Free BookFive Little Peppers and How They Grew (Xist Classics)

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Free PDF Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (Xist Classics)

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Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (Xist Classics) Rank: #345586 in eBooksPublished on: 2015-05-15Released on: 2015-05-15Format: Kindle eBook 10 of 10 people found the following review helpful.Review of the Project Gutenberg Free eBook Edition of this nineteenth-century children's classicBy Kate McMurryThis is Book 2 in the Five Little Peppers series of nineteenth century children's books. Book 1 is Five Little Peppers and How They Grew.I was delighted to discover I could instantly download to my Kindle what I presume is the Project Gutenberg free version of this children's classic. The formatting is not the most presentable I've ever seen in an ebook, mostly due to missing tabs and hard returns that are crucial for distinguishing paragraphs from each other. Fortunately, though, there are few typos, so the this version of the book is readable enough that I donated my paper copy to the library as I am gradually moving almost entirely to ebooks since I got my Kindle a year and a half ago.This book contains more adventures of the Pepper family of five children and their widowed mother, whom they call "Mamsie." We are told it is five years after Book 1, however, given the fact that Phronsie is only eight, in reality it is more like four years later. Mrs. Pepper has been working in these intervening years as housekeeper to rich Mr. King, whom we met in Book 1. He has adopted the Peppers informally and the five Pepper children call him "Grandpapa." The Peppers have been living in the King family's Boston mansion in wealth and splendor, but the high life has not spoiled them.Polly has been taking piano lessons, and because she practices constantly and is passionate about her music, she has become quite proficient. Even though this is an era in which upperclass women did not work, presumably because Polly was not born upperclass, and her mother works at a job, Polly's goal is to have a job when she grows up, too. She very much wants to be a piano teacher.In spite of her humble beginnings and life goals, Polly has plenty of society girlfriends. Many of them are arrogant and condescending to the rest of the world, but they are good to Polly because they adore her. Mainly because she is creative in many ways. She is great at coming up with stories, plays, making costumes, and generally keeping everyone--no matter the age or background--fully entertained. In addition, she is a born peacemaker and is generally accepted as the leader of any group of peers she is part of, and often even of adults, who frequently come to her for assistance. Mamsie has trained all her children to work hard and do their duty with good cheer, but Polly and Ben have been the most fertile ground for her teachings. Polly passes on these teachings to anyone who comes into her sphere.Though the story reads like an historical novel to modern readers, it was actually a contemporary novel when it was written in 1890. There are horse-drawn carriages instead of cars, gaslight instead of electric lamps, no running water, no refrigeration, and no central heating.The Peppers frequently recall fondly their "little brown house," which still belongs to them and is maintained by Mr. King, who hires Badgertown locals to care for it. During this book, "Grandpapa" takes all the Peppers, Jasper, his daughter Marian and her three boys, Percy, Van and Dick (who is a year older than Phronsie) to visit the little brown house (it is never spelled out, but I assume Badgertown is in Connecticut). There are many other adventures as well, including burglars, a snooty visiting relative of Mr. King's who sneers at the Peppers, and Phronsie, the adored pet of the whole family still, getting lost again (as she did in Book 1, but in a different manner). Mostly, though, this is a book that provides the reader with quiet enjoyment of the ambiance of the nineteenth century and the warmth of the Pepper family.As the title of the book states, all five Pepper siblings appear in this story:Ben (Ebenezer) is very likely 16 since Phronsie is eight. Ben, like Polly, doesn't want to be beholden to generous Mr. King, who would gladly send Ben to boarding school as he does the younger boys. Instead of going to school, though, Ben is already working at a job at some kind of business firm. (It is unclear, because no backstory about the intervening years since Book 1 is provided, if poor Ben at least had a tutor.) The owner predicts to Ben that he will advance into a comfortable, lifetime position--though not, the man says rather condescendingly, in management because Ben is a steady plodder, not an innovator or leader. He is instead hard-working and reliable, just as he was as a child. In addition, Ben remains utterly loyal to and affectionate toward his family, especially Polly.Polly (Mary) is now presumably 15 years old since Phronsie is eight and she is seven years older than her sister. However, since Polly has her fifteenth birthday during Five Little Peppers Abroad, she is apparently 14 going on 15 in this book. Polly and Ben have much less need to act as second parents to their younger siblings than they did when living in poverty during the events of Five Little Peppers and How They Grew. Polly doesn't have to cook and clean and babysit anymore. She studies with a tutor, practices her piano, and spends pleasant time with her friends and family. She is less the major player of this book than she was in the first book. The story's focus is spread over the whole family.Joel would be 13 based on the ages of the other children. He has the same passionate, impulsive, choleric disposition he did as a child, which means it continues to be difficult for him to maintain the uncomplaining, sacrificial attitude Mamsie has worked hard to instill in her children. That approach to life comes with no effort to Ben and David, very little effort for Phronsie, moderate effort for Polly, and huge effort for Joel, who wants what he wants this instant. Joel continues to loudly express his disappointment if he doesn't get his needs met. In short, he's a normal, boisterous boy in a family where the norm is to be a docile gentleman. Fortunately for excitement in the story, Joel's passion puts the house in an uproar from time to time, in no small part because his two housemates Percy and Van (who are around 14 and 12 respectively) delight in tormenting him. Fortunately for Mamsie's hopes for Joel, he has a warm heart and, as in Book 1 when he was a young boy, he continues to be readily brought into line with a judicious application of maternal or sisterly guilt. As stated above, he and Davie (as well as Percy and Van) go to boarding school and come home for visits during school breaks.Davie (David) is now presumably 11 years old. He continues to have a mild disposition and remains in Joel's shadow as a person and as a character in this book.Phronsie (Sophronia) was four at the time of the last book and, as stated above, is described as being only eight in this book. Though she is indulged by everyone as both the adored baby of the family and because she is an angelically beautiful, blond child, she still has a remarkably unspoiled disposition, and her generosity and kindness instantly inspires worship in every man, woman, child, dog and crotchety old lady who meets her.Jappy (Jasper) King is now presumably 17 (a year older than Ben). He is not at a university, though he is presented in Book 1 and this book as intelligent and well read (and we learn in the next book that he speaks multiple languages). During this book, Jasper doesn't have a job yet, and he is not longer under a tutor. He and his father, "old" Mr. King, mostly hang around the mansion living a life of leisure. It is never fully spelled out in this book, but my presumption is that Mr. King, who is a very arrogant, demanding man, doesn't want Jasper to go away from home, not to boarding school as the other boys do (and which was common for the upperclass then--and often these days, too), or to university, which Jasper is certainly old enough to attend. Davie is only 17 in Five Little Peppers Grown Up and he attends university with Joel. As a matter of fact, I am quite amazed, given how possessive Mr. King is of Jasper, that the old man actually allows Jasper to get a job in Connecticut as an adult of 22 in Five Little Peppers Grown Up. However, in that book Mr. King does continue to demand absolute obedience at all times from Jasper--something that Polly encourages Jasper to go along with as his filial duty.Speaking of Mr. King, his source of wealth isn't mentioned in this book any more than in Book 1, but we learn in Five Little Peppers Grown Up that he inherited his wealth and has never worked a day in his life. It may strike a modern reader as odd that Mr. King is referred to constantly in Book 1 and this book as "old." It certainly made me curious enough about his age to try and calculate what it might be. In Book 1, Jasper's sister and only sibling is obviously much older than he is, since her oldest child is 10. Assuming she didn't get married any younger than 18, she would be around 29 to 31 in Book 1, and at that time Jasper is 13. Mr. King is unlikely to have had her earlier than age 20, and more likely he would have been at least 23 or 24. This means that in Book 1 he is between 49 and 55. He is presented as having ill health in Book 1, but since he completely perks up after Phronsie comes into his life, it is obvious he is merely suffering from the boredom of a non-productive life. He certainly remains quite lively and physically strong, without a hint of ill health, in this book and all of the first four books of this series (see list below), even though chronologically at least 15 years pass and he would be as much as 68 years old at the time of Five Little Peppers Grown Up.It is possible that the author refers to him as "old" in Books 1 and 2 when he is still in his late 40's or early 50's is because to young people the age of the "five little Peppers," anyone over 25 might seem "old." Or the author might possibly have seen Mr. King as "old" herself even at that age since the average life expectancy at the turn of the twentieth century was little more than 40, and often people in their 50's in nineteenth century novels are labeled by the authors as "old."Prince, Jasper's dog from Book 1, is missing in action here, oddly enough, but the bird, Cherry, that Jasper gave Polly in Book 1 appears several times.Margaret Sidney was the pseudonym of successful, American children's author, Harriett Mulford Stone Lothrop, who was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1844 and died in 1924, eight years after writing the last Pepper book. She began her writing career in 1878 at age thirty-four by publishing stories about Polly and Phronsie Pepper in a Boston children's magazine. She married the magazine's editor, Daniel Lothrop, who began a publishing company and published Harriett's "Five Little Peppers" series, starting in 1881. Here is a list of the twelve Pepper books by date written, which were produced over the course of thirty-five years: Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (1881) Five Little Peppers Midway (1890) Five Little Peppers Grown Up (1892) Five Little Peppers: Phronsie Pepper (1897) Five Little Peppers: The Stories Polly Pepper Told (1899) Five Little Peppers: The Adventures of Joel Pepper (1900) Five Little Peppers Abroad (1902) Five Little Peppers At School (1903) Five Little Peppers and Their Friends (1904) Five Little Peppers: Ben Pepper (1905) Five Little Peppers in the Little Brown House (1907) Five Little Peppers: Our Davie Pepper (1916)Margaret Sidney originally had no plans to write more Pepper books after the fourth book, "Phronsie Pepper", was published in 1897. She stated this firmly in her introduction to that book. However, over time the pleas of avid fans from all over the world caused her to give in and write eight more Pepper books. The events in the last eight books take place before the events of the third book in the original series of four books. If you would like to read the six main Pepper books in chronological order, rather than by publication date, this is the ideal sequence: "Five Little Peppers and How They Grew" "Five Little Peppers Midway" "Five Little Peppers Abroad" "Five Little Peppers and Their Friends" "Five Little Peppers Grown Up" "Five Little Peppers: Phronsie Pepper"If you read all the Pepper books, you will discover that the author did not take great care as to continuity in the later books, perhaps because so many years passed between writing these books.The Pepper books are products of a much slower-paced era, and I personally find it relaxing to experience that approach to children's fiction while being warmly enfolded into the loving Pepper family.This book, and all the Pepper books, are strictly G-rated, and the values they show (not tell through preaching) are very useful ones for any child to be exposed to, including loyalty, civility, kindness, consideration, keeping commitments, not betraying confidences, accepting difficult circumstances without complaint and forging through them, being organized, thinking before acting, and not taking one's anger out on others.I highly recommend this book for all ages.14 of 14 people found the following review helpful.Nice story, horrible reprint!By D.B.Review of the story: I bought this book for my daughter for Christmas. I had read these books as a child and loved them. Now my daughter has also fallen in love with this series. The books are sweet and old fashioned with lots of adventure and drama(the Peppers do seem to be extremely accident prone!) They also tend to be a little on the silly side but this was not uncommon in books from this era. The series was written from the 1880's through 1916. Reading these books is a pleasant trip to a time long gone.Review of the book(reprint): Because of their age it has become increasingly difficult to find good copies. I ordered this book along with a couple of other titles from the five little pepper series. The other books were from another publisher and were great. This edition on the other hand was deplorable. In the book description it states that this is an OCR print with typos. Boy, was that an understatement! I expected a few typos, but didn't think there would be too many or why would the company bother publishing it. Money, that's why. This reprint looks like it was typed by a third grader from a foreign country. Not only are there typos, but also skipped words, skipped sentences, letters left out of words, punctuation in place of letters in words(ex. randp/, I think it was supposed to say Grandpa!) I sent the book back and immediately refunded my money, but seriously needs to be on the ball with quality control on what's being sold on this site. Recap: Story - 4 stars Book reprint - 0 starsI know this is supposed to be a review of the story, but after all you are purchasing this product and need to be aware of the quality of this particular edition--I wish someone had let me know before I had purchased it.3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.Review of the Kindle Edition of this nineteenth-century children's classicBy Kate McMurryI was delighted to discover I could instantly download to my Kindle what I presume is the Project Gutenberg free version of this nineteenth century children's classic. The formatting is not the most presentable I've ever seen in an ebook, due to missing tabs and hard returns to set off the paragraphs from each other. Fortunately, though, there are few typos, so the this version of the book is readable enough that I donated my paper copy to the library as I am gradually moving almost entirely to ebooks since I got my Kindle a year and a half ago.This book is about the Pepper family of five children and their widowed mother. "Mamsie" ekes out a bare living as a seamstress in a small New England town (the state isn't specified but perhaps is intended to be the author's native Connecticut). Though the story reads like an historical novel to modern readers, it was actually a contemporary novel when it was written in 1881. There are horse-drawn carriages instead of cars, candlelight instead of electric lamps, no running water, no refrigeration, and no central heating.The Peppers live in a "little brown house" whose furnishings are only lightly described. Perhaps this is because the house is mostly bare due to their extreme poverty, but it would have been interesting to know how the family acquired water for cooking and bathing (and how the family bathed), if they had a fireplace or a Franklin stove, or simply used the kitchen stove to heat the house in the winter. (The Little House books are great for providing these historically accurate details, but not this series.)Mrs. Pepper was widowed when her English husband died presumable shortly before or after her youngest child was born. We learn nothing about the children's father in this book as there is no attention at all to the family's "backstory." As the title of the book states, there are five siblings:Ben (Ebenezer) is twelve years old. He had to be at least eight when the father died, but he has never gone to school--though somewhere along the way he and his sister Polly learned to read and write, probably taught by their mother since any school that the children might go to would cost tuition that Mrs. Pepper cannot afford. Throughout the story, Mrs. Pepper frequently frets over how she is ever going to get enough money to pay to educate her sons (there is no real concern about educating her daughters, perhaps because females of the working class were not commonly educated at this time). Ben augments Mamsie's income by doing odd jobs such as chopping wood. Ben has a placid, phlegmatic disposition, plodding along diligently through life, sure and steady in all he does. He is utterly loyal and would make any sacrifice for his family. He and Polly are particularly close.Polly (Mary) is eleven years old. She and Ben act as second parents to their younger siblings whom they refer to as "the children." Polly has a nurturing disposition and is very motherly, but she also has a sensitive, imaginative disposition, which is a fascinating combination. She is the major focus of this book as she bustles about helping her mother with sewing, cooking meals for the family, cleaning the house, and caring for the younger children. She loves music and would give anything to be able to learn to play the piano. She adores any flowers that come her way, and the bane of her existence is the ancient wood stove she has to cook on which is full of holes that are stuffed with paper and leather from old shoes.Joel is nine years old. He has a passionate, impulsive, choleric disposition. It is very hard for him to maintain the uncomplaining, sacrificial attitude Mamsie has worked hard to instill in her children which comes easily to all the Peppers except him. He wants what he wants this instant, and he's very loud about his disappointment if he doesn't get it--in short, he's a normal boy who constantly puts the house in an uproar. Fortunately for the training Mamsie wants to instill in him, he has a warm heart and is readily brought into line with a judicious application of maternal or sisterly guilt.Davie (David) is seven years old. He has a placid, timid disposition. He is Joel's shadow and is ready to try anything Joel suggests.Phronsie (Sophronia) is four at the time of this story and is the adored baby of the family. Though she is indulged by everyone, because she is a beautiful, blond girl, she has a remarkably unspoiled disposition. She is so angelically sweet and kind to everyone, she inspires instant love in every man, woman, child, and dog who meets her.Though the family is barely scraping by, constantly on the verge of starvation (they live off whole-wheat bread, salted porridge, and potatoes), they have caring neighbors who try to help out when they can, which doesn't amount to a whole lot since everyone in the town is poor in their own way, and Mrs. Pepper is too proud to accept outright charity.Two big crises lay the Peppers low during the course of this story: all the children get measles, which almost makes Polly go blind, and Phronsie runs off with an organ grinder and his monkey, terrifying the whole village for her safety.It is this latter event which brings Jappy (Jasper) King into their lives, the thirteen-year-old son of the very rich Mr. King, a crotchety "old" man staying at a local hotel to improve his uncertain health. (Note that what was considered "old" in the latter part of the nineteenth century is not what we would consider "old" today. The average life expectancy at the turn of the twentieth century was little more than forty, and often people in their fifties in nineteenth century novels were labeled by authors as "old." Mr. King's age is never given, but I tried to figure it out this way: Mr. King is clearly a widower. Jasper has a much older sister with three sons, the oldest of which is ten at this time, meaning she is at least twenty-nine, making Mr. King very likely fifty-five or sixty years of age.) Mr. King's source of wealth isn't mentioned in the book, and we never hear of him going to work, so possibly he has inherited wealth rather than holding a job.Margaret Sidney was the pseudonym of successful, American children's author, Harriett Mulford Stone Lothrop, who was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1844 and died in 1924, eight years after writing the last Pepper book. She began her writing career in 1878 at age thirty-four by publishing stories about Polly and Phronsie Pepper in a Boston children's magazine. She married the magazine's editor, Daniel Lothrop, who began a publishing company and published Harriett's "Five Little Peppers" series, starting in 1881. Here is a list of the twelve Pepper books by date written, which were produced over the course of thirty-five years: Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (1881) Five Little Peppers Midway (1890) Five Little Peppers Grown Up (1892) Five Little Peppers: Phronsie Pepper (1897) Five Little Peppers: The Stories Polly Pepper Told (1899) Five Little Peppers: The Adventures of Joel Pepper (1900) Five Little Peppers Abroad (1902) Five Little Peppers At School (1903) Five Little Peppers and Their Friends (1904) Five Little Peppers: Ben Pepper (1905) Five Little Peppers in the Little Brown House (1907) Five Little Peppers: Our Davie Pepper (1916)Margaret Sidney originally had no plans to write more Pepper books after the fourth book, "Phronsie Pepper", was published in 1897. She stated this firmly in her introduction to that book. However, over time the pleas of avid fans from all over the world caused her to give in and write eight more Pepper books. The events in the last eight books take place before the events of the third book in the original series of four books. If you would like to read the six main Pepper books in chronological order, rather than by publication date, this is the ideal sequence: "Five Little Peppers and How They Grew" "Five Little Peppers Midway" "Five Little Peppers Abroad" "Five Little Peppers and Their Friends" "Five Little Peppers Grown Up" "Five Little Peppers: Phronsie Pepper"If you read all the Pepper books, you will discover that the author did not take great care as to continuity in the later books, perhaps because so many years passed between writing these books. I am currently re-reading the series and have just finished this book and the second book, "Midway," and am currently reading "Abroad." In "Midway," the author states that five years have passed since the events of "How They Grew," but no ages are given for any of the children except Phronsie. We are told she is eight, which is one year younger than she ought to be if five years have passed. In "Abroad," whose events begin immediately after "Midway," Polly has her fifteenth birthday a few months into the events of the book, when it ought to be at least her sixteenth birthday given that she was eleven in the first book and presumably already fifteen or sixteen in the second book.The Pepper books are not concerned with edge-of-the-seat action, which is one of the things I personally like about them. They are products of a much slower-paced era, and it is relaxing to experience that approach to children's fiction while being warmly enfolded into the loving Pepper family.This book, and all the Pepper books, are strictly G-rated, and the values they show (not tell through preaching) are very useful ones for any child to be exposed to, including civility, kindness, consideration, keeping commitments, accepting difficult circumstances without complaint and forging through them, and so on.I highly recommend this book for all ages.See all 227 customer reviews...
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