Pollyanna vs The Black Dwarf

Pollyanna

Eleanor Hodgman Porter, Porter, Neil Reed, Lee Giles

1912

The whole town is playing the game, and the whole town is wonderfully happier-and all because of one little girl who taught the people a new game, and how to play it. Suddenly orphaned, Pollyanna is sent across the country to a small town in Vermont, where she will live with her strict Aunt Polly. But Pollyanna doesn't seem to notice how stern and unfeeling her aunt really is. When feeling unhappy, she simply plays her "glad" game-finding a silver lining in every cloud. Eventually, Pollyanna brightens the lives of everyone in town with her infectious game, and finds a home for every stray cat, dog, and child she encounters. But then a terrible accident happens and Pollyanna can't find anything to feel glad about anymore. All her new friends turn out to support her, but will that be enough to restore Pollyanna's cheerful outlook on life?

The Black Dwarf

Sir Walter Scott

1849

The Black Dwarf, is set in the Liddesdale hills, an area which Scott knew intimately from the time he had spent hunting ballads for his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. The plot itself draws on a number of Border Ballads. The adventures of Hobbie Elliot, the pillage of Heughfott, appeal to the Black Dwarf for help, gathering of forces, and the 'siege' of Westburnflat parallel events in the ballads 'Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead' and 'The Fray of Support'.