The Last of the Peterkins

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Pages: 114

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About this book

Preparing a paper for the Circumambient Club becomes an ordeal for Elizabeth Eliza Peterkin. She struggles to find an idea, then discovers that finding a quiet moment to write is just as difficult. Even the family's screened doors become part of the trouble when the little boys leave them open and insects crowd around her lamps. Lucretia P. Hale turns an ordinary obligation into a comic study of earnest effort and muddled reasoning.

The family's travels bring the same confusion to a larger stage. Inside an Egyptian pyramid, a reunion produces competing questions about relatives, ancient chambers and mistaken steamer routes, while guides try to get everyone to lunch. This collection of stories for young readers also includes Elizabeth Eliza's commonplace book and tales of other children. Its appeal lies in the precise way one small practical problem grows into a whole family's elaborate discussion.

About the author

Lucretia P. Hale

Lucretia Peabody Hale (1820-1900) was an American writer born into a prominent Boston literary family; she was a sister of the author and clergyman Edward Everett Hale. She wrote essays, instructional books and fiction, but is remembered above all for her humorous Peterkin stories, which began appearing in periodicals in the late 1860s.