Kate Douglas Wiggin's Marm Lisa opens in Eden Place, a shabby, bustling city neighborhood where reform slogans, social theories, and everyday poverty collide in comic confusion. At the center stands Mrs. Cora Grubb, a dazzling amateur prophet of progress whose home is plastered with charts of temperance, woman's emancipation, vegetarianism, and other causes, while her practical husband quietly bears the burden of raising their unruly twins, Atlantic and Pacific. Yet the novel's true heart is Marm Lisa, a neglected child whose silence, exhaustion, and secret tenderness make her a figure of deep pathos beneath her rough exterior. Wiggin blends satire, humor, and compassion as Mistress Mary offers the children a refuge of warmth, discipline, and affection. Lisa's summer in the country becomes a moving awakening, and her astonishing physical and emotional growth is matched by the novel's faith in patient care, education, and love. Around her, the twins remain both comic and heartbreaking, embodying the stubborn limits and hopeful possibilities of reform. The result is a witty, tender story of social criticism, child rescue, and renewal. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.

À propos de l'auteur

Wiggin, Kate Douglas Smith

Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin was an American writer, educator, and tireless advocate for children whose life was shaped by a deep belief in the power of kindness, imagination, and education. Born in Philadelphia and later drawn to the reform-minded spirit of New England, she worked for years in schools and kindergartens, experiences that gave her fiction its warmth, realism, and moral clarity. She became widely admired for her stories about children, families, and women navigating duty, loss, and hope, and she also helped bring attention to progressive ideas in early childhood education. Her writing often blends humor with tenderness, capturing the small domestic moments that reveal larger truths about character and community. At the heart of her work are themes that still feel urgent today: the importance of empathy, the resilience of the young, the value of education, and the quiet struggles of women seeking purpose and independence. Wiggin’s legacy endures because she wrote with both social conscience and a generous understanding of human nature, making her work appealing to readers who care about family life, child-centered stories, and the history of women’s voices in literature. She will be especially enjoyed by readers who appreciate classic fiction with emotional warmth, ethical depth, and a sincere faith in the possibility of growth and reform.