7 h 51 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 51 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Six orphaned sisters leave a beloved home behind—and find that welcome can bring tears as easily as goodbye.
In Ruth Brown MacArthur’s The Lilac Lady, the Greenfield sisters leave Parker for a new home in Martindale. Peace chatters beside the Judge as his carriage carries them toward the station. Gail keeps a watchful eye on her younger sister, while Hope looks forward to the big house and the people waiting to receive them.
Their neighbors arrange another farewell at the platform, turning a short journey into a generous send-off. Then Martindale’s crowded station leaves the girls bewildered until Doctor and Mrs. Campbell greet them. Between Peace’s missing handkerchief and her eager questions about bedrooms, the story makes belonging feel concrete: someone waits, someone welcomes, and a strange place begins to feel like home.
What you’ll discover
- A lively little sister Peace brings laughter to tender moments with blunt questions and a stream of chatter.
- Kindness at the station Parker’s neighbors find a way to give the departing sisters one more warm goodbye.
- Room for six sisters The Campbells offer more than shelter: their welcome gives the girls a sense of belonging.
- Faith in quiet moments Discover a gentle story where faith shapes hope, forgiveness, and the care people offer.
- Friendship that helps heal Small acts of attention reveal how generosity can enrich both giver and receiver.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy warm family stories with a spirited heroine, comic mix-ups, gentle lessons about kindness, and old-fashioned small-town life with children, pets, parties, church socials and a mystery behind a garden wall.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Six sisters explore a new home
- A Christmas of mischief and joy
- Giving must be learned with wisdom
- A spring at the parsonage
- The voice behind the lilac hedge
- A monkey, a street musician and a poem
- The Children's Home and a surprising song
- Children's Day and a Fourth of July
- What the book teaches and how it speaks
Who’s who
- Peace GreenfieldA chattering, curly-haired girl who mixes up words, loves animals and wants to scatter sunshine, though her good intentions often cause chaos.
- Dr. Donald CampbellThe kind university president who adopts the six sisters and teaches Peace to give wisely, with firmness and a twinkle.
- Grandma Dora CampbellThe gentle, white-haired wife of the president, who helps Peace see that her unthinking kindness is real sunshine.
- The Lilac Lady (Myra)A young woman, once a hopeful singer, who is unable to walk and has shut herself away behind tall hedges.
- Elizabeth Strong (Saint Elspeth)The minister's wife, Peace's beloved patron saint, who gives her a diary and is the Lilac Lady's old college friend.
- Giuseppe NicoliA thin Italian boy with a silver voice and a violin who flees a cruel street musician and hopes for a safe home.
- Allee GreenfieldPeace's blue-eyed younger sister and closest companion, who follows her into every scheme, though often with fear.
- Aunt PenThe Lilac Lady's gentle older relative, who has given up her own interests to care for her and hopes for her healing.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 7 h 51 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 13 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear La Dame aux lilas in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
La Dame aux lilas
by Ruth Brown MacArthur · 1914
Peace Greenfield, one of six adopted sisters, wins a lonely woman behind a lilac hedge with a sunshine song.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Lilac Lady is a family novel by Ruth Brown MacArthur, set in and around the college town of Martindale in the days of streetcars, hand organs and the first red motor car. It is a sequel that follows Peace Greenfield, the liveliest of six orphaned sisters, after the university president and his wife take the whole flock into their big house.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Six sisters explore a new home
The story opens on the morning the six Greenfield sisters leave the little brown house in Parker. Their neighbors cheer them off, and a short train ride brings them to Martindale. There the college president, Dr. Campbell, waits in a smoky station and gathers them into his arms. His wife, Grandma, is right behind him.
The girls are Gail, Faith, Hope, Cherry, Peace and Allee. The president has a fond habit of naming them after saints. Gail is Saint Elizabeth because she helps the cook. Faith is Saint Cecilia because she cannot leave the piano. Hope is Saint Lucy because she tutors a boy from the hardware store in algebra. Cherry is Saint Bookworm because she vanishes into the library.
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What is The Lilac Lady about?
It follows Peace Greenfield, one of six orphaned sisters adopted by a university president. Her warmth and mix-ups bring cheer to a minister's family, a children's home, a young street musician and a woman shut away in a walled garden.
Who is the Lilac Lady in the book?
She is a young woman named Myra who lost the use of her legs and her dream of singing after a riding accident. Peace gives her the nickname after the lilacs she shares from behind her hedge.
Do I need to read the earlier Peace Greenfield book first?
The story stands on its own. It reintroduces the six sisters, the Campbells and the Strongs as it goes, and the first chapters show how the girls settle into their new home.
The author
Ruth Brown MacArthur
American children's author
Ruth Brown MacArthur was an American author of children's and family stories in the early twentieth century. She is known for the Peace Greenfield stories, which follow the six Greenfield sisters. Her books are marked by gentle humor, a Christian outlook and the small-town and college-town world of her time.
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