Review: Old Rose and Silver

For Christmas I received a beautiful, old book (which I had long coveted) from my sister. I love old, first edition is best, books and I have a modest collection of turn of the twentieth century and older novels, poems and stories. I also happen to love books by the author Myrtle Reed, so you can imagine my excitement in receiving Old Rose and Silver.

Like many of Myrtle Reed's works Old Rose and Silver is a beautiful window into the hearts of mankind. The setting is in a small, turn of the 20th century, town among the mansions of earlier and glorious generation. Rose, for she cannot really be called old, the heroine of this gem is a many faceted lady with a truly honourable heart. When her heart swells so does the readers, when her heart throbs the readers will too. Our heroine's cousin Isabel is a selfish young creature, without a mind of her own, whose beauty draws even the noble, their friend Allison is a gifted young violinist who has captured life in his instrument. And of course Aunt Francesca - the mainstay of her adopted family, rises to meet every occasion with delicacy, wisdom and a dainty pair of shoes. The deep passionate undercurrent is exhilarating to read while the story is kept light and often humorous. To counter the intense emotion of this delightful tale are the endearing, albeit eccentric, Crosby twins with their inherited fortune and wild imaginations.

The story opens in the house of Aunt Francesca, and Rose, who have just recently received a letter from an old friend, asking her to reopen his house for him. Aunt Francesca's friend Colonel Kent returns with his son Allison, who has been training abroad, as a violinist. As Allison plays and Rose accompanies, their absolute rightness for each other appears in it's glorious light. But alas, youth and beauty ensnare the brilliant artist, and the reader follows the path of pain and trials that Rose must tread, when an engagement, tragic accident, and betrayal threaten to break her heart forever. The only chance of solace being "the house where love lived."

The book, although set in the early 1900's lives outside of time and is true ever and anon. Anyone who reads this book will be richly rewarded!

Review: North of Fifty-Three

I just recently finished an old book that I had picked up at book fair about a year ago. It was nondescriptly titled North of Fifty-Three, and it was by Bertrand W. Sinclair. The cover intrigued me little more than than the title, and I imagined it to about some remote war with men as the most prominent characters (which, of course, is perfectly fine by me... when I'm in the mood!). Why I bought it I'll never know. Was I ever in for a pleasant surprise!



The story opens in a moderately sized city in Victorian Canada. The heroine, Miss Hazel Weir, is a young and blameless stenographer who seems to attract disgrace. Due to no fault of her own Hazel leaves her city for a teaching position in the untamed west. In Caribou Meadows Miss Weir is met with more ill reputed companions and one evening she tries to escape her own misfortunes by a walk in the beautiful wood. Just as the heroine has reached some degree of peace, night unexpectedly falls and she is lost and alone in the great wilderness. Wandering in vain, she stumbles upon a man she learned of in Caribou Meadows, a man completely unlike she has ever ween before; Roaring Bill Wagstaff. Bill Wagstaff offers to take her home the next day and Hazel is forced to comply. The following few days they spend in trying to find the town and finally Hazel grows impatient with her guide and demands why they are not "finding" the settlement. Bill Wagstaff replies simply that he is taking her to his home. Of course the poor heroine vows to hate her kidnapper for life and reluctantly finds this difficult as she sees how honourable and good he is. The harsh winter climate determines that she will have to spend several months with her captor, and in the spring she demands that she be delivered unto civilization once again. On the way he saves her life, tells her he loves her and asks her to marry him. She refuses even though she finds to her horror that she doesn't want to. 

Reunited with some old friends Hazel prepares to go back to Granville, on the train east our heroine discovers that she left the only person she loves in the Canadian wilderness. So Miss Weir hurries back to the little cabin and Hazel and Bill are married. The story could end there but it doesn't! The reader is lead along a winding trail of happiness, heartache and gold mines before a most satisfying finish.

This was a wonderful book and very well written, I would encourage anyone who likes a great romance or adventure story to find and read this obscure gem! Happy reading!