Audiobook · read by volunteers
Birthday Party, A Story for Little Folks
Oliver Optic (1822–1897)
Read by Lucy Burgoyne (1950-2014) · 4 chapters · 39 min
About the book
Flora Lee’s birthday falls in July, and her mother wants to make it a day to remember. Flora is a good girl, and her parents are always glad to do anything they can to please her and to add to her happiness. A birthday party is full of small plans and larger feelings, and this gentle story follows the preparations in the unhurried manner of its day. Oliver Optic, one of the most popular American writers for young people of his time, wrote it in 1862, in a style typical of its era, with plain sentiments. Lucy Burgoyne reads the four short chapters, for about forty minutes of listening. A little period piece to enjoy with children, or for anyone interested in how young readers were once entertained.
Introduction
Oliver Optic was the pen name of William Taylor Adams, who was born in 1822 and died in 1897. He was born in Massachusetts and taught in Boston before becoming a full-time writer, and he produced a huge number of books for boys and girls, including adventure series, sea stories and tales of school life, and who also edited a magazine for young readers. In his time he was among the best-selling authors for the young.
Birthday Party, A Story for Little Folks was written in 1862, and it belongs to a different, gentler branch of his work than his adventure series. It is intended for small children, and its subject is a familiar one: a girl named Flora Lee whose birthday falls in July, a family celebration and the small excitements and anxieties that go with it. Its small domestic details give a glimpse of family life in mid nineteenth-century America.
Stories for young children of this period often carry a lesson, and the tone is likely to be kindly rather than severe. Modern listeners will notice the formal speech, the emphasis on good conduct and the sentimental tone, which belong to the time.
The recording has four brief chapters and lasts a little under three-quarters of an hour. It is read by volunteer Lucy Burgoyne. It makes a good short listen for family time, and an engaging curiosity for readers of children’s literature and social history.
Public domain
Oliver Optic died in 1897: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text