ABSTRACT
Martha Finley was an astonishingly prolific writer of evangelical stories for girls in the second half of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth. This chapter expresses that Finley's representation of disability is influenced by a Calvinist notion of affliction, which ultimately locates the afflicted not as outsider but as potentially more fully integrated into the holy community. Relying on an explicitly Christian framework, Finley offers an array of intertwining narratives about nieces and aunts, cousins and friends, the central focus of which is to alert readers to the dangers of exposing girls to the marriage market. Molly's tumble down the stairs, Finley literalizes the Christian idea of felix culpa or the fortunate fall. Flagged as a Sequel to Elsie's Children on the title page, Elsie's Widowhood offers a very loosely organized story that extends Finley' interest in courtship and marriage without the social critique.
