Three Little Maids
1900
Three Little Maids, written by Ethel Turner and first published in 1900, is a children's novel that follows the lives of three sisters, Phyl, Dolly, and Weenie, as they navigate childhood in a loving yet challenging domestic environment after the loss of their father. The story captures their imaginative adventures and the complexities of family life in Australia, reflecting themes of love, loss, and resilience. The novel is notable for its portrayal of sisterhood and the innocence of youth against a backdrop of social customs of the time.
Editions
X-Ray
“She had taken it into her head that she was unappreciated by her family, misunderstood, uncared for.When she went to bed at night she used to conjure up a pathetic scene of her death-bed, when too late her family had learned her worth. She would lie and blink at the patch of light made on the ceiling by Dolly's wash-stand candle, her throat swelling with self-pity....She went further still one night, and actually buried herself in an oak and silver coffin.””
— Ethel Turner
“But you, warm from the hearts of all those sisters and brothers - oh go back to them and be poor and happy and grow up in the healthy atmosphere of 'give and take' instead of our most wretched one of 'keep'.””
— Ethel Turner
“The mother had taken the visitors’ room to sleep in ever since the day two months ago when Death had walked whitely into that larger room and frozen with his strange breath the father of her youngest child.””
— Ethel Turner
