Summary
Summary of Pollyanna
Key ideas
Key idea 1
An unwanted niece brings unexpected warmth
Miss Polly Harrington agrees to take in her orphaned niece because she believes it is her duty. She prepares a bare attic room and expects Pollyanna to be a nuisance. Her orderly household has little room for affection, and she sees no reason to offer more than shelter.
When Pollyanna arrives, she embraces her aunt with open delight. Miss Polly is startled by a warmth she cannot return. Their meeting begins the story's central struggle: a guarded woman and an affectionate child must learn how to share a home.
Key idea 2
The attic offers an unexpected pleasure
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Key idea 3
The glad game begins with disappointment
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Key idea 4
Duty alone cannot make a home
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Key idea 5
Friendship reaches people whom others avoid
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Key idea 6
Gladness offers the minister another direction
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Key idea 7
A guarded heart must choose warmth
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Key idea 8
Gladness depends on seeing pain honestly
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Key idea 9
A simple habit faces its limits
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
For readers who love warm stories about kindness, small towns and families found late, and anyone curious where the word Pollyanna comes from.
What this book is
Pollyanna is a novel by the American writer Eleanor H. Porter, published in 1913. It tells of an eleven-year-old orphan who is sent across the country to live with a stern aunt in a small Vermont town. The girl brings with her one odd habit, a way of facing trouble that her father taught her. Porter wrote it as a story for young readers, and it was read by adults just as eagerly. It sold so widely that the girl's name became a word in English.
The book gives you a clear, lively story with a lot of humor in it. You meet a town full of quarrelsome, lonely and tired people, and you watch one child change how they live. You also meet a question that is harder than it first looks. Can looking for the good in things really help when life is hard, and does it ever go too far?
Porter writes in short, warm scenes, and many of them are funny. Her heroine is cheerful, but she is not a fool, and the book lets her meet real limits. Let us begin where the story begins, with a letter, a train ticket and a girl who is about to meet her aunt.
In this summary
- 1An orphan is sent to a stern auntFree
- 2A bare attic and a cheerful girl
- 3The glad game and its beginning
- 4Duty at home against joy in the heart
- 5Pollyanna wins the town one door at a time
- 6The church, the quarrels and a rejoicing text
- 7Aunt Polly and the cost of a closed heart
- 8What the book says about gladness
- 9How the story is told and why it lasted
Key point 1 of 9
An orphan is sent to a stern aunt
The story opens in the town of Beldingsville, Vermont, in the house of Miss Polly Harrington. She is a wealthy, unmarried woman of strict habits. Her house is neat, her days run by the clock, and her feelings are kept firmly out of sight. One morning she tells her maid, Nancy, that a niece is coming to live with her.
The niece is Pollyanna Whittier, eleven years old. Her mother was Miss Polly's older sister, who married a poor minister and went to live in the West. Years ago the family broke apart over that marriage, and the sisters hardly spoke again. Now both of Pollyanna's parents are dead, and the child has no one else. Miss Polly takes her in out of duty, and she says so plainly.
The aunt does not hide her feelings from the reader. She does not want a child in her house, and she expects the child to be a nuisance. She prepares a room in the attic, bare and hot in summer, and tells herself that a girl in need should not expect more. She has done her duty by sending for her, and she believes that duty is all she owes.
Then Pollyanna arrives, and nothing goes as planned. She jumps down from the carriage, flings her arms around her aunt and says how glad she is to be there. Miss Polly stands stiff and shocked. She has never been hugged like this, and she does not know what to do with it.
This opening sets up the whole book. On one side stands a woman who has shut down her feelings, and on the other a child who has not. Porter makes both of them real, and the story that follows is the slow meeting of the two. Watch how little Miss Polly gives and how much Pollyanna keeps giving anyway.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Check yourself
What does the glad game ask Pollyanna to do?
Right. “It asks her to look again and to find one true thing worth being glad of.”Not quite. “It asks her to look again and to find one true thing worth being glad of.”
How does Pollyanna win over the townspeople?
Right. “She asks about people, listens to them, and treats them as worth knowing.”Not quite. “She asks about people, listens to them, and treats them as worth knowing.”
What lies behind Miss Polly's guarded behavior?
Right. “Years ago something went wrong in her life, and she chose to close up rather than risk pain again.”Not quite. “Years ago something went wrong in her life, and she chose to close up rather than risk pain again.”
Who’s who
- Pollyanna Whittier
- An eleven-year-old orphan, she comes to live with her aunt and shares the glad game her father taught her.
- Miss Polly Harrington
- Pollyanna's wealthy, strict aunt takes her niece into a household governed by duty and tightly controlled feelings.
- Nancy
- A plain-spoken young maid in Miss Polly's household, she becomes Pollyanna's loyal friend and helper.
- Mrs. Snow
- A bedridden, dissatisfied woman in town, she receives visits from Pollyanna and complains about her circumstances.
- Mr. John Pendleton
- A wealthy, solitary townsman whom others consider bitter, he attracts Pollyanna's curiosity and friendship.
- Jimmy Bean
- A poor orphan boy seeking a family, he becomes a friend whom Pollyanna wants to help.
- Dr. Chilton
- A kindly local doctor, he befriends Pollyanna and has a quiet connection with her aunt.
- Rev. Paul Ford
- The town's discouraged minister struggles with his quarrelling congregation and encounters Pollyanna's ideas about rejoicing.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 60,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 4 h
- Listening time6 h 35 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary; paperback, hardcover and large print at cost
- LanguagesEnglish and 13 other languages
