La Belle Nivernaise : The Story of an Old Boat and Her Crew (1886) is a juvenile novella with pen and ink illustrations (a few of which are quite original). It's a happy endings story of orphans who find their parents, boys who marry their childhood sweethearts, and fathers who achieve their financial dreams. But not without first overcoming the harsh realities of the 19th century working poor, including witches who steal babies so they can be trained to panhandle in the streets, sickness and disease, and natural disasters. A delightful story of life among the bargemen, boats and canals of France by one of the great French Naturalist writers.

Read via Internet Archive w/ orig illustrations.

--Review by Stephen Balbach, via CoolReading (c) 2008 cc-by-nd ( )