Saturday, February 11, 2012

The Rose Garden Husband by Margaret Widdemer

The Rose Garden Husband by Margaret Widdemer
The Rose Garden Husband by Margaret Widdemer. Grosset & Dunlap, 1915. 208p.

Miss Braithwaite, or Liberry Teacher as the children call her, is a public library employee who loves her kids and books, but finds that living in the city and working leaves very little time (and even less money) for herself. One particular trying day she exclaims to herself, 
“I’m sick of working hard fifty-one weeks out of fifty-two for board and lodging and carfare and shirtwaists and the occasional society of a few girls who don’t get any more out of life than I do! I’m sick of libraries, and of being efficient! I want to be a real girl! Oh, I wish – I wish I had a lot of money, and a rose-garden, and a husband!”

Well, watch out what you wish for because you just might get it. That same day an elderly couple that had befriended Miss Braithwaite during their interactions at the library approach her with a unusual proposition. A proposition that includes a lot of money, the potential for a rose-garden or two and even a husband.

There’s nothing scandalous about the proposition, it is merely an arrangement to ease the fears of a dying woman and provide a faithful companion to an invalid. Liberry Teacher is a sweet, patient, conscientious girl with a dash of stereotypical librarianness who takes her job very seriously.

I loved this book. It’s so much fun and written in such a different style than what is common today. The story is sweet, it’s a clean marriage of convenience/arranged marriage story and it’s about a librarian. What’s not to love? :-)

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