The Novels of Elizabeth Enright: An Overview
I’ve been rereading the novels of Elizabeth Enright for the past few months, because they’re *so* re-readable and absolutely perfect for this time of year. For me, there is such a sense of delight in Enright’s familiar descriptions of summers in the countryside, of searching for butterflies and exploring old houses and finding arrowheads. The summers she spent on her uncle’s Wisconsin farm definitely influenced her writing and the way she observed nature and recorded it in both a realistic and whimsical manner.
In case you haven’t yet met her wondrous world of books, here’s an overview of her novels in chronological order of publication:
Thimble Summer (1938)
A Newbery medal winner, this slim book is perhaps the most well-known of Enright’s works. There are delicious moments like when Garnet and her best friend get accidentally locked in the library, and when Garnet goes to the county fair. A fresh breeze of a book! This is also her first novel for children.
The Sea Is All Around (1940)
A tribute to Maine and all its magic, this is a gentle story of a girl going to live with her aunt in a remote wilderness and making new friends. It has a delicate beauty to its gorgeous prose, and although it’s very hard to find, The Sea Is All Around is well worth the search!
The Saturdays (1941)
This book kicks off the Melendy Quartet series in grand style. At this point in Enright’s career, her writing was becoming a bit faster-paced, and the acceleration improves her already engaging prose. The four Melendy siblings pool their minimal allowances so that they can each enjoy a special Saturday outing of their own.
The Melendys move from their New York City apartment building to a fabulous old home in the country, where they uncover a secret room that’s been boarded up for years—among other adventures! This story is even better on audio.
Then There Were Five (1944)
Here’s a quintessential portrait of a five children enjoying an old-fashioned summer—including stargazing, fruit canning, and all the glories of August—depicted with Enright’s usual stunning imagery.
Spiderweb for Two (1951)
My personal favorite of Enright’s books is this story you simply can’t put down, a gem that caps off the Melendy series. Part mystery and part ode to autumn, this book features the youngest of the four siblings on a humorous quest to unravel a mysterious string of riddles.
Gone-Away Lake (1957)
I recently revisited this classic tale of two cousins (and best friends) who discover a nearly abandoned resort community by the lake and some fascinating new friends who know all the stories of the village’s past.
Return to Gone-Away (1961)
We read this one last year as part of our Summer of Vintage Kid Lit, and I loved returning to Portia and Julian’s unforgettable adventures—this time as they explore and renovate a dilapidated mansion.
To say that I wish there were more Enright novels would be an understatement—there is just something so unique about her descriptions, metaphors, realistic characters, and settings.
I encourage you to pick up one of these in September! Summer is coming to a close, and it’s the perfect time to indulge in an Elizabeth Enright story. 🙂
Recently Read: The Kirsten series by Janet Shaw, The Meeting Place by Janette Oke and T. Davis Bunn, The Cabin Faced West by Jean Fritz
Currently Reading: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Cherry Ames: Department Store Nurse by Helen Wells
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Enright’s books are jewels! I encouraged all my daughters to read them (most did) and it’s hard to pick a favorite. Back in the day, I always wanted to try petit fours and move to a huge house because of the Melendys.
They are indeed jewels, Candace! Thank you for reading 🙂 I love old houses and Enright writes about them so vividly.
I’m so pleased to see someone else who loves these books too! Looking forward to reading the one I missed!
I just finished re-reading the Melendy series. I was introduced to “The Saturdays” by my wonderful elderly 6th grade teacher who read the book to our class, way back in 1969. Do teachers still read to their classes? I hope so. I treasure these books – I have original hardbacks of “The Saturdays” and “And then there were 5” – I have paperback of the other two and hope to one day get them in hardback – but the ones I’ve found are very expensive!!
Thanks for your comment, Sandi! That’s awesome that you have original hardcovers!
Why were these wonderful stories never made into movies?
Elizabeth Enright is my favorite writer ever. Her writing is exquisite. My favorite scenes are Mona and Randy canning, Oliver and Mr. Titus fishing, Oliver and his luna moth, Rush and his tree house, Garnet locked in the library, Mab and the night-blooming cereus, and Randy and Oliver growing closer as they are the last kids at home. It saddens me greatly to learn that Elizabeth Enright took her own life, but the world as it was when she passed had become an ugly place.
It’s good to find others who love Enright. She has been my all-time favorite children’s author for years, ever since my 3rd grade teacher read Gone-Away Lake aloud. (Since I’m old, this was in about 1966-67.) She had a gift for description that was flawless, and her characters were always children I could identify with.
I did want to point out one little problem, however. The Sea is All Around wasn’t set in Maine. Enright spent all her summers as a child on Nantucket Island, and while she gave it a new name, Pokenick Island, the setting is apparently very true to life of Nantucket.
Some misguided author who’s made a study of Enright has published professionally that the last three Melendy books were set in Wisconsin, like Thimble Summer. They’re not! When it only takes a few hours on a train to get to New York City, the setting is obviously upstate New York, like the Gone-Away books. (Lucy is from Albany.) I think this same critic also thinks the Gone-Away books take place in the Midwest. You wouldn’t find an upscale summer colony like Tarrigo Lake in the Midwest in the 1890s.
Sadly, I’m not sure how to get children today to read Enright. I’m about to retire from 36 years working in a school library. I have stocked my shelves with the Melendy and Gone-Away books, but the children at my school haven’t got much in common with the characters, and the books haven’t had much circulation.
If you are willing to work a little, I highly recommend finding Eleanor Cameron’s excellent article, “The Art of Elizabeth Enright.” It was published in two parts shortly after Enright’s death in the Horn Book Magazine, December 1969 and February 1970. A big public library ought to be able to help you find the articles through inter-library loan.
I read somewhere on the internet that a biography of Elizabeth Enright was in process. I believe that the person working on it was named Andrea Greenwood, but I could be wrong about that. She had started a blog, but I couldn’t access it, and the only date I saw was I think 2004.
The devotion I had to Elizabeth Enright when I was a child of about 10 was epic. I still feel it on some level, as I found The Saturdays in my local public library at a difficult time in my childhood and after reading it (and then everything else Ms Enright wrote) I distinctly remember feeling that I had been brought back to life. I wish I could have told her that. It is apparently more than rumored that she ended her own life and I am so saddened by that.
I have been doing some research on my own, but “Andrea Greenwood” stated that she had found and developed papers, letters, photographs and other information, and had even interviewed people who knew Elizabeth Enright, in the process of writing her biography.
If anyone knows more about this biography or the woman who was writing it during the early 2000s, please contact me!
I was introduced to Elizabeth Enright via a library discard sale in the late ’70s, when I was a little girl. I still have my copy of Spiderweb for Two, complete with dust jacket and library card pocket! In a world before internet, I had no idea this book was part of a series until I was an adult, at which point I promptly bought the rest and consequently devoured them. Like the Melendys, I also grew up in the country, riding bikes and climbing trees and exploring. Even now, I occasionally take one of Enright’s books off the shelf to re-read, and they still fill me with delight. Her description of the natural world through changing seasons never fails to evoke a bittersweet nostalgia, and her Christmas chapters in particular, are legendary. It’s nice to read this piece, and the comments, and know that there are others who feel the same!