Cordelia Underwood: Or, the Marvelous Beginnings of the Moosepath League

by Van Reid

Book Overview

Step back in time to Portland, Maine, in 1896. When the young, beautiful, redheaded Cordelia Underwood inherits a parcel of land from her seafaring uncle, it sets in motion a chain of events that... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140280103
• ISBN13: 9780140280104
• Release Date: July 1999
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Length: 19 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.4" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A Kindred Spirit to Red Headed Anne

Van Reid has crafted a delightfully charming work. CORDELIA UNDERWOOD actually made me, a deep-fried Southern Belle, dream of adventuring in the very New England setting inhabited by the members of the MOOSEPATH LEAGUE. I look forward with great anticipation to reading all the books in the series and sincerely hope that there will be many more escapades to read about in years to come. If you are a fan of Miss Read's English villages, Jan Karon's Mitford, and L.M. Montgomery's ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, then Van Reid's Maine missives are for you!

Delightful story, beautifully told

Van Reid has a magic way with words. In "Cordelia Underwood" he has created each character (and there are many of them)with wit and insight. His characters understand the importance of kindness and respect. They are also, with a couple necessary exceptions, game for adventure, especially when that concerns helping a friend or rescuing a "damsel in distress" (who turns out pretty good at helping herself). There are stories within stories and intersecting adventures, and I found each a delight. They all fit together into as pleasurable a novel as I have ever read. You won't regret reading this.

The Hobbits in Maine

What delightful, innocent, clever, adventure stories Van Reid writes. I picked up Cordelia Underwood because someone said it was reminiscent of John Irving's humor, but I found the characters more like Tolkein's hobbits - full of innocence and charm, bumbling into and solving problems, and we don't have to travel to Middle Earth to be a part of the adventure. (From Massachusetts, Maine is just a 2 hour drive!) I'm looking forward to hearing more about the Moosepath League (Molly Peers, the second book rates 5 stars too.)

delightful, soft fiction on the early coast of Maine. great!

This is a delightful story of a young woman's inheritance and her journey through the Maine coast of the late 1800s as she claims her legacy.Strikingly similar in style and tone to Dickens' Pickwick Papers, Reid has woven a fun tale, with characters that come alive with adventures devoid of useless violence and sex, but rather the depth of character one would find in American Classics.Van Reid may well be the next Garrison Keillor as he brings us back to a time that is complex, not with technical wizardry, but with the evolution of society. You truely feel the wharfs of old Portland and smell the salt air of the seashore of Wiscasset. The twists and turns of the story line emphasize the characters and highlight a time gone by. Not only a great summer read, but a collectors item as well. I loved it.