Author: Kate Douglas Wiggin
Publisher: Recorded Books
Rating: WARTY!
Totally uninspired reading by Barbara Caruso.
Published in 1903, about main character Rebecca's 'exile' to live with her two aunts in Riverboro, this is yet another of my evidently ill-fated attempts to read 'classic' novels! In some ways it's very similar to Anne of Green Gables which came five years later, and which I reviewed favorably in December 2014. Unfortunately, I didn't find this one anywhere near as entertaining as that latter novel, and could not stand to listen to it past disk one in the CD audio book.
This novel is so old that it's freely available online and has been made into a movie more than once. I believe the renowned Mary Pickford first played the eponymous character on screen.
Young Rebecca is sent to the home of maiden aunts Miranda and Jane, who live two hours away on the stage. Though she has to leave behind her six siblings on the farm from which she hails, Rebecca is thrilled by the journey, but sobers up somewhat in the dour confines of the Sawyer home. Unlike Anne, who moves to Green Gables, Rebecca moves away from Sunnybrook - the farm she herself named. She gets along better with Jane than ever she does with Miranda, who is much more rule-book than Jane is.
That's as far as I can describe this novel having given up quite early out of boredom. My problems with it were the completely uninteresting story, the extreme Mary Sue characteristics of Rebecca, and the really lousy reading of the audio book by Barbara Caruso whose voice sounded way too old to lend any real authenticity to the reading of a story about a young girl. I can't recommend this one.
