Philippe Dupasquier
Philippe Dupasquier
Their Mutual Child is full of the loveable characters, preposterous situations, and opportunities to chuckle, if not outright laughs, that we expect from PG Wodehouse. It lacks the frantic slapstick of some Wodehouse comedy, but has a quieter more reflective humour. Kirk, the erstwhile hero, is a typical Wodehousian hero. At the beginning of the story, he is thoroughly likeable, a healthy, but a somewhat weak and malleable fellow. He dabs at beings a painter for a living, and runs with a gang of hangers-on, who sponge off him. However, his life changes dramatically when he meets the charming and lovely Ruth. Ruth is out of Kirk's league socially and financially. She possesses an exceedingly rich father and an excessively dominant and eccentric aunt, Miss Laura Delane Porter. Miss Porter's claim to fame is her authorship of books and pamphlets aimed at bettering the world through hygiene and eugenics . Against her father's strong objections, but with Aunt Laura's approval, Ruth marries Kirk and for a while, wedded bliss surrounds them, crowned off by the birth of their son, Bill. Like all babies, Bill is deemed by one and all to be miraculous-unique and amazing. However, all good things must end, as they say. Kirk, embarrassed by his inability to support Ruth in the manner in which she is accustomed, heads off to South America to seek his fortune, where he is quickly and thoroughly ruined. However, in the meantime, Ruth and her brother Bailey inherit their father's wealth. Also in Kirk's absence, enter, of course, Laura Delane Porter, with her scrupulous ideas of hygiene and her horrors of germs, and the baby's life becomes a nightmare. When Kirk returns, unsuccessful in his endeavors and outraged at the state of affairs at home, the marriage quickly sours. Can anyone save Ruth and Kirk from themselves and rebuild their happy home? Their Mutual Child aka The Coming of Bill or The White Hope by P. G. Wodehouse, first appeared in "Munsey's Magazine" in May 1914, under the title "The White Hope."
"The Story of a Modern Woman" is a work of feminist social realism. In its time it was one of the most famous and influential novels to grow out of and shape the "New Woman" movement of the 1890s. It won such attention for its author that Ella Hepworth Dixon was given the nickname "The New Woman." The story of the novel's protagonist, Mary Erle, loosely follows the outline of Dixon's own situation. As the well-educated daughter of a public intellectual, she enters the world of professional writing after his death, partly trading on his name. Victorian society had been distinctly patriarchal, and women were expected to find their places under the protection of men, traditionally defining themselves as wives and mothers. However, by the 1890s, an alarming "surplus" of unmarried women in Britain meant that many had statistically little chance of becoming anyone's wife or mother, and must create for themselves other paths to meaningful existence. This new reality demanded a more complex understanding of life, with storylines more nuanced than the old "find-a-husband" fiction of earlier decades.
Romance and crime in the mid-19th century British Civil Service. In this early novel,Trollope draws on his own experiences as a junior clerk in the General Post Office to provide an entertaining and moving account of how ambition within the service can affect friendship and love.