The Lady of the Aroostook (Novel) by

The Lady of The Aroostook is a novel written by William Dean Howells in 1879. It was published in Cambridge, Massachusetts by H. O. Houghton and Company. PLOT: The story begins in South Bradfield, Massachusetts, with the main character, Lydia Blood, accompanied by her Aunt Maria and her grandfather Deacon Latham on their family farm. Both of Lydia's parents had died of illness when Lydia was young and she is now, at the age of nineteen, being sent to live with her other aunt, on her father's side of the family, Aunt Josephine, in Venice, Italy. Lydia was not only blessed with good looks and good smarts, but she also was blessed with a beautiful singing voice which she is going to cultivate in Venice and attempt to make a career out of. Her Aunt Josephine wrote to her grandfather suggesting that Lydia should come to Venice to live with her. She also suggested that he should go to Boston to find a ship to bring Lydia to Europe, which is how he found Captain Jenness and the Aroostook. Lydia and her grandfather travel to Boston where the Aroostook, a large and beautiful ship, awaits to take Lydia and several other passengers to Trieste. While looking for the wharf that the Aroostook is anchored at, Lydia and her grandfather become lost and decide to rest for a minute. During their rest they encounter two men who ask if Lydia is all right because she looks very pale and distraught. Her grandfather ensures the men that she is just tired from traveling and they leave. Lydia is angered that they would ask this question because she felt that they did not have the right to ask such a question. Finally the captain of the Aroostook, Captain Jenness, finds Lydia and her grandfather and shows them to the ship. Captain Jenness is a warm and confident man and he assures Lydia that she will be right at home on the Aroostook being that he has two daughters of his own who travel with him quite a lot. Lydia leaves her grandfather and boards the ship. Her room is the stateroom on the ship, the largest and most elegant room that Captain Jenness had designed for his wife. ......... William Dean Howells ( March 1, 1837 - May 11, 1920) was an American realist novelist, literary critic, and playwright, nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters." He was particularly known for his tenure as editor of The Atlantic Monthly, as well as for his own prolific writings, including the Christmas story "Christmas Every Day" and the novels The Rise of Silas Lapham and A Traveler from Altruria. Early life and family: William Dean Howells was born on March 1, 1837 in Martinsville, Ohio (now known as Martins Ferry, Ohio) to William Cooper Howells and Mary Dean Howells, the second of eight children. His father was a newspaper editor and printer who moved frequently around Ohio. In 1840, the family settled in Hamilton, Ohio, where his father oversaw a Whig newspaper and followed Swedenborgianism. Their nine years there were the longest period that they stayed in one place. The family had to live frugally, although the young Howells was encouraged by his parents in his literary interests. He began at an early age to help his father with typesetting and printing work, a job known at the time as a printer's devil. In 1852, his father arranged to have one of his poems published in the Ohio State Journal without telling him...............