Her Father's Daughter
Average rating |
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3.8 out of 5
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Based on 292 Ratings and 67 Reviews |
Book Description
Her Father's Daughter is a story of two sisters who react very differently when their parents are suddenly killed in a car accident. Set in California in the 1920's, it is full of interesting information about desert plant life, loyalty, friendship, being different in a high school setting and young love. If that's all it was, it would be a great romantic adventure. Unfortunately, in a rare twist ...
MoreHer Father's Daughter is a story of two sisters who react very differently when their parents are suddenly killed in a car accident. Set in California in the 1920's, it is full of interesting information about desert plant life, loyalty, friendship, being different in a high school setting and young love. If that's all it was, it would be a great romantic adventure. Unfortunately, in a rare twist for Ms. Stratton-Porter, the dated suspicion of immigrants, the expressions of white supremacy and the murder of a Japanese suspect make this book inescapably racist. Her Father's Daughter continues the themes of "Freckles," where Gene Stratton-Porter takes the ideas that "station in life" is properly defined by your birth, that there is a true elite "ruling class," that it's wrong and presumptuous to aspire higher than your "place," to their repulsive logical conclusions. The central characters are a pair of orphaned sisters. Linda Strong is the titular heroine: seventeen, "exactly like Father" in her fascination with wildlife and the natural world, and with "so many different interests involved" that there is in her life "not the time to spare for boys." Her sister Eileen, four years older, is "exactly like Mother," as Linda says: a clinging vine obsessed with boys, with clothes, with shopping, and with making certain that no other woman stands a chance with any man while Eileen Strong is around. She is also an hilariously parodic "evil stepsister" character. After their parents' death, Eileen manages the household accounts, and goes around in the latest fashions and $300 coats, with "many pairs of expensive laced boots, walking shoes, and fancy slippers," while Linda has exactly three sunfaded, stained, and disreputable" outfits to her name, wears shoes "scuffed, resoled and even patched, and waits on table when Eileen has guests. Some have argued that "Her Father's Daugher" is only a product of its time, and that the racist element is a rare twist for Gene Stratton-Porter. Regardless of the reader's views on the social challenges of the book, the information it contains about desert plants alone makes it a book worth reading. A wonderful conservationist, Gene Stratton-Porter was truly a wonderful conservationist who was far ahead of her time with regard to the natural world-a fact that demonstrates itself even in this controversial book.
Publisher | ReadaClassic.com |
Binding | Paperback (78 editions) |
Reading Level | Uncategorized
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# of Pages | 312 |
ISBN-10 | 1611045266 |
ISBN-13 | 978-1611045260 |
Publication Date | 04/15/2011 |
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