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- Herausgeber: Booksell-Verlag
- Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
- Sprache: Englisch
In "Susanna and Sue," Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin delivers a charming narrative that explores the intricacies of childhood friendship and the whimsical adventures of two spirited young girls. Set against the backdrop of late 19th-century America, the book employs a warm, lyrical style that echoes the innocence and imagination of youth. Wiggin's adept use of descriptive language immerses readers in the pastoral beauty of the New England landscape, providing a rich literary context that celebrates familial bonds and the joys of childhood in a quickly evolving society. Wiggin, a prominent author and social reformer, had a profound understanding of children and their emotional landscapes, shaped by her experiences as a teacher and founder of a school for orphans. Her commitment to enhancing the lives of children through literature, coupled with her own fond memories of camaraderie in her own youth, is intricately woven into the fabric of this delightful tale, reflecting her belief in the transformative power of friendship and imagination. For those seeking a timeless exploration of innocence and companionship, "Susanna and Sue" is a must-read. Wiggin's engaging storytelling and keen observations resonate with readers of all ages, inviting them to reminisce about their own early friendships and adventures, making it a perfect addition to the libraries of both children and adults alike. In this enriched edition, we have carefully created added value for your reading experience: - A succinct Introduction situates the work's timeless appeal and themes. - The Synopsis outlines the central plot, highlighting key developments without spoiling critical twists. - A detailed Historical Context immerses you in the era's events and influences that shaped the writing. - A thorough Analysis dissects symbols, motifs, and character arcs to unearth underlying meanings. - Reflection questions prompt you to engage personally with the work's messages, connecting them to modern life. - Hand‐picked Memorable Quotes shine a spotlight on moments of literary brilliance. - Interactive footnotes clarify unusual references, historical allusions, and archaic phrases for an effortless, more informed read.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019
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Susanna and Sue
Table of Contents
Introduction
At its heart, Susanna and Sue explores how an intimate bond between two lives is tempered and strengthened by the pressures, kindnesses, and expectations of a close-knit community.
Written by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin and first published in the early twentieth century, this novel belongs to the tradition of American domestic fiction that lingers over the rhythms of everyday life. It unfolds in a small-town setting whose streets, kitchens, and gathering places shape the characters as surely as any dramatic event. The period’s social texture—neighbors’ watchfulness, church and school routines, modest livelihoods—forms a recognizable backdrop. Readers can expect a world where minor incidents matter, where reputation and responsibility carry weight, and where the emotional stakes are measured in quiet choices rather than grand gestures.
The premise is simple and inviting: two closely linked protagonists, Susanna and Sue, navigate workaday challenges, shifting fortunes, and the delicate negotiations that living among neighbors requires. The narrative traces their encounters with the ordinary—errands, conversations, errands again—turning the commonplace into a canvas for character. Without resorting to melodrama, the story uses small disruptions to reveal loyalties, pride, and resilience. Readers who appreciate intimate plots will find a gently paced journey that prizes observation over spectacle, offering the comfort of familiarity while allowing space for surprise in the ways people change, slip, stumble, and generously steady one another.
Wiggin’s voice blends warmth, wit, and clear-eyed observation, inviting readers to notice the telling detail and the kindly turn of phrase. The tone is sympathetic without losing the sharpness needed to register social pressure and personal blind spots. Dialogue feels lived-in and unforced, shaping character as much as description does. Scenes arrive in an episodic flow, as if stitched from the fabric of days, giving the book a measured cadence. The style rewards unhurried reading: one lingers over a kitchen table or a doorstep exchange and discovers, there, the moral hinge on which an afternoon—and a life—can quietly turn.
Several themes anchor the novel’s appeal. It reflects on care and responsibility—how people show up for one another when resources are thin and patience thinner. It weighs dignity against dependence, probing the difference between meaningful help and meddling. It explores how children’s needs and adults’ obligations can conflict yet also clarify priorities. It considers the pull of community norms, which can comfort and constrain in equal measure. Through these threads, the book uncovers the steady courage demanded by ordinary life, suggesting that integrity is forged in small decisions, and that tenderness, to endure, must be paired with practical wisdom.
For contemporary readers, the book’s questions feel strikingly current: What does mutual aid look like when everyone is stretched? How can a community honor individual pride while meeting shared needs? What do we owe those who depend on us, and how do we keep that care from narrowing our horizons? Susanna and Sue offers no program, but it models attention—listening closely, noticing without rushing to judge, and letting respect guide generosity. Its quiet realism invites conversations about social trust, the value of patience, and the ethics of neighborliness, reminding us that stability grows from countless, uncelebrated acts of regard.
This is a novel for readers who seek the solace of humane storytelling and the satisfaction of character revealed through the grain of daily life. It will particularly reward those who enjoy small-town settings, nuanced moral stakes, and a tone that balances tenderness with clear moral sight. Read as a period piece, it illuminates customs and cadences of its time; read as a living story, it offers companionship, humor, and a steadying hope. Without foreclosing possibilities, it promises that attention, effort, and care can reshape a life’s trajectory—quietly, persistently, and often in concert with the very people who seem to make it hardest.
Synopsis
Susanna and Sue is a domestic novel set in a New England Shaker community, following a young mother and her small daughter as they navigate refuge, belonging, and choice. After personal hardship alters their circumstances, Susanna seeks a place of safety and steady work, bringing cheerful, curious little Sue with her. The Shaker settlement, ordered and industrious, offers shelter and rules in equal measure. The narrative opens quietly, introducing village rhythms, plain living, and the contrast between communal discipline and the spontaneous affections of a mother and child. From the outset, the story positions everyday duty and tenderness as twin forces shaping events.
On arrival, Susanna is received with practical kindness by community leaders who value diligence and harmony. She learns the settlement’s customs—separate houses for men and women, shared labor, regulated worship, and a commitment to simplicity. Sue’s presence, bright and engaging, softens the reserve of several brothers and sisters, while also testing the boundaries of silence and order. Susanna adapts to assigned tasks in kitchen, dairy, or sewing rooms, and begins to see how the Shaker ideal of peace is maintained. The early chapters linger on work, song, and the quiet artistry of craft, establishing setting before deep conflict appears.
Daily life brings small encounters that illuminate character. Susanna demonstrates capability and gratitude, yet retains an independent spirit formed by hardship. Sue charms the community with imaginative chatter, awakening memories of family ties that Shaker celibacy has set aside. Conversations between elders and Susanna reveal the terms of membership and the delicate status of guests. The settlement is not a sanctuary without expectations; it asks for conformity in dress, words, and feeling. Still, its members are portrayed as patient and humane, interested in the welfare of mother and child. This balance of discipline and generosity underpins the rising action.
Beyond the village fence, the "World’s people" continue their lives, and occasional visitors bring news, supplies, and differing opinions. Susanna encounters sympathetic neighbors and practical trade partners who note her skill and poise. The contrast between the structured Shaker order and wider New England society introduces competing possibilities for the future. A trusted outsider comes to value Susanna’s steadiness, while certain Shaker leaders quietly worry about attachment and disruption. These interactions extend the story’s scope, emphasizing that shelter inside the community does not erase responsibilities or opportunities outside it. Choices that once seemed distant begin to draw nearer.
As seasons change, subtle tensions emerge around the covenant’s demands and the mother’s bond with her child. The community can accept children as wards, yet it is organized for celibate fellowship, not family life. Susanna’s affection for Sue is natural and unwavering, but the rules encourage a love broadened to all rather than centered in one. Gentle cautions and private talks explore the meaning of commitment and the cost of belonging. The novel presents these considerations without harsh judgment, allowing Susanna to weigh dignity, breadwinning, conscience, and Sue’s future. The stakes grow quietly, rooted in daily realities rather than spectacle.
News from the past edges into the present, raising questions of legal standing, duty, and independence. External matters—property, kin, or former ties—press on the sanctuary Susanna has found, and the elders convene to consider what charity and propriety require. Sue’s welfare becomes the focal point, drawing calm yet earnest counsel from both the settlement and neighbors. The narrative maintains restraint, presenting differing views fairly. While the Shakers champion order, they are not indifferent to personal histories; while the outside world offers freedom, it also holds uncertainties. The growing complexity sets the stage for a test of trust and resolve.
A turning point arrives through a practical crisis that demands swift cooperation and reveals character under strain. In the bustle of response—where care, work, and prayer intersect—Susanna’s strengths and the community’s solidarity are evident. Offers of help come from within and without, and a path forward begins to take shape. The chapter’s intensity lies not in dramatic revelation but in the cumulative weight of choices made in kindness. The event does not close every question, yet it clarifies which loyalties matter most. Without disclosing outcomes, the episode brings the mother, child, and community to a moment of decision.
The closing movement draws together the threads of duty, affection, and identity. Conversations grow more candid, and a resolution is fashioned that honors the values at stake while safeguarding Sue’s well-being. The narrative remains gentle, refraining from sharp reversals or punitive judgments. Instead, it emphasizes respectful understanding between paths that cannot fully merge: communal celibacy and family life. The Shaker settlement, having offered shelter and wisdom, accepts the necessity of a choice. Susanna’s future aims at steadiness and honest work; Sue’s at nurture and growth. The conclusion preserves privacy around particulars, emphasizing dignity over sensation.
Overall, Susanna and Sue presents a clear portrait of maternal devotion meeting communal idealism, set against the textures of New England Shaker life. Its message centers on the humane negotiation between order and love, tradition and personal duty. Without polemic, it portrays faith as a guide rather than a constraint, and charity as discipline expressed in action. The novel’s quiet tone, attention to craft and routine, and regard for a child’s influence shape a story of belonging found and redefined. Readers come away with a sense that kindness, thoughtfully applied, can reconcile competing claims and point toward a sustainable future.
Historical Context
Kate Douglas Wiggin’s Susanna and Sue unfolds in rural southern Maine at the turn of the twentieth century, in hamlets of white-clapboard meetinghouses, small farms, and nearby mill towns. The narrative’s social horizon extends to a Shaker village within easy reach of places such as Alfred and Sabbathday Lake, historic Shaker centers in York and Cumberland Counties. The time frame mirrors the years around 1890–1910, when rail service linked Portland, Saco, and Biddeford to inland towns, rural free delivery began (1896 onward), and telephones and kerosene lamps coexisted. The setting’s rhythms—seedtime and harvest, sewing circles, church fairs—shape the domestic politics in which Susanna and her daughter, Sue, must act.
The most decisive historical background is the Shaker movement, formally the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing. Led by Ann Lee from Manchester, England, Shakers migrated to America in 1774 and established their first community at Watervliet (Niskayuna), New York. Under Joseph Meacham and Lucy Wright, a centralized ministry formed at New Lebanon, New York, in 1787. Shakers embraced celibacy, communal property, pacifism, and gendered co-leadership by elders and eldresses. At their mid‑nineteenth‑century peak (c. 1830–1860), they counted roughly 4,000–6,000 members in 18–20 villages. Susanna and Sue draws on this institutional world; its plot and conflicts presuppose the rules, rituals, and governance of a Shaker society shaping women’s and children’s lives.
Maine’s Shaker communities—Sabbathday Lake (New Gloucester, begun 1783–1794) and Alfred (founded 1793)—specialized in dairying, herb and seed enterprises, and the manufacture of chairs, brooms, and oval boxes that moved along regional rail lines. Shaker family houses, brick trustees’ offices, and plain meetinghouses created an ordered built environment for collective labor and worship. Importantly, Shakers historically received orphans and destitute children, apprenticing them and educating them in village schools; many departed at adulthood, some signed the covenant and remained. The novel mirrors these arrangements: the presence of a vulnerable mother and child inside, or adjacent to, a Maine Shaker village dramatizes Shaker childrearing norms, female solidarity, and the moral economy of mutual aid and discipline.
By the late nineteenth century, Shaker numbers declined sharply as conversions slowed and members aged; Alfred’s society dwindled to a handful by the early 1900s and ultimately closed in 1931. Public fascination grew as newspapers and tourists visited Sabbathday Lake, the last active Shaker community. This context of contraction—fewer young recruits, increasing state oversight of guardianship, and a surrounding cash economy—forms the historical pressure behind Wiggin’s story. Living in nearby Buxton–Hollis, Maine, and writing the book in 1909, Wiggin could observe Shaker neighbors at close range. Susanna and Sue thus captures a transitional moment when communal ideals persisted but were compelled to negotiate with changing legal, economic, and familial expectations.
Industrialization in southern Maine transformed the countryside bordering Shaker lands. The Pepperell Manufacturing Company in Biddeford–Saco (incorporated 1850) employed several thousand workers by 1900, many of them young women migrating from farm towns. Hydropower on the Saco River, the Maine Central Railroad’s late‑nineteenth‑century expansions, and Portland’s port integrated local producers into national markets. Waged labor, boardinghouses, and factory bells contrasted with Shaker agrarian self‑sufficiency and village time. In the novel, choices faced by mothers and daughters—security in a communal religious household, service in a prosperous mill town, or fragile independence—echo the real alternatives that industrial capitalism posed to rural Mainers at century’s turn.
Progressive Era reforms (c. 1890–1920) reshaped child welfare and women’s civic roles in New England. States tightened adoption and guardianship oversight in the 1890s–1900s; Maine strengthened child labor restrictions in 1907, requiring age certificates and limiting factory hours for those under sixteen. The orphan‑train system (1854–1929) redirected many urban children into foster families, reflecting a shift toward family‑based, state‑supervised care rather than long‑term religious custodianship. Simultaneously, the Maine Woman Suffrage Association (founded 1874) kept suffrage in public debate; a 1917 statewide referendum failed, but Maine ratified the Nineteenth Amendment on November 5, 1919. The book’s dilemmas over maternal authority, custody, and female agency register these reform currents in intimate form.
Earlier nineteenth‑century legacies also structure the milieu. Maine contributed heavily to the Union war effort (1861–1865), while Shaker pacifism led communities to seek alternative service under the Enrollment Act of 1863, sometimes paying commutation or hiring substitutes. This pacific ethic persisted into the Spanish‑American War (1898), reinforcing the Shakers’ moral witness. Meanwhile, the “Maine Law” of 1851—pioneered by Portland’s Neal Dow—ushered in statewide prohibition; constitutional prohibition followed in 1885, shaping sober public culture well into the twentieth century. The novel’s stress on inward discipline, community surveillance, and temperate conduct resonates with these traditions of organized peace and legally enforced restraint in the region.
As social and political critique, Susanna and Sue exposes the friction between doctrinal communitarianism and the claims of maternal love, highlighting how celibacy, trusteeship, and rule‑bound charity could unsettle women’s custody and agency. It registers class divides by juxtaposing the mill town’s cash wages with the countryside’s precarious subsistence and the Shaker village’s collective security. The story underscores legal ambiguities in child guardianship during Progressive‑Era reforms and questions whether benevolent institutions truly serve those they shelter. By presenting a mother and child negotiating elders, trustees, and town opinion, the book indicts paternalism—religious and secular—while acknowledging the dignity, labor, and mutual care that ordinary women used to reconfigure power in Maine.
