Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
'Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm' Summary
The novel opens with Rebecca's journey from her family's farm to live with her two aunts, her mother's older sisters Miranda and Jane Sawyer, in their brick house in Riverboro. Rebecca is the second-oldest of seven children. Most of the children have fanciful names, such as Marquis and Jenny Lind, influenced by their father's artistic background; Rebecca is named after both the heroines in Ivanhoe. The family is quite poor, due to the number of children, Mr. Lorenzo DeMedici Randall's inability to stick to a job, and the farm being mortgaged. As the novel begins, the family is barely scraping by three years after the father's death. Rebecca's stay with her aunts is a chance to improve her opportunities in life and to ease the strain on her family's budget. Despite her impoverished background, Rebecca is imaginative and charming. She often composes little poems and songs to express her feelings or to amuse her siblings. It is she who named their farm "Sunnybrook".
Miranda and Jane had wanted Hannah, the eldest sister, because of her household skills and pragmatic nature, but her mother needs her at home for the same reasons and sends Rebecca instead. Miranda is unimpressed by Rebecca's imagination, chatter, and dark complexion, calls her the image of her shiftless father, and determines to train Rebecca to be a proper young lady who won't shame the Sawyer name. Jane becomes Rebecca's protector and acts as a buffer between her and Miranda. Jane teaches Rebecca to sew, cook, and manage a household. Rebecca's liveliness and curiosity brighten Jane's life and refresh her spirit. Although Rebecca strives to win Miranda's approval, she struggles to live up to Miranda's rigid standards, as Miranda views her as "all Randall and no Sawyer."
The middle of the novel is mainly a description of life at Riverboro and its inhabitants. Important characters are Jeremiah and Sarah Cobb, who first encounter Rebecca's charm; Rebecca's schoolmate and best friend, Emma Jane Perkins; and young businessman Adam Ladd, who takes an interest in Rebecca's education. Adam meets Rebecca when she and Emma Jane are selling soap to help a poor family receive a lamp as a premium; Rebecca nicknames him "Mr. Aladdin."
Rebecca proves to be a good student, especially in English, and goes on to attend high school in Wareham. In the book's last section she has become a young lady with the same high spirit and a talent for writing. She applies for a teaching job in Augusta, but her mother has an accident and Rebecca must go home to look after her and the farm. While she's away, Miranda dies and leaves the Sawyer house and land to Rebecca. A railway company will buy Sunnybrook Farm for construction purposes, which will give the Randall family a sufficient living, and Miranda's will provides Rebecca enough money to become an independent woman who can help her siblings. The novel ends with her exclaiming, "God bless Aunt Miranda! God bless the brick house that was! God bless the brick house that is to be!"
Book Details
Language
EnglishOriginal Language
EnglishPublished In
1903Author
Kate Douglas Wiggin
America
Kate Douglas Wiggin was an American educator, author and composer. She wrote children's stories, most notably the classic children's novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and composed collections of child...
More on Kate Douglas WigginDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
Related books
The Professor's House by Willa Cather
The Professor's House is a novel by American novelist Willa Cather. Published in 1925, the novel was written over the course of several years. Cather...
The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde
The Happy Prince and Other Tales (sometimes called The Happy Prince and Other Stories) is a collection of stories for children by Oscar Wilde first pu...
A Man Could Stand Up by Ford Madox Ford
The book follows Christopher Tietjens as he navigates the aftermath of the war and the changes that come with it. He must deal with his estranged wife...
The Junior Classics Volume 5: Stories That Never Grow Old by William Patten
A selection of famous tales selected and re-worked for a junior audience. Stories are taken from Arabian Nights, Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels,...
The Shuttle by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Shuttle is a 1907 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. One of Burnett's longer and more complicated books for adults, it deals with themes of interma...
Elsie Dinsmore by Martha Finley
Elsie Dinsmore is a children's book series written by Martha Finley (1828–1909) between 1867 and 1905. Of Finley's two girls' fiction series, the Mild...
Old Granny Fox by Thornton W. Burgess
In the enchanting world of the Green Forest, a timeless classic unfolds as we follow the cunning and wily Old Granny Fox in Thornton W. Burgess's belo...
Cousin Betty by Honoré de Balzac
La Cousine Bette is an 1846 novel by French author Honoré de Balzac. Set in mid-19th-century Paris, it tells the story of an unmarried middle-aged wom...
An Englishwoman's Love-Letters by Laurence Housman
An Englishwoman's Love-letters is a 1900 novel by Laurence Housman, initially published anonymously. It was a scandal in its time due to its frankness...
In Brief Authority by Thomas Anstey Guthrie
Satiric comedy from 1915 about a nouveau riche British family and their nanny who get whisked off to Maerchenland ('the land of Fairy Tales') one even...
Reviews for Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
No reviews posted or approved, yet...