Life And Love During War World 1

 

Let's dive into the world of Dear Theodora by Florence Irwin, a story that takes place in 1915 and beyond.  The book itself is a reissue of an older volume and part of a series known as the Victorian Bookshelf Series.  As far as I know though, there's only three other volumes in this particular series.

 

Characters: Theodora (no last name ever given), various others, Mrs. Robert Delafield Stuyvesant, and Alan Beekman,

Premise: A woman, Theodora, finds her footing in the days before, during, and after World War 1. 

Journey with our dear Theodora, a young girl (early twenties), who wanting to improve her station in life (as her family is somewhat poor) gets the crazy idea (for the time) to enter the workforce. Remember, this is 1915, where women just didn't do that sort of thing.  Instead, they were expected to be trained up in domesticity and prepared for being a homemaker and rear of children.  Nice girls of this day and age certainly didn't enter the workforce or go to suffragette meetings.  And yes, the book covered this aspect, albeit, very briefly.  Usually, I would prefer more details about moments in history, but for the story told, it made sense that they only touched upon it briefly as this was from a specific character's point of view.

Along the way, we are also introduced to not only Theodora's love interest, Alan Beekman, but his aunt, Mrs. Robert Delafield Stuyvesant, the woman Theodora comes to work for as a companion, who first seems to the reader to be cold and gruff, but you soon learn that she has a good heart. Now, if you're more used to modern narration where a woman is referred to by her Christian name, the continual use of "Miss" and Mrs." will most likely be frustrating. However, if you keep in mind the time period, this actually makes sense. Theodora is from a certain station in life and this is all from her point of view so certain wording is to be expected.

I can just imagine you all saying "Where does the romance come in?  You mentioned an Alan Beekman.  What about him?" He comes in fairly quickly and he and Theodora strike up a friendship, which his aunt disapproves of because she's hoping that he'll marry a childhood friend of his and most likely, Theodora's position as her companion/caregiver.  If you're used to more modern romances where there's sneaking around and stolen kisses/moments, you're going to be sorely disappointed.  There is none of that.  Though Theodora wants to be with Alan, she respects her employer's wishes and tries to stay away from him, eventually becoming engaged to a man named Gerald Wyatt, who turns out to be a cad of the highest order.  Of course this engagement doesn't last (even his own sister, Marguerite, warned Theodora off of him, revealing that he liked to fool around) and there's the predictable misunderstanding between Theodora and Alan before it gets resolved.

I liked Theodora's journey and growth.  At the start of the story, she is opinionated and brash (especially for the time period) and almost seems unlikeable, but as her journey unfolds, she learns to hold her tongue and to rely on the Lord. As expected from a story written in 1915, there are many references to God, though sometimes it almost feels like the author's writing about Him in a bit of an abstract way with only an occasional reference to prayer and a need for relying on Him, though I'm not sure if that's Irwin's own writing style or because it was edited for the edition's reissue.  If it's the former, I don't know if I would read more of her works because I prefer stories where this is more prevalent in the story, but if it's the latter, I suppose I can understand needing to excise any extraneous material. All in all, I enjoyed this book and I'd give it about a 7.