While Dostoyevsky, Dickens, and Victor Hugo were exploring the depths of human despair, Mary Mapes Dodge was writing a charming travelogue about Holland (for children): Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates. While the race to win the Silver Skates takes the title position, the book is about much else. The protagonists are Hans and Gretel Brinker two exceeding good children in dire circumstances. Ten years ago, their father lost his strength and intellect. The poor family now cares for his unresponsive body. Call this Dickens-lite. The family bravely struggles but, in the end, everything turns out well (similar to Great Expectations published a few years earlier).
SPOILERS:
In the end, the lost money is found, the father recovers, and the doctor’s lost son is found.
This book tells the story of the little Dutch boy who saved his village by putting his finger in the dike. It also includes the advice not to count your money in public lest someone decides to rob you. (Advice I grew up with.)
Mary Mapes Dodge writes in her time.
She praises Dutch author Jacob Cats over his English contemporary William Shakespeare
because Cats “has no white women falling in love with dusky Moors.”
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