The Enchanted Barn by Grace Livingston Hill
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Congruent with American fiction, buildings play a role in the plot. Named after the building, the becoming of a home from a barn parallels the budding love story between a kindly but young, wealthy man and a spunky, beautiful young girl. Most of the drama lies in the young girl (and her family’s) will not to take charity from this wealthy man (and yet still doing so) but also how they don’t want him to play with her heart. And of course, he does not.
The rest of the book consists of events that work solely to draw them together as a couple. In a way, this idealized little book of relationship of the sexes from the late 1910s already shows us the model upon which American romance is to play. In that sense, the idealism of the characters is a portraiture in style. Somewhat refreshing.
