Chapter 21 Summary

Helen uses this chapter to give the reader a history of her relationship with literature. The first book "of any consequence" that she read was "Little Lord Fauntleroy." She read her embossed version so often it wore out. Helen read all kinds of books from then on, but disliked fables in which animals are made to act and talk like people.

She loves poetry, including the Romantic poets, ancient Greek mythology and the Bible. "Great poetry," she writes, "needs no other interpreter than a responsive heart. Would that the host of those who make the great works of the poets odorous by their analysis, impositions and laborious comments might learn this simple truth!"

When Helen was a child, the Bible bored her. As a young adult, she loves the good she finds in it, while wishing to get rid of its brutality. She...