Charlotte M. Vaile

Published in 1896 and set in 1870, this charming novel for young people follows its eponymous heroines - sisters Bertha and Sue Orcutt - through their experiences over the course of one term at the prestigious Merton Academy, a co-educational school not far from their home. New England farm girls (although never specified, the proximity of Merton to Boston, which serves as a destination for a school trip in the next book about the Orcutt girls, leads me to believe that the story is set in Massachusetts), Bertha and Sue are the product of a loving and close-knit family, and come from a home where education is fiercely valued. Many sacrifices are made in the home circle to give the girls this one term at secondary school, and the sisters set out to make the most of it. Much of the narrative tension of the first half of the book centers around younger sister Sue, and the trouble she gets into in her Latin class, for which she is ill-prepared. Sue's own guilty conscience regarding her fitness for the course, and her teacher's misinterpretation of her embarrassment in class (he assumes she has been cheating), lead to a misunderstanding that bring her much distress. In contrast, a key incident in the latter half of the book - Sue's brief stint as substitute teacher for a class of very young children, and her principle, Mr. Hermon's discovery of her gift for storytelling - lead to an opportunity that could allow her to continue her schooling. In between the major school incidents, are various matters of a more domestic and social nature, from Sue's disastrous first attempt at pie-making to the two sisters' experiences at their fellow pupil Alma Lynn's birthday party. All in all, when their father comes to collect them at the end of the term, they find that it has been a busy, productive, and mostly happy time...

From the opening scene, in which Bertha and Sue labor away in a corset factory to earn money for school, through the entire sub-plot involving Sue's desire to learn Latin, and the grief (however temporary) it brings her, The Orcutt Girls, or, One Term at the Academy is a school story like no other. So many examples of the genre feature young girls (or boys) of privilege, and focus almost exclusively on the social and/or sporting aspects of school. Here the heroines hail from modest circumstances, work to help pay for their schooling, and are mostly focused on their studies. The importance of education to the Orcutt family, the fact that they value it for its own sake, is emphasized time and again in the narrative, and is borne out by the fact that they invest so much effort into securing a single term of school for Bertha and Sue, even though it might not lead to tangible, practical and/or immediate benefits. Although Sue is clearly the focus of the story, I found both Orcutt girls to be engaging characters, and enjoyed reading about their experiences at Merton. It was fascinating to see a common school-story convention - the false accusation against the heroine - played out in such an unusual way in the story, just as it was satisfying to witness Sue's growing devotion to Mr. Hermon, once the question of her role in the Latin class is settled. Most of all, it is refreshing to read a children's novel and school story which presents such an unashamedly enthusiastic view of the struggle for knowledge. I wanted to cheer at Sue's astonished reaction to Dick Julian, when he reveals his indifference to the idea of attending college: "The passionate longing she had felt all her life for a thorough education, the ambition to excel, with which every fibre of her nature tingled, the love of knowledge for its own sake, all rushed upon her at that instant, and she wondered with an inexpressible wonder at the case of this boy, who, with the way made smooth before him, cared for none of these things."

Enjoyable and also illuminating, as it concerns ideas about education in 19th-century New England, The Orcutt Girls is an entertaining and engaging read, one I would highly recommend to anyone with a taste for vintage girls' fare or an interest in American school stories.… (meer)