My mom was so great to lend some of her best classic movies to us to watch during Christmas, even though she wouldn't get to be here to watch them. One of them was Disney's Pollyanna.  It was a big hit with everyone, who asked me several questions about it.  That's when I realized how little I knew about this favorite story of mine.  I dove into Google and found out it was a novel by Eleanor H. Porter in 1913, an instant success, followed by a sequel, a blockbuster silent film in 1920, and many other films and mock sequels thereafter.

 I downloaded the Google book, and for the next several days, my computer became my bedtime book.  I devoured every nuance, dialog and plot twist, in a much more complete and consistent story than the one with which I grew up.

Like the Disney movie, Pollyanna is a smiling, happy-go-lucky girl with two fat blonde braids and ill-fitting clothes.  After her father dies, she goes to live with her wealthy aunt whom she's never met, because her late mother was cut off from the family for marrying a poor pastor.  Despite her aunt's cold elitism and bad treatment of her niece, Pollyanna finds something to be happy about everywhere she goes and in everything she does, with her "Glad game."  She unwittingly, pure heartedly brightens up the entire run-down town in which she now lives.

Unlike the movie, the original Pollyanna is a very consistent character.  She doesn't have the tempter streak shown by Hayley Mills, but innocently and sincerely wants to make others happy.  It is her innocence and oblivion, in fact, that are so attractive to others.  She is a three-dimensional character, and does go through emotional difficulties, but she responds to those by crying and being by herself, or looking to others for consolation, not by throwing a tantrum.  Also unlike the film, Aunt Polly does not own the town.  It is not named after the family, and Miss Polly is just a very wealthy person who keeps to herself.

The book also weaves several mini stories into a beautiful collection of conclusions tied together.  The ending is somewhat unexpected, except for the intentional little clues placed strategically throughout the story.  And even the guessability of the ending is enjoyable in the anticipation.  It's a wonderfully crafted "old style" book, where all the strings are tied off at the end, and everything is in balance.  And I believe the lesson taught in it is as powerful as even the radical movie "Pay it Forward", though in much more wholesome surroundings.  Finding the true and present good in everything you go through, and being honestly thankful for it is, indeed, a godly way to live, and can, in fact, change the world.

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After finishing the first glad book, I, like so many people in the early 1900's, was hungry for more of the "glad girl".  I found the sequel on Google books as well, and continued.  "Pollyanna Grows Up" continues the basic message of the first book, but necessarily had to tackle some hurdles of Pollyanna getting older and not being as innocent and wide eyed as she was when she was 11.  Porter did this well, skipping over several years of her adolescence and jumping back into her early adulthood, with many more twists and turns and love stories that come to a dramatic and heartwarming end.  I was very satisfied, and would recommend these books to anyone who enjoys good, old-fashioned but interesting story telling.

This was the second in my investigative reads of my favorite stories.  The first was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming, last summer.  Next, I think I'll dive into either Mary Poppins or Bed knobs and Broomsticks, and see what those are really about!