The Flower of the Family; a Book for Girls

Elizabeth Prentiss

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With the exception of "Stepping Heavenward," no one of Mrs. Prentiss' larger books has had so wide a circulation, both at home and abroad, as The Flower of the Family. A French translation, entitled "La Fleur de la Famille" has passed through five or six editions. It was also translated into German under the title, "Die Perle der Farnilie' In both languages it received the warmest praise. The work depicts a marked, type of the family life of thirty years ago, which is becoming rare in our own day; and on this account, as well as for its intrinsic merits, deserves to be reprinted. Its aim cannot be better expressed than in the following extract from a letter of Mrs. Prentiss to a friend, written soon after its publication in 1854:

I long to have it doing good. I never had such desires about anything in my life: and I never sat down to write without first praying that I might not be suffered to write anything that would do harm, and that, on the contrary, I might be taught to say what would do good. And it has been a great comfort to me that every word of praise I have ever received from others concerning it has been " it will do good," and this I have had from, so many sources that, amid much trial and sickness ever since its publication, I have had rays of sunshine creeping in now and then to cheer and sustain me.

Numberless testimonies to its usefulness continued to cheer her to the end of her days. - Summary by The Note to the Present Edition

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