7 h 5 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does it take for a spirited young woman to turn ambition into a living of her own?
Polly wants to earn her own way, not wait for others to provide for her. In Lillian Elizabeth Roy's Polly's Business Venture, that wish leads her toward business and the work of becoming self-reliant. Her talents need a purpose, and her ambition needs more than good intentions. The challenge is to turn the wish for independence into useful work.
This gentle story places work beside friendship and family, keeping the people around Polly in view. Business offers a test of character as well as skill: planning, taking risks, meeting customers and learning from mistakes all matter. As Polly faces the problems of growing up, the book explores how effort and small choices shape a young woman's ability to stand on her own.
What you’ll discover
- A spirited young heroine Follow Polly's wish to put her talents to use and earn her own living.
- Ambition put to work Explore a story that connects the hope of independence with practical effort.
- Business as a test Consider the planning, risks and mistakes that make enterprise a challenge of character.
- People beside the work Notice how friendship and family share space with Polly's wish to make her way.
- Girls' fiction and independence Discover an early twentieth-century story that gives a young woman's working ambitions room.
Who will love it
Readers who love antiques, old houses and country auctions, who enjoy warm friendships and comic misunderstandings, and who like a young heroine with a head for business and a mind of her own.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A message at sea starts the fun
- A joyful welcome turns sour
- A fall into the fog
- Tom's tale of the mine raiders
- Learning to hunt antiques in the country
- A forgotten print and a gift to the Museum
- A landslide and a first decorating job
- A rigged sale tests their honesty
- Tom tries ranch methods in the city
- Work, marriage and what the girls choose
Who’s who
- Polly BrewsterA ranch girl from Colorado who wants to build a career as an interior decorator and pay her own way in New York.
- Eleanor MaynardPolly's quick-witted best friend and business partner, a Chicago banker's daughter who loves jokes, matchmaking and Paul Stewart.
- Tom LatimerA young mining engineer and expert swimmer who loves Polly and must learn how to wait for her.
- Mr. DalkenA rich, kind family friend who owns a yacht and cars, and who keeps trying to smooth the young people's quarrels.
- Mrs. FabianNancy's mother and the girls' chaperone, a skilled collector who bargains gently and spots rare finds.
- Mrs. CourtneyA wealthy New York social leader and collector who hires the girls and dreams of a voyage to the South Seas.
- Jack BaxterA rich young engineering student who falls for Polly and gives the girls their first decorating contract.
- Paul StewartAnne's brother, a Denver man working hard in the West so that he can one day propose to Eleanor.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 7 h 5 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 15 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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Polly's Business Venture
by Lillian Elizabeth Roy · 1922
Polly Brewster, a Colorado ranch girl, hunts New England farmhouses for antiques to pay her own way in New York.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Polly's Business Venture is a girls' adventure novel by Lillian Elizabeth Roy, part of the Polly Brewster series that began with Polly of Pebbly Pit. It follows a Colorado ranch girl who has come home from a summer in Europe and now wants to make her living as an interior decorator in New York.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A message at sea starts the fun
The story opens on the last day of an Atlantic crossing. Five girls stroll the deck, and a boy from the wireless room hands Polly Brewster a message. She will not open it in front of her friends, so Eleanor Maynard, her closest friend, teases her that it must be from a sweetheart.
The narrator then fills in the background for new readers. Polly grew up on Pebbly Pit ranch in the Rocky Mountains. A gold mine on Grizzly Slide and a cliff of lava stone that makes jewels brought her family new hopes and new enemies. Polly and Eleanor then came to New York to study decorating, and the summer before this book they toured Europe with the Fabians and the Ashbys. They also picked up the Alexanders, a rancher's family whose wife hunts for a title for her daughter.
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What is Polly's Business Venture about?
It follows Polly Brewster, a Colorado ranch girl, and her friend Eleanor as they study interior decorating in New York, hunt antiques in the country, take their first jobs and deal with suitors and money trouble at home.
Do I need to read the earlier Polly books first?
No. The opening chapters sum up the earlier books, including Polly of Pebbly Pit, so you meet the characters, the ranch and the mines quickly and can follow the story from the first page.
Who are Tom Latimer and Mr. Dalken?
Tom is a young mining engineer, an expert swimmer, who loves Polly and waits for her. Mr. Dalken is a rich family friend who owns a yacht and helps the young people with advice and cars.
The author
Lillian Elizabeth Roy
1868–1932 · American children's writer
Lillian Elizabeth Roy (1868–1932) was an American writer who lived in the United States. She wrote books for children in the early twentieth century. Her titles include Polly's Business Venture, Polly and Eleanor, and Girl Scouts in the Adirondacks. She wrote several books in these series.
More by Lillian Elizabeth Roy
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