Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin

First published: 1903

Type of work: Domestic realism

Themes: Coming-of-age, death, education, emotions, and gender roles

Time of work: The late nineteenth century

Recommended Ages: 13-15

Locale: York County, Maine

Principal Characters:

• Rebecca Rowena Randall, a spirited, imaginative girl who goes to live with her peevish maiden aunts
• Miranda Sawyer, a strict, demanding spinster who offers to educate her young niece
• Jane Sawyer, Miranda’s sister, a kind, timid woman
• Mr. Adam Ladd, also
• Mr. Aladdin, a mysterious, handsome bachelor who befriends Rebecca
• Emma Jane Perkins, Rebecca’s schoolmate and best friend
• Jeremiah Cobb, also
• Uncle Jerry, the stagecoach driver who brings Rebecca to Riverboro and who subsequently befriends her
• Aurelia Randall, Rebecca’s overworked mother, sister to Miranda and Jane
• Miss Emily Maxwell, a teacher at Wareham, who takes a special interest in Rebecca

The Story

Rebecca Rowena Randall is named, appropriately enough, for a character out of Ivanhoe (1819), but her romantic, wide-eyed nature often clashes with stiff, harsh reality in the form of Miranda Sawyer, her aunt. When Miranda invites her placid, eldest niece, Hannah Randall, to come to board at her brick house and receive an education at the local school, the last thing she bargains for is that rambunctious Rebecca will be sent in her sister’s stead. The girls’ exhausted mother, Aurelia Randall, however, cannot spare Hannah’s help around the house and so decides to give the chance for an education to her second eldest daughter.

Rebecca is one of seven children in a poor family that inhabits Sunnybrook Farm — so named by Rebecca. Her beloved father long-dead, Rebecca decides she can best help shoulder the family’s financial burden by accepting the offer of her forbidding but well-to-do aunt. Although Rebecca’s intentions are good, her heart and head are full of fancy: She is heedless and irrepressible and unused to the sort of constraints that Aunt Miranda imposes on her.

Rebecca quickly wins over the stagecoach driver, Mr. Jeremiah Cobb, with her charming, intelligent chatter, but her aunts, Miranda in particular, prove more difficult to conquer. From the moment Rebecca sets foot in the brick house, she is expected to behave like a proper young lady, a goal quite impossible for such a headstrong heroine. Although she tries hard to follow Miranda’s many rules, she often forgets them in her quest for new adventures.

Rebecca’s imagination is usually two steps ahead of her thoughts, a combination that gets her into some interesting predicaments. Among other trespasses, Rebecca wears a new dress without permission, stains another with fresh paint, damages Sawyers’ well by hurling her beloved parasol into it, enters into the soap-selling business, and invites a family of missionaries home to stay without consulting her aunts. Everything about her lively niece annoys autocratic, even cruel, old Miranda. As long as she lives there, Rebecca never feels entirely free to be herself in front of her aunt. Still, if Miranda is an ogress, Aunt Jane proves to be an understanding, though timid, ally, who occasionally stands up to her sister in Rebecca’s defense.

Fortunately for the oft-castigated girl, her generous, impetuous nature makes her a number of abiding friendships. Rebecca delights people with her writing and reciting of poetry and with her artistic, original ideas. She is a natural leader, much admired by schoolmates such as Emma Jane Perkins and adults such as the Cobbs. In particular, Rebecca earns the attentions of a wealthy, handsome bachelor named Adam Ladd, who becomes her benefactor, and of Miss Emily Maxwell, an innovative teacher at Rebecca’s high school in Wareham. Over the course of seven years in her aunts’ keeping, Rebecca matures, but she retains her enthusiasm for life; she does well in school and, although she never entirely gains Miranda’s approval, her aunt ends up leaving the brick house to Rebecca in her will.

Context

What makes Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm unique in children’s literature is its heroine. Rebecca is an original: Even as a child of ten she is an individual with an unquenchable sense of self. Rebecca, however, is not by any means a perfect heroine: While she remains a sympathetic character, she is not always the most patient or diligent of girls. The narrator insists that Rebecca is not beautiful but that she has dark, expressive eyes that attract people. Moreover, Rebecca is not the cleverest of students. Still, she stands out as a colorful, exotic bird in dun-colored surroundings. In Rebecca, Wiggin created a three-dimensional character who inspires because she is so real.

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is also unique because of its attention to detail, its straightforward handling of subjects such as illness and death, and its rural setting. The novel provides realistic descriptions of small-town life. In particular, it explores the narrow, stifling ways of a village such as Riverboro. Dialogue, too, is richly rendered, from the idiosyncratic New England idiom of the aunts Sawyer to the more worldly expressions of Mr. Ladd and Miss Maxwell. Furthermore, some of the characters are portrayed as less than admirable human beings: For example, the father of one of Rebecca’s schoolmates is a chronic thief and jailbird.

Wiggin’s achievement, in terms of both content and technique, is original. The novel’s narrator remains an obvious presence throughout, at times directing just how the reader should respond to Miranda or Rebecca, often commenting pointedly or humorously on the action and on the characters. The fact that the end of the novel is left open with respect to what happens to Rebecca’s career and to her relationship with Adam Ladd is in itself an innovative literary technique. In 1907, Wiggin published New Chronicles of Rebecca (also known as More About Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm), which she described as not a sequel but rather a filling-in of background material from Rebecca’s stay at Miranda’s brick house. Although she published a great variety of works during her life, Wiggin never resolved Rebecca’s story.