Ten year-old David has lived six years on a mountainside with his widowed father. He is innocent of evil. He knows only his first name and has two violins (a Stradivarius an Amati) that he plays constantly.
“Father says that I'm one little instrument in the great Orchestra of Life, and that I must see to it that I'm always in tune, and don't drag or hit false notes."
Just David has been called “Pollyanna with music.” The child protagonist is an orphan and, by playing his violin, David is a messenger of Harmony the way Pollyanna is a messenger of Gladness. He shares her misplaced trust — whatever David is told, he takes literally. He always assumes the positive and is immune to sarcasm. David’s defense against nettlesome people and situations is to play his violin. The plot of Just David is simple: A puzzling prodigy comes to town and allays people’s misfortunes. His puzzle solved, he faces the world with mature confidence.
It seems more like a fable than a novel. A 1916 review in the New York Times, summarized Just David in a sentence:
Everyone in the village adored him, of course; he united the usual pair of lovers (parted by the usual misunderstanding), awakened the usual stern couple to a sense of beauty, saved his benefactors from losing their mortgage to a farm, won the heart of the village miser, and, in short, behaved in the style and accomplished the things expected of 10 year old boy in this kind of fiction. — NYT 3/28/1916
[A more detailed plot summary may be found at the end of this post.]
We have already seen how Eleanor Porter’s career as a musician (ca. 1887-1901) inspired her as a writer (ca. 1902-1920). It is obvious in the Miss Billy trilogy wherein EHP highlights grown-up career concerns. In Just David (1916), by contrast, the “occupation” of the musician is irrelevant, and Eleanor showcases the music itself in lush prose, testifying to its potency:
After that, in [his] own hands lay the power to transport himself into another world, for with the violin for company he knew no loneliness.
David, unaware of the effect of his gift, lifts peoples’ spirits:
If he found a crimson rambler in bloom in a door-yard, he put it into a little melody of pure delight—that a woman in the house behind the rambler heard the music and was cheered at her task, David did not know. If he found a kitten at play in the sunshine, he put it into a riotous abandonment of tumbling turns and trills--that a fretful baby heard and stopped its wailing, David also did not know. And once, just because the sky was blue and the air was sweet, and it was so good to be alive, David lifted his bow and put it all into a rapturous paean of ringing exultation--that a sick man in a darkened chamber above the street lifted his head, drew in his breath, and took suddenly a new lease of life, David still again did not know. All of which merely goes to prove that David had perhaps found his work and was doing it--although yet still again David did not know.” (Chapter 9)
Eleanor cites no specific composers in this book, nor does she mention specific compositions. (Recall in The Story of Carlo, the boy played the intermezzo from Pagliacci to reveal his skill.) Readers do not have to know the canon of classical music. Rather, Eleanor bids us experience music by what it does — the way it makes things better.
At the first stroke of David's bow, indeed, the dingy walls about them would crumble into nothingness, and together the two boys were off in a fairy world of loveliness and joy.(Chapter 9)
“Possibly never before had David played as he played then. It was as if upon those four quivering strings, he was laying the purple and gold of a thousand sunsets, the rose and amber of a thousand sunrises, the green of a boundless earth, the blue of a sky that reached to heaven itself…” (Chapter 9)
As in other stories, Eleanor draws on her church experiences. David goes to church and hears an organ for the first time:
It was the pride of the town—that organ. It had been given by a great man (out in the world) whose birthplace the town was. More than that, a yearly donation from this same great man paid for the skilled organist who came every Sunday from the city to play it. To-day, as the organist took his seat, he noticed a new face in the Holly pew, and he almost gave a friendly smile as he met the wondering gaze of the small boy there; then he lost himself, as usual, in the music before him.
Down in the Holly pew the small boy held his breath. A score of violins were singing in his ears; and a score of other instruments that he could not name, crashed over his head, and brought him to his feet in ecstasy. Before a detaining hand could stop him, he was out in the aisle, his eyes on the blue-and-gold pipes from which seemed to come those wondrous sounds. Then his gaze fell on the man and on the banks of keys; and with soft steps he crept along the aisle and up the stairs to the organ-loft. (Chapter 7)
We can add little more about Just David and suggest that readers may discover for themselves Eleanor’s musical prose. It would superfluous for us to add anything to passages like these:
“Clear, distinct, yet connected like a string of rounded pearls fell the troublesome notes from David's bow. "You see," smiled the boy again, and played the phrase a second time, more slowly, and with deliberate emphasis at the difficult part. Then, as if in answer to some irresistible summons within him, he dashed into the next phrase and, with marvelous technique, played quite through the rippling cadenza that completed the movement. (Chapter 13)
“But, see here, boy,—you mustn't! You—" The words died on her lips; and, to her unbounded amazement, Miss Barbara Holbrook, who had intended peremptorily to send this persistent little tramp boy about his business, found herself listening to a melody so compelling in its sonorous beauty that she was left almost speechless at its close. It was the boy who spoke.
"There, I told you my violin would know what to say!" (Chapter 14)
Eleanor’s books are available for free at gutenberg.org.
This book, in several digital formats, is at: Just David.
PLOT SUMMARY of Just David
David walks to the village of Hinsdale with his dying father. Father gives him gold and two notes. He goes to Simeon Holly’s house where his father dies. Holly’s son John ran away 15 years before, so Mrs. wants David to stay. David does farm work. David hides gold pieces. He meets blind boy, Joe Glaspell who wants to learn to play the violin. David befriends wealthy Mrs Holbrook at Sunny-crest. He also befriends Jack and Jill Gurnsey, adult brother and child sister. Jack and Mrs. Holbrook were childhood sweethearts, but estranged after she inherited money.
The Holly’s are losing their home; David pays mortgage. David gets sick. Jack gets sick. Mrs Holbrook and Jack reunite at David’s sickbed. David recovers. Jack recovers, gets job and marries Holbrook. Holly’s son, John, returns to family, reads notes from David’s father and recognizes that David’s late father was a world-famous violinist. David is going away to become rich and famous. END
Eleanor Porter published five books after Just David. They are novels for adults and, save for Sister Sue, they are not especially musical. Glad Refrains will be in touch soon for a journey down The Road to Understanding (1917).