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Laura Amy Schlitz
Nov. 27th, 2023 07:58 amI’ve long had a vague yen to read more of Laura Amy Schlitz’s work, and this past weekend it occurred to me that now would be a good time, so I got A Drowned Maiden’s Hair: A Melodrama. The book is set in 1909, and it does indeed borrow some elements of classic melodrama: orphans, ghosts, spiritualism, decaying old mansions, macabre secrets slowly revealed, the dramatic elements heightened by the contrast of the daylight world of the seaside and the carousel. A delight.
In fact, it was such a delight that I decided to treat myself to an afternoon at the Central Library, which conveniently stocks most of the rest of Schlitz’s bibliography. I found a seat by the windows and indulged in a couple of hours reading, starting with The Hero Schliemann: The Dreamer Who Dug for Troy, a children’s biography about the man who excavated Troy… and destroyed a good part of it in the process. (“Troy was sacked twice,” Schlitz quotes an archaeologist, “once by Greece and once by Schliemann.”) You see, the site had been home to six or seven cities over the years, and the one Schliemann thought was the Troy was, in fact, a couple of cities too far down.
I now want to read more about Schliemann, and late nineteenth century archaeology in general, which I simply don’t have time for! Why are there so many interesting things in the world?
Then onward to Princess Cora and the Crocodile, which is about a princess whose well-meaning but harried royal parents have arranged her day so every moment is spent in Improvement. She sends a letter to her fairy godmother, who in response sends her - a crocodile! So Princess Cora and the crocodile change places for the day - her parents are so busy Improving her that they rarely look at Princess Cora, you see, so they don’t notice the switcheroo at once. Cora spends a wonderful day climbing trees and picking strawberries while the crocodile terrorizes Cora’s parents into a state of mind where they are receptive to the idea that, perhaps, Cora’s Serious Reading ought to be tempered by a few storybooks, and her physical fitness regimen might be stretched to include tree-climbing and walks around the countryside.
And then prior plans forced me to leave Central Library, bearing The Night Fairy with me for later delectation. After Flory, a young night fairy, loses her wings to a bat, she decides to become a day fairy instead, and moves into a backyard birdhouse. Not a lot of Tiny Person making Tiny Things action (although Flory does make herself a dress of cherry blossoms), but lots of detail about finding your place in the complicated and dangerous arena of the backyard ecosystem when you are but the size of two acorns. Flory yearns to ride a hummingbird, and who among us has not at some point entertained this fantasy?
The one drawback to this reading binge is that I know have a mere two Laura Amy Schlitz books left: a picture book, The Bearskinner: A Tale of the Brothers Grimm, and a full-length novel, Amber & Clay, set in ancient Greece. Really curious to read this after the Schliemann book.
In fact, it was such a delight that I decided to treat myself to an afternoon at the Central Library, which conveniently stocks most of the rest of Schlitz’s bibliography. I found a seat by the windows and indulged in a couple of hours reading, starting with The Hero Schliemann: The Dreamer Who Dug for Troy, a children’s biography about the man who excavated Troy… and destroyed a good part of it in the process. (“Troy was sacked twice,” Schlitz quotes an archaeologist, “once by Greece and once by Schliemann.”) You see, the site had been home to six or seven cities over the years, and the one Schliemann thought was the Troy was, in fact, a couple of cities too far down.
I now want to read more about Schliemann, and late nineteenth century archaeology in general, which I simply don’t have time for! Why are there so many interesting things in the world?
Then onward to Princess Cora and the Crocodile, which is about a princess whose well-meaning but harried royal parents have arranged her day so every moment is spent in Improvement. She sends a letter to her fairy godmother, who in response sends her - a crocodile! So Princess Cora and the crocodile change places for the day - her parents are so busy Improving her that they rarely look at Princess Cora, you see, so they don’t notice the switcheroo at once. Cora spends a wonderful day climbing trees and picking strawberries while the crocodile terrorizes Cora’s parents into a state of mind where they are receptive to the idea that, perhaps, Cora’s Serious Reading ought to be tempered by a few storybooks, and her physical fitness regimen might be stretched to include tree-climbing and walks around the countryside.
And then prior plans forced me to leave Central Library, bearing The Night Fairy with me for later delectation. After Flory, a young night fairy, loses her wings to a bat, she decides to become a day fairy instead, and moves into a backyard birdhouse. Not a lot of Tiny Person making Tiny Things action (although Flory does make herself a dress of cherry blossoms), but lots of detail about finding your place in the complicated and dangerous arena of the backyard ecosystem when you are but the size of two acorns. Flory yearns to ride a hummingbird, and who among us has not at some point entertained this fantasy?
The one drawback to this reading binge is that I know have a mere two Laura Amy Schlitz books left: a picture book, The Bearskinner: A Tale of the Brothers Grimm, and a full-length novel, Amber & Clay, set in ancient Greece. Really curious to read this after the Schliemann book.
