Summary of Eleanor Roosevelt's The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 My mother, who was a queen in New York City society, was treated like a cherished but somewhat spoiled child. She was not expected to bring children into the world and seven children were born, but she was not expected to raise them.

#2 My father, Elliott Roosevelt, was a charming, good-looking man who loved by all who came in contact with him. He had a physical weakness that he never quite understood. He adored my mother and she was devoted to him, but always in a more reserved and less spontaneous way.

#3 My father, who was a lawyer, began to drink heavily. He and my mother went to Italy for the winter of 1890 to fight for his health and strength of character. I remember my father acting as a gondolier and taking me out on the Venice canals, singing with the other boatmen.

#4 I was seven when we moved to New York. I slept in my mother’s room, and every morning I had to repeat some verses to her. I was always afraid of my great-aunt, Mrs. Ludlow, who seemed much older and cleverer than me.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jul 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822543782

IRB Media

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Insights on Eleanor Roosevelt's The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

My mother, who was a queen in New York City society, was treated like a cherished but somewhat spoiled child. She was not expected to bring children into the world and seven children were born, but she was not expected to raise them.

#2

My father, Elliott Roosevelt, was a charming, good-looking man who loved by all who came in contact with him. He had a physical weakness that he never quite understood. He adored my mother and she was devoted to him, but always in a more reserved and less spontaneous way.

#3

My father, who was a lawyer, began to drink heavily. He and my mother went to Italy for the winter of 1890 to fight for his health and strength of character. I remember my father acting as a gondolier and taking me out on the Venice canals, singing with the other boatmen.

#4

I was seven when we moved to New York. I slept in my mother’s room, and every morning I had to repeat some verses to her. I was always afraid of my great-aunt, Mrs. Ludlow, who seemed much older and cleverer than me.

#5

I had a difficult time adjusting to my new family. I missed my mother terribly, and I felt as if my father and brothers did not care about me. I was sent to live with my godmother and uncles, and my father promised that we would travel together and do many exciting things in the future.

#6

I was a healthy child, but I would sometimes have sore throats and tonsillitis. I would cheat on my hot water baths, and would sometimes go to the library instead of going out. I was modern in that we had gas in our house.

#7

I was always afraid of something, and I was always trying to be useful. I was afraid of the dark, displeasing people, and failure. Anything I accomplished required a barrier of fear.

#8

I became aware of the fact that there were people around me who suffered in one way or another. I was five or six when my father took me to help serve Thanksgiving dinner in one of the newsboys’ clubhouses, which my grandfather, Theodore Roosevelt, had started.

#9

My grandmother decided that we children should not go to the funeral, and so I had no tangible thing to make death real to me. I knew in my mind that my father was dead, but I lived with him more closely than I had when he was alive.

#10

I had a lot of freedom when I was with my aunts and uncles. I would spend hours reading in the fields or the woods, completely forgetting about the passage of time. No one tried to censor my reading.

#11

I had to endure many things as I grew up, such as not being allowed to read in bed before breakfast, and having to attend church every Sunday. I was not allowed to play games on Sundays, and we still had a cold supper in the evenings.

#12

I had grown fond of the theater, and Pussie took me to see Duse, the great Italian actress, when she first came to America. I was also allowed to see some of Shakespeare’s plays and occasionally go to the opera, but my aunts and their friends talked all the time about plays I never went to see.

#13

I was 15 when I went to Europe with my aunt. I was sent to a French school called Allenswood, near Wimbledon Common. The school had many rules, and the first one was that all had to speak French.

#14

I was a dreamer and an American, which was an unknown quantity to Mlle. Samaia. She liked Americans as pupils, and she had a soft spot for Americans.

#15

I was as awkward as ever at games, and I had never seen a game of hockey, but I had to play something, and in time made the first team. I was in Mlle. Souvestre’s history class, which was the most enjoyable class I ever had.

#16

I was happy in school, and I enjoyed reading the poems, plays, and stories that Mlle. Souvestre would read to us. I had a bad habit of biting my nails, which was