Book Review: Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter

Pollyanna

Author:  Eleanor H. Porter

Publisher:  Puffin Classics (1994), (first published 1913)

288 pages

Pollyanna has recently lost her dad and has no one else in the world, except her aunt, Miss Polly Harrington.  Miss Polly, one of the wealthiest residents of the town,  has never been married and lives in a big old house.  When she is asked if she will take her niece, she says yes out of a sense of duty.  

Miss Polly is often shocked by Pollyanna and calls her a "most extraordinary child".  Pollyanna has learned to see the good in all things and this is most unusual.  She and her father played a game of looking for the good in every situation.  Pollyanna makes friends of most everyone she meets and often has occasion to tell them about "the game".  But one day, tragedy strikes.   Pollyanna loses her courage and can't bring herself to play the game.  Many people have been encouraged by Pollyanna's game and they in turn try to encourage her when she is down.

This was the first time I had read Pollyanna.  Many years ago, someone accused me of being a "Pollyanna".  It was not meant as a compliment.  I knew enough about the story to understand something of what they meant.  Now that I have read the story for myself, I would take that as a compliment!  I loved this story!  I loved Pollyanna and her ability to believe the best about everyone she met.  There are themes of wealth vs. poverty, friendship, love, loneliness and the difference one person can make in someone's life.

The copy of the book I read had an afterward written by author Lois Lowry.  

She said this, 

"Now, suddenly, I find something charming in the book's innocence."

"Now I read it with a consciousness that is weary of a lot of worldly, contemporary troubles.  And I find the book refreshing for their absence."

"Strangers transport the eleven-year-old from West to East and then put her alone on a train from Boston to Vermont, sending her to other strangers - and no one worries about whether she will disappear en route and end up as a photograph on a milk carton."

"The child is sent up to bed in a hot attic room of an old house, carrying a lighted candle - and I don't have to wonder whether there is a smoke detector up there."

"Aunt Polly announces that her niece will share her bed, and it never once occurs to me that Aunt Polly may be a sex-starved spinster turned to grievous vice."

"Pollyanna runs to call the doctor when Mr. Pendleton breaks his leg - and the doctor, not an answering service, answers the phone; more than that, the doctor comes, in person, and transports the injured man away  - and no one ever asks whether his malpractice insurance is up to date."

"I love it."

I agree!  This was a refreshing read.