Truly enjoyed this more after having also travelled to many of the places Betsy went.

Opening three years after the events of n  Betsy and Joen, the previous installment of Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy~Tacy series, Betsy and the Great World sees its lovable heroine - now twenty-one years old, and about to be a junior in college - head off for a trip to Europe. Crossing the Atlantic on the Columbic ocean-liner, living in a student pension in Munich, exploring Venice with a handsome young man, and facing the onset of World War I with her friends in London, Betsy has many exciting adventures, and makes a diverse range of friends, from a German baroness to an Italian architect. She even meets that elusive type: the American millionaire!

I enjoyed this grownup Betsy~Tacy adventure immensely, although - as my friend Wendy warned me - I did find some of the changes a little jarring. Had the Rays moved away from Deep Valley, I wondered, when Betsy references their home in Minneapolis? Betsy and Joe seemed to have such a wonderful understanding, at the close of the previous book, and although Lovelace explained how they drifted apart, it was still a little disappointing to see their estrangement! I also couldn't help but wish that there were some intermediate titles, covering Betsy's college years, although if they were so unhappy, perhaps it's for the best that the author glossed over them.

Despite these concerns, I soon settled into this delightful tale of travel, which has always been one of my own passions. Lovelace writes beautifully, capturing a pre-war Europe that was soon to disappear, and inserting many fascinating social observations into her narrative. The idea of discrete social classes, held by both Tilda and Helena, is very foreign to Betsy, and I was rather impressed that Lovelace didn't allow her intrepid American to "resolve" everything, and make everyone friends. I also relished Betsy' passionate defense of the cause of woman suffrage, and her rejection of Mr. O'Farrell's false dichotomy of the feminine and the feminist.

All in all, Betsy and the Great World was a great book - entertaining, thought-provoking, and emotionally satisfying. Especially, as another friend notes, that wonderful closing chapter! I can't wait to read n  Betsy's Weddingn!

In 1914 Betsy does the Grand Tour, cruising her way to Europe in style before settling down in Munich, then Venice, Paris and London. Betsy being Betsy, she can't help making some good friends and having several romantic adventures.

Notably in Munich she is torn between her friendship with Tilda, a sweet girl who is studying singing, and Helena, an impoverished countess who refuses to associate with Tilda because of class differences (apparently Betsy is OK even though a shoe salesman's daughter because she is American). And the other great romance of her trip comes in Venice, where her good friend Marco falls deeply in love with her and declares his love.

Throughout it all, Betsy keeps thinking of Jim back home - they had a falling out before she left the US and though she can't bring herself to write, she can't forget him either. And looming over everything there is the war to come. Betsy promises her Munich friends she'll return in 1917, but we as the reader are very well aware that's not going to happen, and by the end of the book the war has well and truly begun.

The bit I liked least was probably her journey over to Europe - it's a bit too much "gosh look at the natives" when she stops at places along the way. But I did love her long stays in Munich and Venice especially, going from being a lonely and homesick stranger to a confident traveller. And it gave me a kind of sense of closeness to Betsy to realise that the iconic places of Venice back then are still the iconic places today, the same places I saw as a visitor too.

Betsy takes a year and travels to a variety of places in Europe. She stays in Munich, Venice, and then travel to London and Paris. Interestingly she ends up there as WWI begins.

I liked how Betsy made friends wherever she went as she did in the earlier books of the series. And it's still a good slice of life kind of book. However, there's a gap of several years between when this one starts up and the previous book. Betsy has gone to college, broken up with Joe, her family has moved out of Deep Valley, and Betsy drops out of college. There's kind of a lot to catch up on and I didn't love that it picked up here.

Once the story got going I was in and enjoyed following Betsy on her travels.

3.5

This is probably my least favorite of the older Betsy-Tacy books. Just because Joe isn't really in it. Yes, the ending is really sweet ... but for most of the story Betsy and Joe aren't together! And BETSY IS PRACTICALLY GOING AFTER OTHER MEN.

I do love all the descriptions of different people and places. It really makes you want to visit Europe ... though not nowadays. I basically want to travel back to the pre-WW1 era just to visit Europe. Because I feel like it just wouldn't be any fun nowadays.

I wish we could hear how all of the friends Betsy made in Europe ended up. For instance, Helena (if I remember the name correctly). She has such a tragic story, and we never get to hear how that ends up! So sad. (Yet another reason for more Betsy-Tacy books ...)

Overall, this is a great story ... but not my favorite. I love the conclusions Betsy comes to. I always love seeing inside her head. :)

~Kellyn Roth, Reveries Reviews

One of the last Betsy-Tacy books, this one chronicles Betsy’s trip to Europe in 1914. Like all hero’s journey books, more attention is put to the front experiences, but Lovelace did a fabulous job of portraying the countries on the cusp of the first World War. While there were wincingly problematic descriptions now and then, it was a good story and interesting to see the portrayal of having to leave London because war was declared

A glimpse of the world before it was changed forever by world 1. I loved the part when the wars was declared .It was written so well ,that I felt that I was there.The interconnecting web of alliances, Belgium's defiance, and the rush of American tourist fleeing the war.

Betsy has had a hard couple of years. Between an argument with Joe, which they have not reconciled, and a medical emergency that caused her to leave college, she's feeling defeated. So her wonderful family suggests that she do a European tour! None of her family is able to go, but with her sister's connections and helpful friends of the family, Betsy has safe places to stay as she explores Spain, Germany, Italy, France and England. So is off on a grand adventure in 1914!

I have a lot of ground to cover with this one, so I'll try to make points quickly. Firstly, this may be my favorite Betsy book, completely because of the ending. Though I've always "liked" Betsy, I've often not liked her behavior as she focuses too much on being the center of attention and wanting beaus even when she isn't serious about the guy and has a guy she is serious about, but doesn't think about how she's hurting him when she's "just having a lark". Hence the argument with Joe, which is one of the most disconcerting parts of this story: the time jump. It's been two years since Betsy and Joe, we come back into the story after she's done a whole year at college, argued with Joe, got appendicitis which caused her to miss her sophomore year, spent it in California instead and is about to get on a steamer headed for Europe! Ms. Lovelace has done moderate time jumps before, but generally you could finish one book and pick up the next one starting a month or so later in the life of Betsy so the narrative flow doesn't really feel broken... until here. Which means it takes awhile for us to find out exactly what happened in those intervening two years and makes it very awkward when Betsy starts flirting with other guys as we readers are still like "BUT WHAT ABOUT JOE?!?!". I have to move on, but these were my two big issues with the story. The delightful parts were Betsy's new friends around the world, the many amazing places she gets to visit, how you see it growing her as an author (and how the advice "if you want to write, write every day, even if it's just a little bit" has been around for a long time!), when her flirting ways really get brought home to her and make her realize just how much she loves Joe and really hurt him and has now hurt someone else that she cares about; but the real moments of gold? When she casually reads about "some Archduke's assassination" while in Europe. If you are at all a student of history, you know the dominos are coming down and over time as the rumbles of war get louder, the conversations she has with people of "surely it won't come to real war!", "it'll only last a month", "the world is far too advanced to be pulled into a widescale war" and then while in England, the fateful declaration with Betsy knowing she has friends on both sides of this conflict. Thank heavens for Joe!

Content notes: No issues; drinking and smoking are mentioned, but drinking in moderation only and smoking is repeatedly mentioned being a dirty habit that nobody should take up; some kissing, but usually just on the hand or forehead. A lot of things are going on in the background that Betsy is too naïve to see fully, like her friend's alcoholic father (which is hinted that he's abusive) or when she's looking for passage home and her friend insists she only travel on an American ship (because British ships were in danger of being sunk after War was declared), so on the surface, this is probably as light a view of the time as you can get, but there are deep, dark waters just off shore if you look.

I don't remember how old I was when my mom gave me the Betsy-Tacy book set, but I've reread the last 6 in the series (of 10) many, many times. This one, for a while, was hard to wrap my mind around, but as I got older and re-read it, I began to appreciate it even more.

This time, I read the foreword by Anna Quindlen who wrote about how Betsy was a great feminist example. She traveled on her own, and while she often had men around her, she never let them take advantage of her and she was in control of every relationship.

I always liked Betsy although I was (and maybe still am) a little jealous of her ease with men and dating. Rereading this book now was still a lot of fun and when she got to Venice, I was pleased that I could picture the locales where she and Marco visited.

"Betsy and the Wide World" is not one of Ms. Lovelace's finest. The reason: After Betsy's absence from a couple of the intervening Deep Valley books, she returns to the scene essentially unchanged from what she was in high school. And even after her European tour described in this Wide World book, she remains unchanged. I am sorry to conclude that, to me, Betsy is an unlikeable and boring girl. She was more interesting when her age was in the single digits.

In Betsy and the Great World, we dive with Betsy from one shallow puddle into another. Her observations about the interesting places she visits --- The Azores, Morocco, Munich, etc. --- are superficial. She does not ever explore below the surface of what she sees. Witness her wide eyed innocence in merely asking "Why do they hate us so?" when she visits Tangiers briefly. Fortunately, she need not dwell on the question (even if she were so inclined) because she can return to the ship and revel in thinking about what she'll wear to some ball or other.

In sum, Betsy is a passive observer. She looks at the world with an unchanging frame of reference, and the great world does not appear to affect her. I do not mean to diminish her ability to negotiate travel in foreign countries as a "girl alone". (Her aloneness is nominal, however, as there is always someone to take her under his/her wing, or to fall in love with her, etc.) But she remains essentially the same high school girl that she was in many other books --- the one who seeks "fun", who wants to belong to a set, to impress with airs and affectations, etc. She is really quite a dull child. And although she may be popular with her peers, adults seem really simply to indulge her.

It is remarkable to me that Ms. Lovelace portrays Betsy as a young woman aspiring to a career as an author of fiction. Betsy's writing must indeed be of the most conventional sort, suitable for publication in popular magazines. (I did a google search of Ainslee's magazine, which paid Betsy $100 for a story.) Her desire to soak up atmosphere and visit places because it would help her writing is simply a pose. It is in this light that Ms. Lovelace has her visit the fashion show at Longschamps in Paris. Please! Betsy has no interior life out of which she could write. If she did, Mr. Ray could have saved his hard earned money and kept her home in Minneapolis. On the other hand, without an interior life, perhaps a trip to Europe was in Betsy's professional interest. At least she could collect charming locations.

It is remarkable to me that Joe Willard --- who is a person of character --- could actually be charmed by this lover of hats, mirrors, and silk kimonos. I suspect that it is Joe who will provide Betsy with "character" in the next and last of the Betsy-Tacy series.

Actually, I've really enjoyed reading this series. I suppose I would have stopped if I didn't. Also, I wouldn't feel so strongly about Betsy if Ms. Lovelace hadn't drawn me in so well!

Imagine sailing for Europe, just to have the experience of being there...