Guernsey, Lucy Ellen

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GUERNSEY, Lucy Ellen

Born 12 August 1826, Pittsford, New York; died 3 November 1899, Rochester, New York

Daughter of James T. and Electa Guernsey

Lucy Ellen Guernsey was the fifth daughter of a Rochester-area businessman and philanthropist and the sister of Clara Florida Guernsey. Her father's philanthropic bent was reflected in Guernsey, who was an active member of the Episcopal church and who for 11 years (1888-99) edited a religious publication, the Parish Visitor, intended for distribution in prisons, homes, and hospitals.

In the 30 years that were her most productive (1855-85), Guernsey wrote more than 60 books, most of them published by the American Sunday School Union (ASSU). Often the ASSU publications were no longer than pamphlets, but Guernsey's were juvenile novels, frequently running to more than 200 pages. The speed with which she wrote took its toll on her work; most of her novels are loosely plotted at best. However, she does have a good ear for natural-sounding dialogue, and her novel The Chevalier's Daughter (1880) was praised in the Saturday Review for its accurate portrayal of the manners and customs of the people.

Tabby's Travels (1858) provides a good example of Guernsey's ability to combine accurate observation and didacticism. Tabby is a "heedless and disobedient" kitten who thinks she is mistreated, although in fact she is only spoiled. She runs away from home and, as she travels from house to house and from family to family, she sees her own faults reflected in the people about her. Through Tabby, the child reader learns the value of being good-natured, hard-working, self-respecting, and obedient. What makes the book interesting and almost overcomes its didactic spirit and episodic plot is Guernsey's eye for the physical behavior of cats.

Most of Guernsey's novels are best described as domestic fictions—stories about contemporary young people and their families and the problems of reaching responsible maturity. The ASSU novels characteristically conclude with an apt biblical quotation to reinforce the moral point. Guernsey also wrote, however, many historical fictions, including the multivolume "Stanton Corbet Chronicles."

Like the ASSU novels, the historical fictions are episodic, but they are redeemed to some extent by a richness in subject and character reminiscent of Sir Walter Scott. In The Foster-Sisters (1882), two English girls, raised in a French convent, return to a Church of England household just in time to meet Charles Wesley and become Methodists. At their ancestral home they discover that their relatives, although English, are avid Jacobites, and they escape harm and forced marriages by fleeing to the Scots housekeeper, a Presbyterian. Religion is the most important theme, but the successful feature of the book is the characterization, especially of the narrator, Lucy Corbet, who is at once devout, witty, and capable of being acerbic. After quoting St. Ignatius on the decay of the physical body ("You will become that for which there is no name in any language!"), Lucy Corbet observes in a footnote: "Bossuet has the same phrase. I don't know who stole it."

A prolific writer, Guernsey is most distinguished by her close observations of people and animals, her natural dialogue, and her wit. Her books are marred, however, by the looseness of the plots. Yet especially in those novels published by ASSU, she clearly reflects the values and attitudes a significant segment of the community wished to inculcate in children of the time.

Other Works:

Irish Amy (1854). Duty and Inclination (1856). Ready Work for Willing Hands (1856). The Sign of the Cross (1856). Sophie Kennedy's Experience (1856). Upward and Onward (1856). Jenny and the Insects (1857). Kitty Maynard (1857). Meat-eaters, with Some Account of Their Haunts and Habits (1858). The Christmas Earnings (1859). Straight Forward (1859). Jenny and the Birds (1860). The Straight Path (1860). The Blue Socks (1862). The Tattler (1863). Charlie (1866). Milly (1866). Abbey (1867). Lolla (1867). Nelly (1867). Opposite Neighbors (1867). The Twin Roses (1868). Cousin Deborah's Story (1869). Lady Lucy's Secret (1869). Mabel (1869). Winifred (1869). The Child's Treasure (1870). The School Girl's Treasury (1870). The Dark Night (1871). Ethel's Trial in Becoming a Missionary (1871). The Fairchilds (1871). The Langham Revels (1871). Only in Fun (1871). Lady Betty's Governess (1872). On the Mountain (1872). Percy's Holidays (1872). The Red Plant (1872). The Sunday School Exhibition (1872). Claribel (1873). Rhode's Education (1873). The Tame Turtle (1873). Lady Rosamond's Book (1874). Benny the Beaver, and Other Stories (1875). Grandmother Brown's School Days (1875). The Heiress of McGregor (1875). School Days in 1800 (1875). Guy Falconer (1876). Washington and Seventy-six (with C. F. Guernsey, 1876). The Story of a Hessian (1877). Cub's Apple (1878). The Mission Box (1879). No Talent (1880). The Old Stanfield House (1880). Phil's Pansies (1880). Loveday's History (1885). Oldham (1885). Through Unknown Ways (1886). A Lent in Earnest (1889). The Soldiers of Christ (1889). The Hidden Treasure (1890).