Phoebe Deane (Miranda Trilogy #2)

[vintageromancereader]

Grace Livingston Hill gives us a Cinderella-type heroine to sympathize with in part two of the Miranda trilogy. Day after day Phoebe is subjected to living as a servant in her brother's home, piked on by her hateful sister-in-law, and forced to endure matchmaking schemes influenced by greed. Marriage to an ill-tempered man with several misbehaving children seems to be her lot, and her hope is about to be snuffed out. Could a chance encounter in the woods change the direction of her life and finally introduce her to someone who could care about her?

Original Publisher: J.B. Lippincott Company
Original Year of Publication: 1909
Page Count: 224

Phoebe Deane is the martyred half-sister of Albert Deane, who was sent to live with her much older half-sibling when her mother died. She is treated as the Cinderella servant of the household, and denied anything approaching decency by her jealous sister in law Emmeline. On the occasion of her 18th birthday (which of course isn't celebrated by the family) she runs off into the woods with a letter from her long-dead mother and has a nice long cry about how awful her life is. Here she meets (by chance) the lovely Nathaniel Graham, a young lawyer visiting his uncle, the local Judge Bristol. Phoebe and Nathaniel keep running into each other and develop a friendship, especially when Phoebe falls ill with a fever and is taken to stay with David and Marcia Spafford (the hero/heroine of the first book in this trilogy).

Unfortunately for Phoebe, her odious neighbor Hiram Green has set his sights on her as his next wife, having more or less crushed the life out of his first wife. He's an awful person with a brood of equally awful children, and when Phoebe rebuffs his offers of marriage (even against the strong wishes of her family), he vows revenge on her. He spreads a bunch of lies about her around town, ruining her reputation, and then offers to marry her to save her family's good name. Mercifully, Miranda Griscom hears what's going on and sets out to trap the snake before he can strike.

I actually enjoyed this book more than the first novel, even though Phoebe is even more passive than Marcia. The only fight she has in her is to tell Hiram no, again and again; for everything else, she's literally willing to lay down and die rather than face it. She's a total Mary Sue - absolutely perfect and beautiful, engendering either love or hate in everyone she meets - and it gets wearisome reading about how everyone else has to save her because she's not willing to stand up for herself. Bleh!

The story is saved by plucky Miranda, who takes Phoebe under her wing as she did with Marcia in the previous book. Miranda feels that she's ugly and outcast (and indeed, no one but her friends think well of her) and thus she can do whatever she needs to do to Get Things Done. I just adore her! I hope she doesn't become a passive waif in her own book, #3 in this trilogy.

There is a lot to be said for these novels as statements about class in 1830s America. Social class plays a HUGE role in thoughts and deeds. For instance, Emmeline hate Phoebe for daring to want to better herself, because Emmeline herself never had the chance. She's raising a hellion of a daughter who feels the same way and slags off Phoebe right to her face. Albert is no help in this regard, and is quick to believe the load of crap that Hiram serves up in his bid to trap Phoebe into marrying him. That was extremely disappointing to see. There is discussion of slavery and abolition in the background here, and some eye-opening sentiments abound.

All told, Miranda is the only reason these stories are worth reading, IMO. Give me Avonlea any day over this absolute nest of vipers.

⭐⭐ 1/2