Tuesdays Tomes: Mary Cary: Frequently Martha by Kate Langley Bosher

Tuesday Tomes is a weekly review of mainly vintage books.

Mary Cary: Frequently Martha by Kate Langley Bosher

“My name is Mary Cary. I live in the Yorkburg Female Orphan Asylum. You may think nothing happens in an Orphan Asylum. It does….Today I was kept in. Yesterday, too. I don’t mind, for I would rather watch the lightening up here than be down in the basement with the others. There are days when I love thunder and lightening. I can’t flash and crash, being just Mary Cary; but I’d like to, and when its done for me it’s a relief to my feelings.”

That’s how we (and her new diary) meet this delightful girl: Mary Cary. This entire wonderful book is told in the first person by Mary to her diary.

Why was she kept in…well, Mr. Gaffney came to talk to the girls “for the good of their characters” and he told them that they had much to be thankful for and should be thankful for everything. And they should stand up to show that they understood and were thankful. Mary just couldn’t stand up. “I’m not thankful for everything…Can you be thankful for toothache, or stomache, or any kind of ache. You cannot. And not meant to be either.”

That’s Mary-truthful and insightful! You will just love her simple adventures and her heartwarming way of looking at the world.

This 1910 novel quickly sold over 100,000 copies-quite a bestseller in its day. Kate Langley Brosher peoples Mary Cary:Frequently Martha with a wonderful collection of personalities…from the lovely, kind Miss Catherine to the hypocrite Headmistress of the Orphan Asylum to the inhabitants of Yorkburg, Virginia everyone is revealed to us by Mary Cary.

Who’s Martha? Mary would like to be a good and sweet little girl so whenever she just can’t hold to that ideal-she’s Martha: smart, outspoken, stubborn and quick to anger at any sign of injustice. (Sounds like a good girl to me!)

Wonderfully read by Jan McGillivray (I’m convinced her voice changes and sounds like a 12 year old’s as soon as the chapter starts!) you can download this free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf. or kindle format here.