Title for the USA: Maria Escapes

https://openlibrary.org/works/OL15838...

A charming story - humorous and touching - I'm surprised I hadn't come across it before. Would make a fab film, or tv adaptation!

Two stars means I read it, liked it but don't remember it.

I was prompted to read The Warden's Niece by an obituary of Gillian Avery, who died earlier this year. Originally published in 1957, and written to remind her of her beloved Oxford while living in Manchester, it's the sort of children's book that heralded the beginning of a golden age of children's literature, but would be unlikely to get published today.
The story, set in 1875, concerns a young girl, Maria, who, deeply unhappy at her boarding school, runs away to her uncle's house in Oxford. He is the warden of Canterbury College and unused to children, but offers an unstuffy and amused refuge for Maria. She makes friends with three boys who live next door and becomes involved in an attempt to solve a minor historical mystery.
The plot is simple and somewhat secondary to the development of character and the evocation of Oxford academic life. Maria is a likeable lead character, vulnerable yet determined, and with a sparky intelligence. Special mention must also be made of her temporary tutor, Mr Copplestone, a great comic creation whose zest for life and refusal to be bound by society's norms brings a real air of calculated risk taking to Maria's life.

Excellent story and great characters, even the minor ones. This shares some similarities with Linnets and Valerians, right down to a poor retitling. The escaping (like the running away of "The Runaways") is just the setup for the real story and is quickly done. The real story is indeed all about The Warden's Niece. I am excited to know that this is the first of a series (unlike so many cases of unwarranted and unwanted sequels!), but I fear that these (which have not been republished recently) will be difficult to find.

As a side note - can someone tell me how the Smith boys' "abbreviations" are pronounced? Thos, Jos, Jas - "toss"? "joss"? "jass"? That makes sense for Joshua (not Joseph), but it's James (not Jasper), so should it be "jace"? And what about "thoss"? In written form, I find the whole conceit very funny, but these kids are using them in dialogue, and it just got me wondering.

Orphaned Maria feels overwhelmed and out of place in her new boarding school, so she runs away to stay with her uncle, a warden at Cambridge, gets tutored along with the neighbor boys (sons of a professor), and becomes fascinated with the history of a local manor house and its family. Her researches into that history get her into all sorts of scrapes and leads her on several adventures.
This one didn't fully grab my attention but it wasn't the worst of its kind, either, and honestly it has aged pretty well, I think. Recommended if you like this sort of thing.

http://nhw.livejournal.com/705821.html[return][return]Eleven-year-old Maria runs away from school to her great-uncle who is the Warden of an Oxford college. She gets put in with the three sons of the neighbouring house, and their eccentric temporary tutor Mr Copplestone (who would certainly be played by Stephen Fry in the movie version). She also develops her own little research programme, solves a historical mystery, and thus gets her Bildung. It's a lovely little book. My favourite scene is where she manages to talk her way into the Bodleian Library, in a combination of drive to find the answers to the historical mystery that has been puzzling her, and carrying out the terms of a dare from one of the boys next door.

This is the delightful story of a young orphan named Maria who after escaping the terror and shame of an incident at her boarding school, goes to live with her uncle, the warden of one of the Oxford Colleges. She manages to get in several scrapes with the three boys living next door who she has been sent to take lessons with. The wonderful and comic figure of their temporary tutor Mr. Copplestone, (he's apparently eight feet tall!) had me giggling all throughout the story. Maria lives in equal fear of the housekeeper Mrs. Clomper and of being sent back to her boarding school so she embarks upon an investigation at a local historical house in order to impress upon her uncle that she is a serious scholar. This was great fun and highly recommended for those who loved old-fashioned children's stories.

A good old fashioned tale. Easy read and good fun.

I can't remember much about this book, but I remember reading it again and again. It inspired a love of 'finding things out'. Absolutely charming, reminds the reader that there was life before google.