I published some time ago a Little Women theory on the Penderwicks, which turned out to be kind of a bit wrong and therefore, I removed it (yup, Batty and Jeffery was not my guess, but I understand it now. With the help of Emily of New Moon and The Exiles in love and a bit reading the original books in English (so much for translation issues...)....).
I read the series again, plus Little Women and a lot of other classics, and I looked something up, including the Latin and Czech sentences. I don't blog, but because I through my results shouldn't be wasted, I pin everything here and I would be happy if YOU could add anything in the comments!
For a better outline, I use following abbreviations.
E= Easter egg (previous books)
L = Literature reference
T= Trope (well, perhaps this is again literature)
C= Cultural Trivia (Music, History)
G= goof (sorry, but I think I would like to add that.... (: )
Actually, I'm not a shipper because I normally accept everything with a happy ending.
Because I'm especially a big fan of Lydia Penderwick and have a lot, lot in common with her (:
I try to be a bit neutral - like Lydia - and explain all secrets of literature references and foreshadowings in the series.
Just to make it clear: Nope, it's not all it seems, and it's not all Little Women.
In fact, it is rather a very "mean" personal code by Birdsall in the series and I wouldn't call Birdsall
a copy cat. Because she does actually a little bit the opposite of copying...she writes the opposite (:
My references will include for example:
Little Women (until Jo's Boys)
Emily of New Moon
a series of 5 books (and the magical numeber 5)
Jane Austen's novels
The enchanted Castle
The secret Garden
Sleeping Beauty (ok. that will be a fun fact)
and music, music, music
And some personal refences to Birdsall's biography I did research
Aaaaand, of course, the secret of purple flowers (:
And the secret of the middle of the series, the book closures, and why Batty was the main character all the time.
I hope you'll have fun and I'm looking forward to your comments !
YOU ARE READING
A companion to The Penderwicks
Non-FictionDisclaimer: This is neither a fanfic nor an official book to Jeanne Birdsall's Penderwicks series. This is also not an annotated edition because I don't copy the text of the book. Thus, it's a companion and commentary on The Penderwicks series, es...
