Harriet A. Cheever

A young woman named Queenie is awakened to a deeper understanding of her Christian faith, and of the meaning of Christ's sacrifice one Lent and Easter season in this brief novella from 1896. Although orphaned at a young age, she was a child of great wealth and privilege, and her life was given over to parties and social gatherings. Then she encountered an impoverished Italian immigrant woman, driven to desperate acts by extreme poverty and hunger. Slowly Queenie's conscience was awakened, and in the process of providing for the dying Juliatti, she came to an understanding of how all people, regardless of background, were God's children. She also came to see that this, an awareness of the deeper currents of life and her role as a Christian, was something desirable, rather than something to be avoided...

Harriet A. (Anna) Cheever was a late-19th/early-20th-century American author who wrote primarily for children, producing both animal stories and Christian fiction. A Rescued Madonna appears to be aimed more at young adults than children—Queenie is said to be twenty—and was published by the Boston-based Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society. I found it an interesting read, and thought that the way in which the author worked the theme of the resurrection into the story, the way in which Christians are supposed in this season to be reborn as well, into a better and nobler life, one that strives for the good, and is to be perfected only in heaven, quite inspiring. I recently saw the film Cabrini, about the life of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, who began her work founding orphanages and hospitals in New York City, amongst the Italian immigrant community, so the theme of the despised Italian immigrant in Cheever's book was also of great interest. I was fascinated to see a contemporaneous treatment of the subject, one which argued for seeing these newcomers as fellow children of God. In the film, Mother Cabrini makes an impassioned speech at one point, about how Americans value many Italian cultural achievements, like the artwork produced by the Renaissance masters, but cannot seem to value Italian people, so the fact that the story here is based around a valuable portrait of the Madonna and Child, and that Queenie eventually sees a strong resemblance between Juliatti and the Madonna, was quite striking. One wonders whether there were other voices at this time, amongst the established American community, arguing for a more humane approach to the Italian immigrants.

The perspective here is very much of the Protestant Christian variety, and at one point Queenie worries quite a bit about the fact that Juliatti is more concerned with the Virgin Mary, than with praying to Jesus, but leaving aside those passages, there is a real ecumenical spirit here that was both interesting, and heartening to see. I wouldn't describe this as an outstanding book, really—it was engaging enough, more from the themes than the writing—but for those interested in vintage girls fare of a Christian variety, or in the depiction of Italian immigrants in American fiction of the late 19th century, it might be worth seeking out.… (mehr)