Miss Marjoribanks vs The bent twig: Which Should You Read?

Miss Marjoribanks Margaret Oliphant · 1866 ★★★★☆ 3.8 546 pages · ≈ 10 h 07 m · Challenging

When Dr. Marjoribanks’s wife dies, his teenage daughter makes it her purpose in life “to be a comfort to dear papa.” At least, Lucilla thinks, ten years of such devotion might suffice, by which time she might have begun…

The bent twig Dorothy Canfield Fisher · 1915 ★★★★☆ 3.9 480 pages · ≈ 8 h 53 m · Challenging

“LIKE most happy childhoods, Sylvia's early years lay back of her in a long, cheerful procession of featureless days, the outlines of which were blurred into one shimmering glow by the very radiance of their sunshine.”

Unlike other young women of her generation, who were "bred up from childhood to sit behind tea-tables and say the right things to tea-drinkers," Sylvia Marshall - the "twig" of this novel - was reared to think for…