Flora

Flora is a reading booked aimed specifically at girls. The boys' version was called Little John (Juanito). Both books were very popular from the late 19th to the early 20th centuries. The sequel to Flora was called Family Scenes (Escenas de Familia).

In the late 19th century, girls had a literary friend in common in the form of Flora. Also called A Girl's Education (La Educación de una Niña), it was first published in 1881. The author was a teacher from Navarra called Pilar Pascual de Sanjuán (1827-1899). In the first few pages of the book, the author introduces the reader to Flora, a girl who is educated until the time of her marriage. A pioneering schoolteacher, Pascual de Sanjuán's discourse on womanhood followed the conventional model of the time. Yet some girls did not follow in Flora's footsteps. She was a much more traditional and sanctimonious character, whereas school mistresses were independent women who traveled from one town to the next, and many stayed single.