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Monday, March 21, 2011

The Hoosier Schoolmaster

There I was. Desperate for a good book. Craving a truly epic story. I longed to lose myself in a new story--one I had never read before, but an old story--one that had been around for decades and was written in a younger, less-modernized America. I remembered a short story I had enjoyed a few days before from my American Literature book, and I remembered that it had been an excerpt from a larger work--a novel by a man named Edward Eggleston. So, desperate for a fresh story, I typed into the library website The Hoosier Schoolmaster.
I finished the book in only a few days.
The story, originally published in installments in the magazine Hearth and Home in 1871, was innocent, humorous, uplifting, light-hearted, well-written, wholesome, and altogether enjoyable. Edward Eggleston had a knack of creating and defining likable characters that seemed to come to life. The small-town, backwoods dialect added originality to the citizens of fictional Hoopole County. Throughout the story, there were multiple allusions to God and to biblical principles. The tale concluded with an agreeable ending, quite "happily ever after."
The evening after I finished the book, I eagerly opened it again to page one and began reading it aloud to my mom. We have very similar tastes in novels. We have only read the first few chapters together so far, and the story has already evoked much laughter.
Needless to say, I hope to purchase my own copy of the delightful tale. If I have my way, The Hoosier Schoolmaster will adorn the shelf of my bookcase for the rest of my life, alongside my other favorites...the Emily of New Moon trilogy, Jane Eyre, The Scottish Chiefs, Little Women, Christy, and so many more...
If you, dear reader, like me, are a compulsive bibliophile and a lover of old-fashioned sentiment and charm, you certainly will not want to miss The Hoosier Schoolmaster.

2 comments:

Tarissa said...

Hi Emily,
I wanted to stop by and say thanks for linking up in "Sharing Our Bookshelves" on my blog! I just finished reading your post about "The Hoosier Schoolmaster"....and I am so amazed. The way you wrote this just makes me excited about this book! Sadly, my library does not have it, but I'll be sure to keep an eye out for it at thrift stores. (I did find the ebook online, so I might resort to reading that). It sounds like a perfectly lovely book, and I'm glad that I know about it now!

Blessings,
~ Tarissa
http://InTheBookcase.blogspot.com

Emily said...

Thank you for the opportunity to share book reviews on your blog! The book is really good, and I hope you get to read it! And thank you for becoming a new follower on The Tansy Patch:)