wilder's real life. This created a life-long curiosity of anything about Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family.

Getting a chance to learn why people love the books was wonderful. I was a bit surprised by how non-white readers viewed them, because in ways, children are similar, so I thought they would connect in some way. Not always so.

Earlier discussions on this book:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Merry Christmas!

Wishing all our readers a merry Christmas.

Little House, Long Shadow Book Discussion - Chapter 4

Fellman focuses Chapter 4 on how the Little House books have been used in the classroom: the reading of them and the activities based upon them. Through the 1990s, the Little House books were very much a part of the classroom scene in the United States. Changes in curriculum, changes in the textbook publishing industry, and recent government regulations affecting the teaching of reading are cited by Fellman as making the books less ubiquitous in classrooms since 2000, than they were in the previous fifty years.

The author admits it is impossible to make the connection between what children read in school and their beliefs as adults. She hopes to show, however, that the reading of Wilder’s books at school has made “individualist interpretations of the texts possible and appealing.” Because teachers like how these books teach values without preaching, the Little House books are seen as embodying universal truths, and as providing a “valuable introduction to an important chapter of U.S. history.”

One very interesting thing that Fellman mentions is that the acceptance of the books didn’t come out of nowhere, but that conditions were right for the books to make their mark on the educational system as well as in individual homes. We are taken back to the early 20th century, where young people’s leisure reading tastes were formed by experts in literature instead of the children; where children’s services in public libraries and libraries in elementary schools were being introduced; and Macmillan established the first children’s book division in 1918. After WWI, editors of children’s books were appointed at major publishing houses. 

During the Progressive Era, there were efforts to impose standards on what children read for pleasure. “Basal materials, with carefully chosen reading selections keyed to children’s cognitive and social development and accompanied by step-by-step guides for the teacher,” were used from the 1930s into the early 1990s. Schools became an important market share for publishers. The Little House books became a favorite with librarians, teachers, critics, and children as a result. Readers identified with Laura. The books also grew with them. Because of the positive elements in Wilder’s books, experts saw them as appropriate to include in basal readers. In the 1980s and 1990s, basal readers came under attack. Teachers were relying on them too much. So now, teachers were encouraged to get children to read complete books by reading books aloud in class.

Fellman touches upon the discontent with history and social studies texts used in American classrooms. Some teachers support historical fiction to help teach history to students, claiming the need to harness the power of narrative when teaching children. The Little House books are considered, “the best loved of all American historical fiction.” The challenge for some teachers is the books’ depiction of Indians. This brings the discussion back to basal readers and the particular selections from the Little House books that are used. In the end, teachers are important to what students derive from assigned materials. Fellman states there is ample evidence to suggest that “the choices of books that teachers make for their classrooms, access to those books, and the presentation and discussion of them affect the responses expressed by the children.”

My thoughts: As someone who works in publishing, I found a lot of this chapter interesting. It also helped me to understand how education has changed since I was in school, compared to how it is for my children now. Teachers remain influential in what children get out of the books and excerpts they read at school.

Earlier discussions on this book:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3