This has really been buggin' me...
June 5, 2010 11:01 AM
What was this book I read as a child? It was about a neglectful mother and a young woman who caught butterflies.
I read this book when I was younger--it was quite thick and I remember it being hardback. The book was set sometime in the mid 1900s and was about a young woman who got really into catching butterflies and maybe bugs. Her mother was quite neglectful at first but somewhere around the middle of the book it all turned around and her mother suddenly became the epitome of good parent. I think the book ended with mother and daughter catching rare butterflies together. The young woman's name was something like Elvira. Thanks!
I read this book when I was younger--it was quite thick and I remember it being hardback. The book was set sometime in the mid 1900s and was about a young woman who got really into catching butterflies and maybe bugs. Her mother was quite neglectful at first but somewhere around the middle of the book it all turned around and her mother suddenly became the epitome of good parent. I think the book ended with mother and daughter catching rare butterflies together. The young woman's name was something like Elvira. Thanks!
shirobara got it. It is definitely A Girl of the Limberlost.
posted by gudrun at 11:14 AM on June 5, 2010
posted by gudrun at 11:14 AM on June 5, 2010
Yup, that's the book. Elnora Comstock is the daughter. Great, if odd, book, which you can also read on Google Books, if you like that old scanned book look.
There was also a review/essay about Porter and her books by Janet Malcolm in the NYRB last year that is sort of fascinating.
posted by newrambler at 12:05 PM on June 5, 2010
There was also a review/essay about Porter and her books by Janet Malcolm in the NYRB last year that is sort of fascinating.
posted by newrambler at 12:05 PM on June 5, 2010
Wow, thanks for the quick responses and the outside links. I'm so glad that I bothered to ask this question. Ask Metafilter really comes through for limited childhood memories of books and other objects.
posted by 200burritos at 2:13 PM on June 5, 2010
posted by 200burritos at 2:13 PM on June 5, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by shirobara at 11:05 AM on June 5, 2010