From 18 to 20

1888, original Lippincott edition
Elizabeth Jaudon Sellers
From 18 to 20
Bought used (of course) for $4.00
Amazingly good condition hardcover
D+

I remember buying this book when I was 18, partly because I thought it was cool that when I turned 20 the book would be 100.  And I remember that much more than I remembered anything about this book, other than the heroine getting lost in a cave before being rescued by her "true love."

This is not only the oldest book I own, it's probably the worst.  While Beatrice is in the cave, she burns two "seaside novels" so she'll have a fire to keep warm, and while I don't advocate book-burning, I'd have to say that if they were on the level of this one, they can't have been much loss to the world.  The characterization is remarkably shallow.  To the extent that Beatrice has any personality, it's because she's unpleasant.  She insults a neighbor just because he's not a figure from her romantic daydreams.  She makes lots of snarky comments about women and girls, including how boring and hypocritical they are. 

She's courted by two men, who for no good reason share a first name.  One is rich and too emotional, the other less rich and seemingly more aloof.  It turns out that the latter's fiancee, who conveniently dies and leaves a letter explaining everything, was in a Miss De Bourgh/Darcy situation, where the parents pressured them into the engagement.  But of course he only loves Beatrice.  Since he's the least developed character in the book (other than Beatrice's four out of six siblings that we never even get names of, after being promised to be allowed to judge them for ourselves), it's hard to care.  When he references Isaak Walton, rather than simply saying "I went fishing," at a time that he's supposed to be in the throes of emotion, he becomes less than cardboard.

And since the triangle of Charles J./Beatrice/Charles T. is more slanted than the Twilight saga, it's idiotic that the novel ends on the cliffhanger of the heroine sending two replies to her suitors, one positive, the other negative.   "Did I yield my heart, my life, my all, to Love or Riches?"  Gee, I dunno.  What do you think?

Incredibly, this book is back in print, in case you want to read it.  It's not quite so bad it's good, but it does verge on that.  You'll get a slight sense of the times, like that dance cards are by the 1880s (at least in the U.S.) completely meaningless and you don't have to worry about offending men by dancing with someone else.  Also, apparently a woman can propose to a man all through leap year, and not just on Leap Day.