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    The Young Visiters or, Mr. Salteena's Plan
    The Young Visiters or, Mr. Salteena's Plan
    The Young Visiters or, Mr. Salteena's Plan
    Ebook110 pages1 hour

    The Young Visiters or, Mr. Salteena's Plan

    By J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie and Daisy Ashford

    4/5

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateJan 1, 1970
    The Young Visiters or, Mr. Salteena's Plan

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    Reviews for The Young Visiters or, Mr. Salteena's Plan

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      This short book is rather a novelty, having been written by the author as a 9 year old in 1890, though not published until 1919. While obviously displaying the inexperienced in life approach one might expect, it shows an understanding of narrative and plot, and an eye for descriptive detail unusual for one so young, The author wrote other stories at a young age, including one when even younger than when she wrote this one, some of which have been lost. Don't expect great drama, obviously, but this shows some familiarity with, and ability to laugh at, some of the habits of the time.
    • 4/5
      Hilarious story written by a nine-year-old girl in 1890. 3 1/2 stars.
    • 5/5
      That rare creature, the truly hilarious book. Young authoress Daisy Ashford has apparently been reading quite a bit above her age level and attempted to create her own novel without quite understanding the way the world works. It's a delight from start to finish ... slightly wearing nearer the end, but it's awfully short, so it's fine. It's the only thing like it (I'm sure lots of other young writers have turned out something similar, but without being quite so charming, and without getting published!) Also turned into quite a faithful film with Tracy Ullmann, if you're so inclined.
    • 3/5
      I'm less convinced than most apparently are that this was actually written by a child, but be that as it may, this is a decent, quick read. However, its main lasting value is to allow one to fully appreciate Ring Lardner's parody "The young immigrunts".
    • 4/5
      It was a very cute story and all the spelling errors were left in. Written by a child of 9, I found it sweet and amusing.
    • 4/5
      This was, apparently, written by a 9-year-old girl in 1890. Precocious for that age, yes, but there's not much else to say about it, I'm afraid.
    • 3/5
      This novella was supposedly written by Daisy Ashford at the age of nine (some suspect J.M. Barrie, who sponsored its publication, actually wrote it. It was published in 1919 in the format of the original manuscript with spelling errors and all. The story concerns a love triangle between Mr. Salteena "not quite a gentleman," the more attractive Bernard Clarke, and the even more attractive heroine Ethel. I got this because it was mentioned positively in Josephine Tey's Miss Pym Disposes as a book that makes readers smile.
    • 5/5
      The Young Visiters (or, Mr. Salteena's Plan) was written in 1919 by Daisy Ashford. I have two editions. The first bears the inscription, "To Esta Evelyn from Mother Jane December 1928."Now it is 2011 and I am puzzled as to why my mother thought it was a book for a then-five year old (altho I was precocious). My second copy is from Doubleday & Co. , 1952. I bought it myself. They both include the delightful Preface by J. M. Barrie, and illustrations by William Pene duBois.The earlier one has a photograph of the author and a picture of the first page of the original manuscript is in both. The book? A wonderful, marvelous, look at high society.I am writing this June 25, 2011, a day after we discovered we can get a movie version from Netflix. I immediately took the books off the shelf and reread it. I'm hoping its spirit lives on in the film!
    • 3/5
      Three reasons to read The Young Visiters (sic) by Daisy Ashford, written in 1890 and published in 1919:1) For its storylines of romance and social advancement -- the foreword proclaims it “a Victorian novel in miniature.”2) For its nine-year-old author, though to be clear this isn't a story about children, nor necessarily even one for child readers. Ashford's spelling is often phonetic (she especially loves sumshious) and the subtext is funny, even racy; yet she senses the needs of readers and is versant on the concerns of adults (including men).3) For its literary dustup, where (especially in the USA) J.M. Barrie’s preface (not included in my edition) prompted questions about whether Ashford or Barrie really wrote the book. (This 1920 NY Times article (pdf) concludes for the child, as generally does history.)
    • 4/5
      A delightful story, and noted also for the illustrations of Posy Simmonds. Written by a young girl, but quite famous for the immense number of phrases that are innocent but have a soert of double entendre to them for the louche adult eye. Simmonds' illustrations tend to enhance the process!
    • 4/5
      This 1890 book, "the greatest novel written by a nine-year-old", chronicles the adventures of Mr. Salteena and his friends Edith and Bernard as the first attempts to climb the social ladder and the latter two fall madly in love. Of course, having been written by a nine-year-old, it's comical in that way that kids can be when they're deadly serious about something. The author evidently incorporated her favorite phrases from books and overheard conversations, but still retained the spelling and grammar of a child, which leads to such sentences as "I am stopping with his Lordship said Mr Salteena and have a set of compartments in the basement so there." The crowning moment of the book comes when Bernard proposes to Edith during a picnic next to a river; Ms. Ashford really pulled out all the stops and packed in just about every 19th century romantic cliche in existence, to hilarious effect. As J.M. Barrie writes in the preface, "It seems to me to be a remarkable work for a child, remarkable even in its length and completeness, for when children turn author they usually stop in the middle, like the kitten when it jumps."

    Book preview

    The Young Visiters or, Mr. Salteena's Plan - J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie

    The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Young Visiters or, Mr. Salteena's Plan, by

    Daisy Ashford

    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

    almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

    re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

    with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

    Title: The Young Visiters or, Mr. Salteena's Plan

    Author: Daisy Ashford

    Release Date: May 11, 2007 [EBook #21415]

    Language: English

    *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK YOUNG VISITERS ***

    Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David T. Jones and the

    Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

    THE AUTHOR

    THE

    YOUNG VISITERS

    OR, MR SALTEENA'S PLAN

    By

    DAISY ASHFORD

    WITH A PREFACE BY

    J. M. BARRIE

    NEW YORK

    GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

    Published, 1919,

    By George H. Doran Company

    Printed in the United States of America

    [Pg v]

    PREFACE

    [Go to Table of Contents]

    The owner of the copyright guarantees that The Young Visiters is the unaided effort in fiction of an authoress of nine years. Effort, however, is an absurd word to use, as you may see by studying the triumphant countenance of the child herself, which is here reproduced as frontispiece to her sublime work. This is no portrait of a writer who had to burn the oil at midnight (indeed there is documentary evidence that she was hauled off to bed every evening at six): it has an air of careless power; there is a complacency about it that by the severe might perhaps be called smugness. It needed no effort for that face to knock off a masterpiece. It probably represents precisely how she looked when she finished a chapter. When she was actually at work [Pg vi] I think the expression was more solemn, with the tongue firmly clenched between the teeth; an unholy rapture showing as she drew near her love chapter. Fellow-craftsmen will see that she is looking forward to this chapter all the time.

    The manuscript is in pencil in a stout little note book (twopence), and there it has lain for years, for though the authoress was nine when she wrote it she is now a grown woman. It has lain, in lavender as it were, in the dumpy note book, waiting for a publisher to ride that way and rescue it; and here he is at last, not a bit afraid that to this age it may appear Victorian. Indeed if its pictures of High Life are accurate (as we cannot doubt, the authoress seems always so sure of her facts) they had a way of going on in those times which is really surprising. Even the grand historical figures were free and easy, such as King Edward, of whom we have perhaps the most human picture ever penned, as he appears at a levée rather sumshiously, in [Pg vii] a small but costly crown, and afterwards slips away to tuck into ices. It would seem in particular that we are oddly wrong in our idea of the young Victorian lady as a person more shy and shrinking than the girl of to-day. The Ethel of this story is a fascinating creature who would have a good time wherever there were a few males, but no longer could she voyage through life quite so jollily without attracting the attention of the censorious. Chaperon seems to be one of the very few good words of which our authoress had never heard.

    The lady she had grown into, the owner of the copyright already referred to, gives me a few particulars of this child she used to be, and is evidently a little scared by her. We should probably all be a little scared (though proud) if that portrait was dumped down in front of us as ours, and we were asked to explain why we once thought so much of ourselves as that.

    Except for the smirk on her face, all I can learn of her now is that [Pg viii] she was one of a small family who lived in the country, invented their own games, dodged the governess and let the rest of the world go hang. She read everything that came her way, including, as the context amply proves, the grown-up novels of the period. I adored writing and used to pray for bad weather, so that I need not go out but could stay in and write. Her mother used to have early tea in bed; sometimes visitors came to the house, when there was talk of events in high society: there was mention of places called Hampton Court, the Gaiety Theatre and the Crystale Palace. This is almost all that is now remembered, but it was enough for the blazing child. She sucked her thumb for a moment (this is guesswork), and sat down to her amazing tale.

    Her mother used to have early tea in bed. Many authors must have had a similar experience, but they all missed the possibilities of it until this young woman came along. It thrilled her; and tea in [Pg ix]bed at last takes its proper place in fiction. "Mr Salteena woke up rarther early next day and was delighted to find Horace the footman entering with a cup of tea. Oh thankyou my man said Mr Salteena rolling over in the costly bed.

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