I grew up reading Martha Finley's stories about Elsie and loved them as a child. Re-reading them in adulthood, I can't help but struggle with the moral perfection of Elsie, Travilla, and the majority of her children. They live a picturesque life in a setting that realistically would have been destroyed by the Civil War. The relationship Elsie has with the black people in these stories is too motherly and patronizing for my taste. I still love Elsie Dinsmore and all of the characters, but I see much more Mary Sue-ism than I did when I was a little girl.