Algemene kennis

Gangbare naam: Baldwin, May
Geboortedatum: 1862-05-08
Overlijdensdatum: 1950-01-03
Geslacht: female
Nationaliteit: UK
Land (voor op de kaart): UK
Geboorteplaats: Lucknow, India
Woonplaatsen: Lucknow, India
Germany (education)
Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, England, UK
London, England, UK
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK
Bournemouth, Dorset, England, UK
Opleiding: Bishop Otter College
Beroepen: Children's Book Author
Korte biografie: Born in 1862, in India, where her father - the Rev. John Richard Baldwin - was a chaplain, May Baldwin was one of five children, and was sent to school in Germany. The family returned to England from 1869-1871, when Rev. Baldwin was on furlough, and permanently in 1879, when he took a living at Dewsbury. Baldwin trained to be a teacher at Bishop Otter College in Chichester, although it is unknown if she actually taught.

An accomplished linguist, and a prolific author of girls' school stories, Baldwin's work - according to Sue Sims' and Hilary Clare's The Encyclopedia of Girls' School Stories - is far less nationalistic than that of other early contributors to the genre, perhaps owing to her own international education, and frequent travel to see her many friends, worldwide.

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A Riotous Term at St Norbert's door May Baldwin

The pupils at St Norbert's Girls' School experience their last riotous term in this tale of the reformation of their manners and character. When Irene Myers, an Australian girl with a limp and a pronounced accent, arrives at school, her independence of mind and lack of interest in the pranks the other girls like to play make her a target. In particular, the boisterous and willful Charlie (Lady Charlotte) singles her out for bullying both verbal and physical. The new mistress, Miss Lunn, also arouses the jealousy and resentment of her peers, especially the junior mistress, Miss Willis. After quite a bit of nastiness - pranks played, nationalist insults given - Irene and Miss Lunn manage to make a change at St Norbert's, pupils and teachers are all reconciled, and the book closes with the revelation that Irene is in fact Charlie's cousin, and that Miss Lunn is henceforth to be co-headmistress...

The author of some forty-five books for young girls, May Baldwin began her career in 1901, with the publication of A Popular Girl: A Tale of School Life in Germany. She went on to write quite a few school stories, many of them set on the European continent, and featuring girls from various nations becoming friends. In many ways her work, although more religious than the slightly later (and more popular) Angela Brazil, was also more cosmopolitan, and she consistently argues against prejudice between different European and European-diaspora peoples. In The Girls of St Gabriel's; or, Life at a French School for instance, her heroine is a rather nastily nationalistic English girl who learns to tolerate and even appreciate the French. Here the prejudice addressed arises, not from national difference, but from colonial ones, as Irene is targeted because she comes from Australia, and has a pronounced accent. Although the accent is eventually reformed, the narrative consistently works to show that the prejudice against Irene because of her background is misplaced and wrongheaded.

A Riotous Term at St Norbert's was published in the latter half of Baldwin's career - her final book was The Tarletons in Brittany, published in 1931 - and it is tempting to read it as an example of the author's attempts to move with the times. Her earlier books are more religious in character, and don't really concern themselves with "being a sport," in the way this one does. It's fascinating to read, because Baldwin doesn't get it quite right, and her riotous schoolgirls read less like high-spirited "jolly hockey sticks" characters, and more like nasty bullies and spoiled brats. Charlie, in particular, is an unappealing character, although she is reformed at the end. Of course, this might very well be a reflection of the author's views on the changes abroad in girls' school stories, rather than an attempt to conform to those changes. In any case, it was an engaging read, like all of Baldwin's books that I have thus far read, and is one I would recommend to fans of the author, and of the genre.… (meer)

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AbigailAdams26 | Jun 18, 2020 |

Dora: A High School Girl door May Baldwin

When Mrs. Cockburn and her two daughters, fifteen-year-old Dora and twelve-year-old Ivonne, are forced by reduced circumstances to rent their home in the country and take a flat in a London lodging house, the two sisters are sent to the local high school. Mrs. Cockburn, who fancies herself a cut above most of the people she now meets, has a lonely time, but forthright and kindhearted Dora makes friends wherever she goes. In particular, she wins the favor of her teacher, Miss Jeffries; becomes good friends with Constable White, the policeman who comes to her aid, when she and Ivonne think to walk to the country; and becomes the favorite of General Seaforth, an elderly gentleman who lives in their area. Her sister Ivonne, who is rather impulsive, and can sometimes be a bit lazy, has some difficulties, but these are eventually resolved happily. The story ends with the death of the general, who makes Dora one of his heirs, and the resolution of those issues which required the Cockburn family to move to London. Despite this reversal in fortune, Dora does not forget her diverse group of friends...

Published in 1906, Dora: A High School Girl is part school story and part family story, and features a winsome and admirable young heroine who never feels, despite her virtues, to be a saintly prig. Perhaps because her sister Ivonne's failings are handled with such sympathy, both by Dora and the narrative, or perhaps because the reader contrasts Dora's good nature with her mother's class-based snobbery, and concludes that the eponymous heroine could be forgiven quite a bit, for the tolerance she shows others, but somehow she retains the reader's sympathy. Ironically, given the fact that the narrative clearly encourages the reader to sympathize with Dora's more democratic impulses, rather than her mother's more patrician ones, there is still some classism here, in the sub-plot involving Alice Wall, a social-climbing nouveau-riche type, of the merchant class. This is a common enough trend, in many vintage British children's books, with the narrator and/or characters deploring snobbery on the one hand, whilst actively denigrating the social ambitions of such people as the Walls on the other. Leaving such issues aside, this was an engaging tale, one I found engrossing and entertaining. The accompanying artwork by Mabel Lucie Atwell, whose illustrations can be seen on the cover, added to my enjoyment as well. Recommended to readers who enjoy vintage British girls' school stories, and to fans of May Baldwin.… (meer)

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AbigailAdams26 | Feb 22, 2019 |

Teddy and Lily's Adventures door May Baldwin

English siblings Teddy and Lily Bertram spend a two-month holiday in Italy in this children's novel from 1911. Invited to the home of their father's friend, the Conti di Bartolini, Teddy and Lily soon befriend the Conti's children - Guido, Mario, Italia and Pia - and together the companions have many exciting adventures. From attending a local fair, to which they ride in a bullock cart, to finding a long-lost document that impacts the Bartolini fortunes, their days are full. Impressed that their hosts speak so many languages, Teddy and Lily slowly discover that many of the stereotypes they have held of the Italian people are unfounded...

A much earlier book than the author's 1931 The Tarletons in Brittany, which also involves two English siblings abroad, Teddy and Lily's Adventures is also a far-more engaging story than that other. With two young protagonists that, in classic May Baldwin fashion, learn to appreciate another country and culture, through friendship with some of its people, it also explores some of the themes so dear to the author's heart. There are some humorous moments here, as when Teddy misinterprets a sign he sees to mean the conti is a bandit - this scene is depicted on the front cover of the book - or when he reflects that Italians seem less likely to whip out their knives and avenge the insults to their honor, than he thought they were prone to do. All in all, a pleasant little holiday adventure, one I would recommend to readers who enjoy vintage British children's stories, or who are fans of May Baldwin.… (meer)

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AbigailAdams26 | Feb 21, 2019 |

The Tarletons in Brittany door May Baldwin

The orphaned Tarleton siblings - fifteen-year-old Ianthe and thirteen-year-old Tom - go to Brittany on holiday with Nanny, their seventy-year-old caretaker, in this novel from British children's author May Baldwin. Here they have many adventures with the other families staying at the Hôtel Splendide. From the snobby Mrs. Symes, who doesn't think that Nanny should eat with the rest of the guests, to the madcap Nancy Barrett, the plague of the hotel, who plays countless tricks on the other guests, there are many different types of character, and many different confrontations...

Published in 1931, The Tarletons in Brittany was the last of May Baldwin's forty-five books to be published, and it is not amongst her strongest. She explored the theme of English children in France far more adeptly, and with far greater narrative interest, in such books as The Girls of St Gabriel's; or, Life at a French School, and while there is some of her cosmopolitan outlook here, in the form of comments about the desirability of getting to know the French people, there are also some surprisingly nationalistic moments as well, such as when Tom comments about how he dislikes all of his American schoolmates. I didn't really warm to the Tarletons, as I have done to some of Baldwin's other characters, and while this was a pleasant enough holiday tale, it never involves the reader too deeply in its narrative incidents. All in all, a middling sort of book, one I would recommend chiefly to May Baldwin fans (assuming there are any, save myself).… (meer)

Gemarkeerd

AbigailAdams26 | Feb 20, 2019 |

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