A boisterous young girl who liked to go sledding with the boys - much to the chagrin of her brothers - rather than finish her various sewing projects, Fanny Mansfield was an essentially goodhearted child with some significant flaws. Chief amongst these was an inconstancy that prevented her from finishing anything she started, a certain indifference to praying and the spiritual life, and a somewhat too malleable personality, that allowed her to be easily led astray. When lovely, pious Cousin Ellen came to live with the Mansfields after being orphaned, she provided a good example of how to behave, but although Fanny tried to mend her ways, it wasn't easy. When the family went on a holiday to Meadow-bank, the large farm owned by Mr. Cleveland, the husband of Fanny's eldest sister Catharine, our little heroine fell in with the wicked Gertrude, a shallow, spoiled and dishonest child who led her into many scrapes. Eventually Fanny confessed her wrongdoing to her mother, who was suitably shocked, and then she asked God for forgiveness. The Mansfields returned home, and Ellen, who had been secretly sick for some time, went into a decline. Her eventual death was mourned by everyone, especially Fanny, to whom she had been an adopted sister, and for whom she had provided an enduring role model...

Published in 1847 by the American Sunday School Union - the actual author is uncredited - Fanny Mansfield; or, The Adopted Sister is pretty standard mid-19th-century American fare for children, heavy on the Christian morality, with a saintly invalid to show the way to the poor young sinners. I was intrigued by the title, as the name of the heroine suggested Jane Austen's classic Mansfield Park to me, given that the heroine of that novel was also named Fanny, and that the home in which Austen's orphaned heroine came to live also bore the name Mansfield. Despite that superficial similarity - perhaps deliberate, to draw readers in? - there is no other real connection between the books. Some of the moralizing here felt over the top to me, probably because it was so overt, and Ellen is such a pattern-card of propriety that the reader might want to shake her. One can understand how an active young girl like Fanny might have looked askance at a peer her own age who liked to read gloomy books like Rise and Progress and Saints' Rest. On the other hand, some of the vices which Fanny needs to be led away from - namely, a certain snobbery against those less fortunate than herself, as well as a willingness to lie and go against her own moral compass, when urged on by someone like Gertrude - would be considered objectionable by many people, whatever their religious outlook. This is the second book I have read from the American Sunday School Union, after Christmas Holidays; or, A Visit at Home (1827), and I think I prefer it overall, as it has a more developed story than that earlier book. Although I wouldn't describe these as personal favorites, I do find them very interesting, in that they open a window into the lives of children in other times, and I certainly hope to read more at some point. Recommended to anyone interested in 19th-century American children's literature and/or the American Sunday School Union. ( )