The Secret Garden is one of my favorite children's books, and I have enjoyed a couple of others by Frances Hodgson Burnett, but until recently I did not realize she had written any adult novels. I decided to try The Shuttle to see how if she captivates a mature audience as readily as the young (and young at heart). Written in 1906, this qualifies as a classic by a female author for Back to the Classics Challenge. After a rather slow start in which the analogy of a shuttle weaving between North America and England failed to engage me, I found myself engrossed by the protagonist within several chapters.
It is set during a time of history I hadn't know much about: when young American women married European men for their titles and impoverished European nobles married the American for their money. The main ladies in the story are Vanderpoels, the similarity to Vanderbilt is not an accident I presume. While the extravagantly wealthy can often become tiresome, Betty Vanderpoel managed to keep my interest. I identified with her dynamic and compelling personality. She planned and put her plans into action; nothing stood in her way because she had the intelligence and the finances to do them. Near the end, I did weary of her seeming infallibility, but then I regretted her one mistake.
This book has some of the charm of Burnett's children's books in her descriptions of the English country side and in a couple of characters. I enjoyed the English village vicar and the American typewriter salesman. However, particularly heinous character of the villain with a plot centered on deception and romance makes this solidly an adult novel.
I learn much of history from fiction books, and this provided a few good insights. I got more of the idea of the English village and how much the peasantry relied on the nobles and how the nobility were restricted by their societal standing. I've read many books that focused on the upper class English (Jane Austen) or the poor English (Charles Dickens), but not many that give insight on the intersection between the two. Shortly after finishing this book, I came across a non-fiction account of American heiresses and British lords, but I decided I had enough for now and would rather learn more about those who managed to visit Europe while making ten dollars a week.
Regardless to a person's opinion of The Secret Garden, The Shuttle is an entertaining book in its own right. I learned a something, met some lovely characters, and was satisfied with ending - overall a book worth reading.
